Is there anything I can do to help extend a nap?

[NoTeaForMe]

My baby is 5.5 months. When we're at home she maps in her cot, but only ever for around 30 mins, then she clearly hasn't had enough sleep. She then goes back to sleep after 2 hours after being grizzly until then. Is there anything I can do to help her sleep a little longer? She seems to need the longer sleep as her first nap of the day! My eldest daughter is only 3, but she was a nightmare napper all round!

Any advice, thanks!

This'll be a rushed response but I had same issue as you, DD waking after exactly half an hour then exhausted ten mins later and a nightmare all morning ... I do a kind of wake to sleep thing, have the monitor up full vol and hurtle in the moment I hear stirring at. 25 ish mins... Strike her head, pop dummy back in etc. it works!!! It may take up to twenty mins sometimes (usually less) but it works, I get another 45 mins at least out of her...

Stroke!!!!! Not strike!!!!! Arrrrrgh!!!!!!

I found nothing lengthened naos til they outgrew this at about 7 or 8 months

Whatever they have to settle themselves for the first part of the sleep (dummy, cuddly toy, muslin etc) make sure it's there when they stir. So set an alarm for 25 mins and creep in and make sure they've got it.

She'll most probably start to take longer naps sometime soon, around 6-7 months normally.
In the meantime, don't worry if it's her first nap that is most likely to be the longer one. Dd was the same and I remember thinking that babies should be having their longer nap at lunchtime, not 9am, but many babies do this.
There are some good articles online that explain how sleep varies throughout the day and they place great importance on the morning nap.

This sounds very familiar and I think it's quite common. Nothing I tried worked but once she started walking she dropped to one 2-3hr nap at lunchtime and it's great!
In some ways it was less stressful when she took lots of small naps though because if never really mattered that much if she missed one. Routine is much more important now that she only has one. If she gets five mins in the car now she'll treat that as her nap for the whole day!