4 month naps

[vradz83]

I think I need to put some structure into ds's day in preparation for next month's return to work & him starting with childminder.

Difficulty is, there are 2 distinct patterns to his daytime naps:

1. hour - ish about 9am, 2-2.5 about 11:30, 30-40 mins about 4.

This option means he's still tired in the morning & is essentially grizzly from 10-11:30

1. 2 hours 9 ish, then 2 x 45-60 mins later on in day. often results in overtired mess by 6 pm & early to bed.

Usually I just leave him to it & let him nap whenever he wants (unless we needs to go an activity) but fit the sake of consistency, should I just pick one of the options & try to get him to nap at similar times every day?

If so, which one looks most sensible for a 4 month old?

Or is there even any point as it's likely to all change in a month anyway?!

At 4 months old I was following the EASY structure on a 2 to 2.5 hour routine.

So every 2 to 2.5 hours the following would happen:

• E Eat - Full feed marks the start of the routine
• A Awake time - I would aim for no more than 90 minutes awake (including feed) at 4 months old. Probably more like 60 minutes.
• S Sleep - Try to keep baby asleep for at least 45 minutes
• Y You time - while baby sleeps.

This means your baby gets one sleep and one feed in every 2-2.5h through the daytime.

Alas, I don't think that would work for ds - I've tried feeding him more often & he'll generally just giggle and refuse. He'll only eat after 3-3.5 hours. Also, quite often he wants to sleep for much longer than 45 minutes.
Looking at the two 'patterns' that he follows, which looks most sensible to try and keep to in the long term?

I think the first option looks the best. It follows the kind of pattern he will keep to until dropping naps. The last nap is generally shorter and the first to go when he starts napping less at around 8months

I'd suggest speaking the the childminder and finding out when her school runs are. That way you can work the naps around that so that when it's car time is also nap time. Ensures a guaranteed nap (my lo sleeps well in the car) just in case there's a struggle without mummy there to send him off