4 month old bad at napping

[Ginevere]

Looking for some advice on how to improve my 4 month old’s napping skills!

She’s been mildly sleep trained and generally sleeps well overnight as a result, but she just won’t go down in the day. If I hold her I can get a 90 minute nap out of her in the morning, but other than that she sleeps for 30 mins max, no more than three times a day, and I really have to fight for it.

We’ve tried putting her in her cot in a dark room but she just won’t settle, and if she does she wakes up after 20 mins. I’m worried about her being overtired but have no idea how to make her stay down. Any ideas gratefully received!

No advice just solidarity sorry. Mine was like this and wouldn’t sleep for more than 30 minutes including in sling, pram, car while moving... it changed by itself about 6 months and she’ll now motion nap for longer. Cot naps still very hit and miss at nearly 9 months but she’ll occasionally do a long morning one now. Hope it improves for you more quickly and just do whatever you need to do to get through it!

(I’m learning to embrace long pram naps when the weather lets me and stick an audiobook on and enjoy the exercise)

I'd suggest you move your focus away from how long baby sleeps in one go, instead focusing on sleep overall throughout the day.

30-45m naps are not a concern at 4 months. Making sure these naps are frequent (ie not very long awake between naps) is far more important.

A good approximation for Wake Window (between naps) for this stage when naps are short is:
■ double nap length
■ plus or minus 15 mins
■ never more than 2h

So 30 min naps means 1h Wake Window. This then follows that having an effective settling technique matters, so that when it is naptime you don't have to spend ages settling him.

The most effective settling techniques rely on 4 things:
● Sucking (dummy is perfect)
● Movement (bouncy chair, pram)
● Physical reassurance (physical touch or closeness)
● Not being too tired (limit awake time).