4 month old sleep help

[Chloesophia93]

Hi there,
i’m looking for advice regarding my four month old and his sleep. In general, he is a good sleeper and has been since birth. He usually wakes once a night for a bottle. I know around this time there is a sleep regression so I’m aware things may change but I am looking for advice regarding naps and settling to sleep.

During the day, his naps are very short - maybe 30 to 40 minutes. Is there any way to make his naps longer? If I do this am I affecting his night sleep?
Secondly, we still rock him to sleep. We also use a pacifier and a Muslin over his eyes as he likes to have them covered. When we place him in his crib ‘drowsy, but awake’ he doesn’t cry, but will just lay there and look around. I could leave him for 20 minutes and he will still just lie there. What can I do to make him fall asleep by himself?

I should mention that he has always slept in crib beside our bed except for the odd few contact naps. So he is used to the crib. I would just like him to be able to fall asleep on his own.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you so much!

Hi Chloe!

My son is 3.5 months old, so not too far in age from your son. Congratulations on his safe arrival!

My son naps for about 45 mins in his bed. Is that about how long your son naps for too? He sleeps for longer when he’s in the pram. I usually walk him for about an hour, and he might carry on sleeping for another half an hour to an hour. I think the motion helps him to link his sleep cycles.

My son’s night sleep doesn’t seem to be too impacted by how much sleep he gets during the day. As long as he has had enough sleep and isn’t overtired

I know that there is a lot written online about “drowsy but awake” and teaching them to self sooth and fall asleep. My take is that it will happen when it’s developmentally ready for my son. My son definitely needs some help, I.e some singing, or a little gentle rock.

I could have written this exact post!

my baby is 14 weeks old and I’ve just managed to get him to nap in the cot rather than all contact/sling naps but they’re always 30/40 minutes so I still do a contact nap or two.

He also will just lie there chatting and looking around and has to be rocked to sleep. The amount of times I’ve been told to just let him lie there if he’s not crying 🤦🏻‍♀️ but he won’t sleep! The other day he fought sleep for 40 minutes in the car with my mum stroking his face before he gave in!

I posted about this before and general advice was that it would happen eventually. Just wanted to let you know there’s someone else worrying about the same thing!

Thank you so much for your reply! Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner! Yeah it’s so annoying!!! Thanks for the advice , hope it sorts itself out soon!

My baby has gotten to the same point where he is having short naps, but in his crib so I feel like I can’t complain! One thing I find does help encourage longer naps is having the room dark, similar setting to how they go to sleep at night. I will put my LO in his sleep sack and put the white noise machine on and shut the blinds… sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t though! I find his naps are better earlier in the day too, so I don’t feel too bad about crap naps later on as he’s already gotten some daytime sleep