4 month old sleep schedule

[IE00]

Hello, I was wondering if you could help me with my four month old sleep schedule. We are following the Little Ones sleep programme where they are supposed to have a 45 minutes sleep in the morning. However my DD doesn't sleep for 45 minutes, only 30 minutes tops. I try and settle her back to sleep but then she just gets another 5 minutes tops after being fed back to sleep. When I wake her up she is fast asleep and cries. I'm worried she is not getting enough sleep as I'm not sure where I can make up this 10/15 minutes. I can't add it to the lunchtime nap as that will throw off the whole schedule, i.e. she will not be tired for her afternoon nap.

Her schedule is:

7am wake
9.15-10am nap
12.15-2.15/2.30 nap
4.45-5pm nap
7pm Bedtime

Should I let her sleep in by 15 minutes or add it to the afternoon nap?

A few other details that may be relevant:
When I let her sleep in until 7.15am, she slept for 40 minutes from 9.20-10am
When I have added it to the afternoon nap, making it 4.30-5pm, it has taken her an hour to go down for bed and she falls asleep at 7.30pm instead of 7pm.

Hey, 4 months is a notorious time for babies going through a huge development leap so schedules tend to change quite a lot and sleep is often interrupted as they cycle from one sleep cycle to another. Personally (and you will get a different opinion from everyone because babies are unique and it varies so much what they need) I would just run with whatever your baby seems to need. Try not to have her up for more than 1.5-2hrs at that age because she will get overtired and harder to put down but otherwise just roll with it. If she sleeps 30 mins and you can feed her back down and get a longer nap then great but I follow the saying never wake a sleeping baby! Sleep tends to settle again at 5-6m then go backwards 8-10 months before improving again. But again this year is a general statement so go with what you have!
Alternatively if you really need a routine led baby then you need to persist but I tried this with my first and it resulted in a lot of time in a dark nursery. Just my view but I wouldn't so it again!
Good luck - am sure you're doing fab and will find what works for you guys.

Thanks Tickly. We did try the baby led way, which led to catnaps and I was always putting her to sleep! She would sometimes sleep for 2-3 hours from 10.30 (no waking) but then that meant the rest of the day she would catnap or if she took a longer sleep it would affect bedtime. I didn't like the idea of a sleep schedule but I'd like your advice on a baby led approach that preserved nighttime sleep?

Hey, I also follow little ones routine with my baby, I did with my son as well who is now 2.
Ideally If the nap is short by 10-15mins this should be make up in the next nap. So use the awake window and put baby down then so they can catch up. They will still be waking from lunch nap at the same time so shouldn’t affect afternoon nap x

Thanks @Willow146Willow146 - so you don't bother trying resettle during the nap window, just move onto the next nap? That's good to know thanks. I'd also be interested to know, did the self settling work for you? She's EBF and will only be fed to sleep

@IE00 oh so sorry I misread what you wrote. Yes I’ll always try and resettle first but if she doesn’t settle I’ll just get her up and then move the next nap earlier.
I usually feed or bum pat to sleep, she rarely settles herself. When I did it with my son I always fed to sleep and eventually he just started linking cycles without my help, it will happen so don’t worry too much :)
It’s hard work sticking to the programme I bet that, but honestly once you’re established In it it will be worth it. I love that even now at 2.5 my son has a good afternoon nap at 12:30 with no fuss because he’s so used to it xx