PM nap too long and 4 month EASY

[greenteamomma]

For two weeks, my daughter has been doing short am naps, 45 to 1 hr 15 max then for her next nap, she can sleep straight through for 2 1/2 hrs.  I haven't let her sleep longer but do I have to wake her everyday?  If this works, does  it need fixing?   

Yesterday looked like this:

wake 6:30
nap 8:20ish to 9:25
nap 11:15 to 1:45ish I woke her
nap 3:35ish to 5:15 but needed to be APed to go past 45 mins and we thought it was way to early
bed 7:15 ish but is APed to sleep still (rocked and put down asleep)

She also often won't nap more then 45 for the pm nap either.

[empowered mama]

hi there,

Have you tried extending her first A time by chance?  I wonder if she needs a little increase, as some bubs like their first A time to be a little bit longer than the rest.  Maybe you could try upping by 10-15 minutes and see if that helps?

[greenteamomma]

So in regards to the first nap, being on the shorter side, you think that may "even" things out?

I remember doing that with DS1 but because of early wakes.  She does go down later sometimes but it doesn't seem to help.  I thought maybe I remembered wrong.

Any thoughts about the second nap being so long?

by the way, today all naps were 45 mins, thought maybe her A times were too long now...second guessing myself....

[empowered mama]

Any thoughts about the second nap being so long?

My guess for this is that the A time was spot on and that's why she gave you a long nap.  You may just need to play around with the first A time a little and see what is the right A time before that nap.  I found that one A time in the day could be different from the others, which is why I suggested increasing the first A time a little. 

by the way, today all naps were 45 mins, thought maybe her A times were too long now...second guessing myself....

There is a chance part of the issue could be developmental.  With my LO, from the age of 4-6 months he needed help making the transition to the 2nd part of the nap so I resorted to HTTJ for all naps and it helped us a lot.  So if the tweaking doesn't help things, you may need to ride it out a bit.  I don't know how anyone can do HTTJ with a toddler running around (unless they are napping too!)

HTH hun