45 min naps

[Sunflower160]

DS is 15 weeks old and for the last two weeks will only nap for 45 mins. He only has three 45 min naps a day and keeps getting very very irritable and I know he’s overtired and not getting enough sleep. At night he sleeps 11ish hours with a couple of feeds in between. His naps are still around the same time in the day as they have been for a few weeks, but instead of napping for a longer stretch he is wakes up after 40/45 mins regardless of whether at home in his crib, or pram or the car. Sometimes I’ll manage to resettle him just before he fully wakes but most of the time this doesn’t work. He also manages to doze off easily for his first nap of the day but it gets more and more difficult as the day goes on. Is there anything I can do to make him nap longer stretches or is this just a phase? For a 3 month old I’m sure he isn’t getting enough sleep during the day.

A baby's sleep cycle is exactly 45 minutes... so if you're lucky they'll roll from one sleep cycle into the next (1.5 hrs). It's really hard to 'train' them to do this, but the good news is their sleep cycles start lengthening bit by bit over the coming months.
I think 11 hours at night, plus 3 x 45 mins sounds perfect for that age. Maybe not for you, as the 45 mins goes so quick (I feel your pain!) but it will lengthen gradually

Also, yes the first nap of the day is the easiest, and gets harder and harder. Completely normal at that age

If he's overtired on the current routine, can you reduce the gap between naps and get an extra one in, so he's getting more sleep overall? There's not much you can do to make them sleep longer - it just happens when it happens.

From memory, DD could only cope with about two hours awake at that age - and only ever napped for 30 minutes. She didn't do quite as long at night either, so we had a lot of short naps over the course of the day to stave off tiredness.

Mine never slept more than an hour. I just went with what my baby wanted...

Thanks everyone, just going to try and let him take the lead for now. The last couple of days I have put him down for a nap in a dark room and his naps have lengthened a bit and he seems less grouchy and overtired towards the end of the day. I don’t know whether this is the right thing to do as my health visitor told me to keep naps in more daylight so he knows when it’s day/night but he certainly seems more settled in a dark room in his crib where he sleeps at night.

I was told not to rush in when they wake after 45 minutes, just leave for 5 mins and they often will go back to sleep. Was a game changer for DD but I appreciate it doesn't work for all babies!