20 minute naps - 4 month old

[danda]

My four month old daughter has never really slept for long periods during the day...usually around 45 minutes at a time (3 times a day). Then her naps reduced to 30 minutes and now, for the last three days, she has only been napping for about 20 minutes. No matter what i try i can't get her back to sleep. She's not really grizzly during the day either (she does get very tired later on though). My question is, should i try to do something about this or is it ok to leave her to it. I am just a bit worried that she's not getting enough sleep.

[Chocaholic]

The 4 month age seems to be a time when everything changes. It did for my son and heaps of friends with children. I think it is a developmental thing as they all seemed to be more aware from about then. It is frustrating but give it a couple of weeks and it should settle down.

IMO just follow the lead of DD.

[~Trish~]

Yep, it sounds like a 4 month developmental thing. My DS2 started sleeping really badly around that age. It does pass so you can just ride it out if you are both happy to.

If you want to encourage more sleep, I used this trick - I would go into my bub's room a few minutes before his first sleep cycle was about to end (for him it was at 40 minutes, it sounds like your DD's is 20 minutes), wait until he stirred slightly (he would sigh and twitch), then I would pat his tummy gently for about 60 seconds. This usually helped him go through to the next sleep cycle (it used to work for one of his three naps anyway!).

But if your both happy and coping and want to keep doing what you are doing, then go for it! I'm sure she will go back to sleeping longer soon.

[rustygirl]

I've done what Trish has done, but during the night when my son was in the bassinette in our room. I'd do it at about 12am. I did it as soon as he started to stir and he'd usually go back to sleep for 2 more hrs. Now he only wakes once a night at about 2 or 3am for a bottle (most nights....at the moment we are having a few sleep issues) but give it a go and see what happens, it might work, it might not but there is no harm in trying.