Tips please

[sanfair]

My 3 month old DS is increasingly cranky during the day and I think this is mostly due to poor napping.

He won't sleep for more than 35 or so minutes at a time, and he'll have around 3 day time naps.
We put him to bed at around 6.30 following a bath/massage bed time routine and this works like clockwork every night. He sleeps reasonably well at night for his age - waking 2-3 times.

I'm wondering if putting him to bed earlier at night would help - he seems to want to konk out around 5pm although I haven't tried letting him sleep through from then.

I have no problem with his sleep timing but he is so bad tempered in the afternoon. Tips please?

Hi, what time is his 3rd nap? If he napped between 4-5pm that could carry him through to his bed time at 6.30. With all the stimulation of the bath etc he would still be ready for bed.
Also make sure that he's going back to sleep for his first nap early enough. My DC1 would go back to bed and have a good nap after only being up an hour.

Yes, at that age my DD couldn't be awake for more than an hour before she needed a nap, so she had a lot of catnaps through the day and that was what kept her sweet.

I wouldn't worry too much about the naps being fairly short - at that age it's very hard to encourage LOs to nap for any longer.

Good luck!

He tends to nap at different times a day. Mostly in the morning but then getting increasingly bad tempered but not wanting to nap.
Weirdly, after I wrote that post, he just about slept the whole day just waking for feeds.
I generally try follow his lead with napping. I'll just keep on at it.

Perhaps make sure he doesn't stay awake for too long at a time. Can you learn his tired signs before he gets cranky? usually not maintaining eye contact, looking away etc comes before the manic excitement which comes before the crankiness! Spend a few days watching him and take it from there.