Nap tips please

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

Dd (4months) sleeps for 5 hour chunks on a night but is a terrible napper unless she is on me.
It's draining so I am determined to crack naps. For the first time today I have put her into her crib to nap.

So far not too bad. She has gone down with only a little crying, has a dummy, blackout curtains and a white noise app.
BUT she is only sleeping for half an hour, if that, before waking again and will not go back off so has been up and down the stairs all day. She is clearly still tired on waking.

Does anyone have any super tips to help her to stay asleep longer?
Thanks

Movement is the best way to extend at this she, I find.

I would try naps in the bouncer and do some gentle bouncing and dummy reinsert at first waking.

Maybe a walk in the pram at nap time for a few days til her body clock accepts longer sleep pattern?

Thank you. It's for your replies. We have tried both suggestions but don't seem to get anywhere with them.

We went for a three mile walk on Wednesday and the little monkey stayed awake until we were five minutes from the car and woke as soon as we stopped moving.
She just screams and screams in the bouncy chair.

I feel like I must be missing a trick. She just can't carry on like this. She is constantly so tired and really struggles to go off at all.

Are you feeding enough? Calorific need significantly increases at 4 months.

I would try a week of feeding 2 hourly through the daytime (or more frequently if baby is hungrier) and trying to get a half hour nap in each of those 2 hour gaps between feeds. For example:

• wake
• feed
• play time until 60 minutes from waking
• settling baby to sleep
• hope for a 30-40 minute nap.
• Wake and start the cycle again.

She's not taking the full bottle when she's fed so I think that she's getting enough. She flatly refuses to take anymore anyway. I will try offering it more often. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

She is struggling to take 6oz but the pack says that she should be on 7oz by now.

Babies don't usually increase their feeding by drinking a bigger volume. The amount they can drink is physically constrained by the size of their stomach.

Babies increase their feeding by feeding more frequently. If this is not something you are anticipating, it's easy to miss the hunger signs. Or put them down to another reason.

6oz bottles is reasonable at this age. I'd be making 7 or 8 a day and be giving them every 2 hours or so.

Hi FATE
Thank you so much for all of your advice. I really do appreciate it.
Dd has been off it since her jabs and is teething so some of this has taken a back seat this week.

Can anyone give me any idea when baby should start to consolidate her naps rather than them being after ab hours wakefulness?
Thanks

6oz is definitely fine. You could always try size 3 teats as an experiment though if you wanted.

She should be able to be awake for 1.5 hours at 4 months.

But it's too early for any kind of nap routine, sadly. That's a few months down the road yet.

Her sleep cycle is 40 mins so believe it or not she is quite normal. She's just not going into a second cycle. But again that's entirely normal at this age too as they are light sleepers.

(And tbh my DS never ever went into a second one, some kids will never sleep heavily unless on you no matter what age they are. )

Thank you.
She is able to manage 40 minutes in bed sometimes but it's hit and miss.
She is such a light sleeper and has even stopped sleeping in the car or pram now.
On me she gets a good hour at least but I am going to have to return to work soon and am worried about anyone else managing her naps properly.