3 months ok'd and long daytime naps have completely disappeared!

[LotusPalm]

Hello everyone, how are you?

I'm hoping you can help me with my LO's daytime sleep. He has always had a routine going on as he was such a sleepy baby I had to wake him for all feeds. He usually naps around 9, 12 and 4 in the afternoon before going down at 7 for the night, with a feed at about 10.30. He started to sleep through from that feed to 7 am about 3 weeks ago with only one night where he fed at 3am.

BUT his daytime naps have now gone AWOL. If I don't take him out in the buggy for the 9am one - I need to walk my dogs here - then his sleep is only about half an hour. His lunch sleep has gone from 2 and a half hours (religiously) to barely 40 mins and only a Carnap at 4 ish. The problem is that he can only really stay awake for an hour and a half or less before he gets over tired or overstimulated. He can settle himself to sleep really well fir all naps as long as he's not too knackered. He eats roughly every 3/4 hours...

What should I do? I've tried settling him again for his lunchtime nap but I only ever seem to be able to get an extra 15 mins at best and it feels like a but of a battle. He wakes up from morning and afternoon naps without crying and will entertain himself for 5 mins, but wakes up howling from the lunch one. Heibbiously needs more sleep as he will settle fairly easily , but wAkes 5 mins later, and it gets really difficult to settle him again.

I should add that he has a completely blacked out nursery, sleeps in a sleeping bag at the moment, but is swaddled lightly when the weather is cooler (but will sleep through in either and have tried both for naps) and I am fairly religious about being home for his lunchtime sleep in his cot! Oh, and he will also sleep for ages in his car seat, even if he's not in the car for the whole time - might that have to do with startle reflex and not being able to wake himself up if he's strapped in?

Am I worrying about nothing? I don't get why he's suddenly unable to sleep past the first cycle during the day now, even though he can self settle!

Help!

PS. Sorry this is so long winded

This happened to my DS around the same age - settled into a routine then all of a sudden couldn't nap for more than 45 mins. It went on until recently (he's 10 months) - he could only take longer naps sometimes but not consistently and would need help.

I'm not sure why - I think he became more aware and all of a sudden the world was much more interesting. Plus there's a big growth spurt and developmental leap - so many babies' sleep falls apart!

I don't have any ideas on how to solve at this age - I only got a handle on things as DS got older. I just made sure he got regular catnaps (best I could do really) and nothing too excitingin the afternoons otherwise he wouldn't settle for bed.

Our dd was exactly the same, luckily though she was a great sleeper at night, as is your ds, and the amount of sleep she had during the day didn't seem to make a difference to what she had a night. It's as though she's frightened of missing something! We always said though that if she was sleeping so well at night then we were willing to cope with anything during the day.