5 month old excellent night sleeper, crap daytime sleeper - should i be worried???

[alannabanana]

so i guess i should be grateful for the aforementioned great night sleeping my ds gives us - he goes down at 7ish, has a feed at 5, then goes again til 8.30/9ish - brilliant i know!
but lately during the day he has 2 or 3 naps of no more than 40 mins - this morning he managed just 20 mins!! and i know at this age they're supposed to get 3-4 hours during the day, he gets more like 1 and a half..eek!
i do all i can to chill him out before a nap - a little breastfeed, some massage, draw the curtains and sing lullabys..he goes down awake and sleepy and is very good at settling himself to sleep (again excellent for this age i know!) but then he only gets a short kip after all that!
is it possible thats all he needs? should i take a chill pill and be grateful for what he does get at night? is there anything i can do to make him sleep for longer??

just take the chill pill!

"and i know at this age they're supposed to get 3-4 hours during the day,"

How do you know this? Is it something someone has told you? I think you can ignore that piece of opinion. Perhaps it was phrased - "usually have 3-4 hours in the day" and you have assumed "usually" means "should"?

IME your baby sounds absolutley normal. Many babies have less sleep during the day than your dc and they're just fine.

Relax and enjoy the nights - when he's bigger and crawling around he might sleep for linger in the day - but that's only might.

He sounds a lovely baby!

Does he seem tired during the day but just doesn't seem to be able to settle for a long sleep?

I've always found my DD is in much better form if she gets one long nap (I guess 2-2.5 hours at five months, more like 1-1.5 now she's 13 mos) somewhere around the middle of the day.

Then again, that is around how long she sleeps for if she goes down.

It really depends on the baby. If he's in good form and not all cranky and exhausted then I wouldn't worry.

3-4 hours sleeping during the day when he's sleeping so well at night sounds a lot to me. But then what do I know?

I have had 2 very different sleepers- one crap at night and crap during the day. One was great at night and reasonable during the day (until recently sadly). It isn't a science and as long as your LO is not up half the night and is willing to have the naps at all, I wouldn't worry about it.

ok, sorry everyone - i think the general consensus is that i should shut my pie-hole and thank my lucky stars he's sleeping at all...got it! sorry i didnt mean to bang on about my actually very minor sleep concern when some of you must have much more serious sleep things going on.

for the record, i cited that 3-4hours daytime nap thing as thats what the sleep books ive been browsing have recomended as a guideline amount, plus 11ish hours at night. this is my first child so im still only learning all this stuff. also my health visitor scared me by saying that he shouldnt have 'cat naps' of 40mins or less as its bad for his development!
incidently, i have 2 cats and their 'naps' last about 7 hours

HV is a dangerous loon (funny how often I have to use that phrase!)

But my DS2 is similar to yours at 4m and it is a bit wearing. Does your DS get a bit grumpy during the day? Because mine does. But I'm still grateful he sleeps so well at night. Don't tell anyone in RL if you want to remain friends with them

Your ds is getting loads of night sleep though - such that a further 4 hours during the day might be pushing it (would end up, barring the 5am feed, having about 16 hours sleep).

I'd just start seeing the 5am feed as him being "up" to a degree with the sleep afterwards until 9ish being equivalent to a nap. Gradually, he will maybe push the 5am feed to later and later and you might then end up with 7 - 7 and then an hour nap in the morning and afternoon might slot into place. And then just as you get used to the new "routine", lo and behold it will change and then there'll be no morning sleep, but maybe a better afternoon sleep. Or maybe he'll wake in the night?

Babies seem IME to defy all logic!