When should I start making an effort to help dd through the 45 min sleep cycle?

[Effiethemonster]

She will be 3 months on Friday - won't nap more than 45 mins during the day unless in the sling where she'll sleep for 2-3 hours!! Shes also hard to settle for all sleep apart from the sling where she'll drop off within 2 minutes.
She's up every 3 hours in the night.

Not sure whether I should start making an effort to try and get her to nap longer and also self settle in her cot or wait a bit longer and carry on slinging (is that the verb?!) her?

At around three months I forced got naps but cuddled and rocked to sleep and then put down in cot. This resulted in lots of short naps but at least I got to lie down myself for 30 mins!!
Now at 5.5 mos, I'm working on settling in the cot - DS can flip over so now I settle him on his tummy and that works a lot faster than when he was on his back. Doing patting and the occasional cuddle if he gets v upset.

Still getting only around 45mins naps but sleeping much better at night (mostly 2 wakeups for a quick feed and back to sleep). Iirc naps lengthened out st about 6mos without having to do too much work.

Mine hasn't been capable of not feeling awake after a short nap until a month or so ago. He is now 6 months and am currently working on it now. I have a thread out 'extending naps. .any advice' . It is working well but am not sure my DS would have made it at three months. I think he was four naps a day at that point, all short. Every baby is different though. Catching them at the exact point of jolting, 30 to 35 is really important x good luck x

Short naps are normal around this age, just makes sure they are frequent. Watch time awake rather than time asleep. Look for about 60-80 minutes awake and then expect 30-45minute naps.

... having said that. No reason not to try extending any nap. Always, every time, I would try to re-settle baby as soon as they first wake (I use a bouncy chair, so gentle bouncing back to sleep makes re-settling easy). But don't expect it to be hugely successful just yet, at 3 months old.