How can I get my 6 month old to nap more than 45 minutes at a time?

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

Simple question I suppose but he always wakes after this amount of time and still seems to be tired but can't get him to sleep for any longer.

I 've tried leaving him, shussshing him, giving his dummy back, cuddling him.

Has anyone got any tips? (please?!)

put him down for a nap earlier

waking 45 mins into a sleep is a classic sign of over tiredness

try it and see what happens

Sounds good, if a bit tricky.

He's ds2 and doesn't have much of a stuctured daytime routine (not as much as ds1 did).

I put him down as soon as I notice him looking tired but must be a bit late spotting it. He can go anything from 1 - 2 hours inbetween looking like he needs a nap and I can't watch him constantly for signs of tiredness.

How do other people get around this?

I know my DS (now 9.5 months old) went through a stage of only napping 45 minutes at a time... I did try to get him to sleep longer usually by picking him up and cuddling him a bit. It works sometimes and sometimes didn't. By the time he got to about 8 months, he was napping half an hour to an hour in the morning and about 1.5 hours in the afternoon. Sometimes, in the afternoon, he wakes after half an hour, I go in and I shush him and he usually then sleeps for another hour. Hope that helps.

Realised that probably wasn't very helpful... In the end, if he wouldn't sleep after 45 minutes, I just got on with things. He eventually started sleeping longer. I meant to say it will come with time... Is he mobile yet? Once DS started crawling, he seemed to need his sleep more!

No where near mobile! He's rolled a couple of times and is just starting to sit by himself for a very few seconds! We don't break any records for developmental milestones in this house - his big bro didn't crawl until 9 months or walk until 14 months!

DD3 is 6.5 months and was doing just what you describe until a couple of weeks ago when we got onto three meals a day, and suddenly she is sleeping better during the day. Maybe two sleeps of 1-1.5 hours each on a good day, and has had a couple of 2 hour long sleeps ! She is quite active ,rolls around a lot, so maybe she's tiring herself out more than she used to. But I think it must have something to do with the food too.

Not sleeping through the night though...

no advice just to let you know that dd who is a bit younger is exactly the same (maybe we can for an hour or so but that is a bit of a record)... am hoping that weaning/crawling will sort it out -tbh I've sort of got used to it on basis she is ok at night and seems to be fairly happy in her routine