Maya is five months old today, and has been consistently taking short naps--25-45 minutes long. She normally takes three naps a day but will sometimes take four depending on her wake time. She normally wakes up between 7 - 8am every day. She's tired two hours after her wake time so we put her down for a nap. Usually, we don't keep her wake time mor than 2-2.5 hours as that's what "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" had said for up to four months. Because she's such a short napper, I thought I should put her down within two hours to get more sleep. Should I be keeping her up longer? Her bed time totally varies, anywyere between 7:30-8:30 pm, depending on her last nap. Sometimes she's so tired, that she'll take a nap at round 5:30 or 6:00pm, and I thought she would stay asleep, but never does, it's just a nap, so that ends up moving her bed time around.
I try not to feed her before naps, I usually just rock her with a paci and that does the trick and when she's asleep, I'll put her in her crib. I've tried the pat and shh method and it doesn't work, unless, she's sleeping on me. A couple of times we've gone down for a nap together and she'll sleep on my chest and when she stirs, I'll put the paci in her mouth and pat her back. I have to do this a few times during the nap, but sometimes, she'll nap for 1.5-2 hours. Other times, she's up and it won't work. At night, I give her a bottle, and she's usually asleep by the end of the bottle.
Her nights were pretty good, she wakes up at around 5 for a feed and then back to sleep. We've had some bad nights where she's up all over the place too.
I was also wondering if anyone found that their baby's naps extended on their own as they got older?
Any help would be great. Sorry for the lengthy post.
