Ten month old and twenty minute naps.

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He has two naps a day of twenty minutes each. First is two hours after he wakes in the morning the second will be after lunch.

The problem is that within an hour of waking from the second nap he's exhausted again. I try my best to get him down again but he fights it until he's almost hysterical.

Consequently, for half of most days he's miserable. It also means he's exhausted by tea time and that becomes a battle.

His night time sleep is fine, wakes once or not at all.

How can I get him to have a proper nap?

How are you getting baby to sleep?

I'd suggest baby is chronically over tired and needs significantly less awake time between sleeps.

Make sure he has a full tummy, I found that always helped.

He's breastfeeding still so it's feed, cuddle, sleep in my arms, put down.

His night time sleep is great, slept half seven till six last night which is typical.

Just don't understand why he's started waking after twenty minutes. He used to have 45 min in the morning and an hour or more in the afternoon. Used to wake every two hours at night though!

He is waking after 20 mins because he is overtired and is not going into a deep sleep, instead is jolting awake realising he's not in your arms anz more.
You can either hold him for the duration of the nap, walk him in a buggy for the duration of the nap, or (my strong preference), feed him and then put him down awake and settle him in the cot.