Hi Salsa,

Our 4.5 month old has been sleeping only 45 minute cycles, 3-4 times a day for the past two months. Gone are the days of two hour day sleeps for him, it seems!

Lately I've tried resisting going straight to him when I hear him waking, if he's happy -sometimes he talks/sings to himself, and I hope he might resettle back to sleep. (So far hasn't happened!)

I've rung the child help line and they said to look out for the very early tired signs, which I am doing, and he tends to stay up for 1-1.5 hours at a time, tho the end of the day I keep him up from 4pm to 7pm. Day sleeps tho still tend to be around one sleep cycle, - 45 minutes - with the occasional 1 hour sleep.

For myself, I've decided that 2-3 hours is probably all he needs - and if your bub is happy enough, go with the flow, as long as you're putting him to bed before he gets overtired - it might be worth trying waiting outside the door after 45 mins and try to resettle when he starts to stir, or you could just leave him in the cot a bit longer to see if he does it himself (my boy tends to become wide awake if I attempt to rock the cot or pat his side).

The main disadvantage of these shorts sleeps is of course, that YOU are not having a chance for day sleeps!! I can so relate, I get so tired during the day and would love to lie down for 1-2 hours but find as soon as I start to drift off to sleep DS wakes again.

Try not to compare your son too much with other babies who are "good day sleepers", every bub is different and as long as he's not overtired, generally happy and feeding well, and sleeping/settling well at night, I wouldn't worry too much, and you'll probably find taht when he's a bit older he might drop one of his short sleeps and make the other sleeps longer in the day.

Oh, one more thing you could try - if you do the feed-play-sleep routine, try feeding again before putting down to sleep (if you're breastfeeding) - as long as you change nappy or something just before putting him to bed to wake him up so he's not in the habit of being fed to sleep, then you can be confident his tummy is very full and he wont wake up due to hunger.