Lunchtime nap fail - doing my head in

[bingeddybongo]

In the last week I have finally managed to get my 4 month old to go to sleep in his cot at lunchtime (praise be for Ewan, can't believe I didn't get him earlier!). He used to do a full 2 hours on my lap but now he only sleeps for one cycle and then wakes up and is WIDE AWAKE and un-put-back-to-sleep-able. He is fascinated by light and even though there's only a couple of wee slits of light coming down the side of the curtain he is mesmerised by it and starts chatting away to himself and although once I've managed to get him to feed him back to sleep on my lap, he'll just not go back in his cot.

Even though it's a huge step that I've finally managed to get him to do a bit of a nap in his cot I'm finding it really frustrating. Please does anyone have any tips on what I could do to get him to fall asleep again after he wakes up?!

Thanks

I tried to sneak in before dd was fully awake and sshh her back down not making eye contact. If that didn't work then pick up and sway with her.

Thanks Chickz Unfortunately neither of those have worked for me so far...

Both mine started cat napping at this age. Their naps got longer at about 8 or 9 months. Drove me mad with my first trying to get him to nap longer. With my second i saw it coming and knew what to expect. Its easier to just let them cat nap out and about in buggy/car at this age.
Sorry i know this isnt what you wanted to hear!

Keep going. It will improve again I am sure- this happened at that age with both of mine. Persevere persevere persevere!

If it's to do with the light, you could do that 3 day nanny trick of putting dampened tinfoil on the window - blacks out 100%.

Got to say though, my two did mostly one-cycle random naps up till nearly 5 months. At that point we started putting them down for naps at 9am, 12.30 and 4pm and they'd have a 2 hour one at either 9 or 12.30 but not both. Is he getting a morning nap?

Oh that damp tin foil thing sounds brilliant, thank you toomuch. He does get a morning nap - he goes down (on my lap) about 90 minutes after he wakes up, which is generally about 8am, and sleeps for 30-45 mins. He then was napping 2 hours from 12/12:30ish and having another late afternoon nap for half an hour. It's only been since I've managed to get him into his cot (again, praise be to Ewan) that he's started only sleeping one cycle.

Anyway, it's good to hear that it sounds like this is normal, thank you all very much for your responses, it makes me feel much better. I'm trapped indoors injured at the moment which probably hasn't helped!