5 month old naps

[Thatsanicepear]

My wee boy is very nearly 5 months old and is a good sleeper at night. However during the day he only has about 3 naps lasting about 40 minutes each. I keep reading that his naps should be between 1 and 2 hours. He doesn't seem to be suffering from overtiredness before he goes to bed at night. For context he goes to bed at 6.45pm and is usually asleep within 20 minutes. He wakes for a feed about 10.30pm then sleeps until about 4am for another feed and change and then sleeps until 7.30am. He naps about 9.30am, 12.30pm, 3.30pm and then is awake until bedtime. Should I be trying to get him to nap for longer than 40 minutes or just accept his short naps and be grateful for the decent sleep we both get at night? Thanks!

Apologies, this should be in the sleep section!

Ah mine's the same! She's 5.5 months and naps for 40 minutes most of the time (3-4 times a day) - every now and again she'll sleep for 1.5 hours (or the other day 2.5!!) and it shocks us but the rest of the time she just wakes up naturally and happily at the end of her sleep cycle at 40 mins.

Same as you - she sleeps very well overnight.

The way I see it is that if and when she wants to sleep longer than 40 mins she can and will - I don't think there's much we can do to make her sleep longer?! She's comfortable, right temperature, clean nappy etc. There's the whole 'wake to sleep' theory but the one time I tried that it just woke her up and she wouldn't go back to sleep 😂

I think it'll just happen at some point.

I think if hes doing well and seems ok then just go with it!

I hate books about what babies 'should' be doing. I think they cause so much unecessary worry.

Thanks both!