Rocking back to sleep when waking after 30 or 45 minutes

[loni]

My 7 month old son normally has 2 x 1.5 hour naps per day however, there are some days where he wakes around the 30 or 45 minute mark. 99% of the time, I am able to extend these naps by picking him up and rocking him back to sleep, even when he looks like he is wide awake. Usually it takes 15-20minutes. I have tried patting him in the cot when he wakes but he won't have a bar of it - he rolls straight onto his stomach, head up high and won't go back to sleep unless picked up. I am wondering whether I am doing the right thing or am I creating bad habits by rocking him back to sleep? Should I be getting him up instead if patting doesn't work? Any advice would be much appreciated.

[veryrebs]

This is my 5 month old daughter to a tee, so I'll be interested to see the advice you get.

It is exhausting, right? And it makes it nearly impossible to get things done during the day!

[~Sara~]

Personally I think that at this age, rocking to sleep will create a prop issue--if it's not one already.  It could be that his routine needs some tweaking...do you mind posting what his day looked like for yesterday or today?

If his A times are good, then we'll need to consider that his waking is habitual, prop-related, or developmental (either short napper or new tricks).

[loni]

Sorry for the delayed response....we have been away for Easter so his routine has been a bit out of whack but in general, his day is something like this give or take 1/2 an hour:

700: Wake & BF
800: Solids
900: BF
930: Sleep
1100: Wake & BF
1200: Solids
1400: BF
1430: Sleep
1600: Wake & sometimes a BF
1700: Solids
1800: BF
1900: Sleep

Since he hit 4 months (where he was previously sleeping 7pm - 6am/7am) he has been waking overnight - usually in the early part of the evening (about 40mins - 1hr after he is put down) and sometimes requires a pat to get back to sleep, other times we have to pick him up. The past 3 weeks he has had 5 teeth come through and has had multiple other night wakings, but this is another issue for us to try and crack as I am not sure it is only teeth to blame.

In general, he usually is up for 2.5-3hrs in the morning before his 1st nap and then 3 - 3.5hrs in the afternoon for his 2nd nap. I haven't found activity time (either longer or shorter) to make much of a difference to whether or not he wakes after 30-45mins. As mentioned in my first post, it is not something that happens all the time but there might be a 2-3 days here and there where it occurs.