My 4.5 month sleeps briefly at random hour during daytime, (abt 15-45 long each). How to set a nap time?

He usually falls asleep after nursing.
I've tried waking him up each time he fell asleep, and put him down at a set time (like 11 am or 2 pm), but the result was he didn't sleep at all until early evening (6-7 pm).

How do I set a nap time?

(Btw, for bed time, I bath, massage, read/sing, nurse, and put him down as he starts looking drowsy... although this process takes somewhere between 60-90 mins... any better solution?)

Thanks.

Try putting baby down in the same place for his naps every day. This worked for my little son who now has a nap at 11am and again at 3pm, and then again at 5:30pm.

My baby sleeps in his cot in my room, and I generally tended to sit by his cot to begin with. Then, over the course of a week or so, he began to relax and nod off in there. Now I can just put him in his cot at nap time and he just goes off on his own for half hour or so.

First, is that your baby's picture? Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Babies don't know anything about our clocks. They sleep when they are sleepy, drink when they are thirsty, cry when they need something...rocking is very good for putting babies to sleep.

We have twins and it was critical for our survival to have feeding, playtime and naptime at regular intervals. Some people argue against 'scheduling' baby, but we found regularity kept them & us happy. When they were newborns we kept to a 3 hour routine. This has since gradually expanded to 4 hours in the daytime with a 12 hour sleep overnight. The idea is feed, play & nap in 3 hour intervals. If you don't feed babies until they cry, that means they're starving. They will be hungry every 3-4 hours, they will be tired. By 4.5 months, ours were sleeping through the night with regular naps at about the same time of day. In the beginning they may cry, but let them cry. Ours are 12 months now, have 2-3 naps a day, in the morning & afternoon. You're the mommy, you're in charge, you set the naptime.

PS

I just put ours down with little ceremony & it's not a problem. There's no way I have 60-90 minutes per kid to get them down. Address this early, because you're setting yourself up for the rest of their lives. You can always change their schedules later, but boy howdee that will be harder then than now.

PSS

See also the book Babywise. It saved our lives!!!! We swear by it & those who read it swear by it. Keep in mind, the schedule is not hard and fast. We kept it flexible.

I dont really have a set schedule for my son to sleep. I let him go down when he seems tired or cranky which usually means he is tired. I have noticed though that if he nap later in the evening he will sleep better through the night. I dont now why but its weird. I would just tyr to plan after his 2nd or 3rd nursing put hin down after that and maybe he'll stay aslepp. good luck

ok first in the morning bring him in on your bed breastfeed then lay him down on your bed for about 10-15 minutes to make sure he has digested then take him in and give him a bath then lay him in his bed at about 11:00 am and let him sleep until about 2:00 pm then wake him up don't wake him up any time beetween those times when you wake him up feed him again and then just hold him (or go on a walk) Walks are the best for little ones they can either sleep or just look around so just put him in a stroller and go for about a 10-20 minute walk then as soon as you get back lay him down to sleep again and then you take a nap clean the house make dinner (supper) and just relax then when he wakes up feed him again let him digest turn on the t.v. and just lay back relax hold him and just rest when it is bed time for him (put him down at about 8:00-8:30 then you only stay up until about 10:00 then go to sleep and then do it all over again it will help you your family and the baby good luck!!!! Trust me I am experianced I have 4 kids 1 boy (2) and girl triplets (age 3 weeks) so trust me and if you have IM I have yahoo messanger and msn my username is emily.stimpson@yahoo.com hope you and he does well

adorable baby!! so cute.
60 to 90 min is nothing!!! thats a great amount of time!

let him nap when he wants to, but the trick to a long nap is a full belly. wake him up very slightly, maybe by moving him to a different position(not fully awake by any means), and try to get him to nurse more. then white noise (hint: iserenity.com.... lifesaver.. at night as well) then leave him be.

I find that with Nursing it made it harder for me to get my first daughter on a regular schedule until I stopped nursing her at 6 months. Diagesting breast milk is done more quickly. How often are you nursing now? I tried to play with my daughter and hold off on nursing her till she was really needing it and I was ready for her to take a nap. Is he sleeping threw the night (5 or 6 hours straight?)

So I suggest trying to do an activity where baby is moving a lot and burning energy right before a feeding and be ready for him to take a nap after. Hopefully he will take a longer then 15-45 min nap

My son used to do the same, nurse, nap for 15 mins, wake up and finish his feed then nap for 45 mins to an hour. That was over a three hour period which is normal for a breastfed baby. Dr Jack Newman gives some advice about getting your baby to have more milk, by compression, when they've napped off during a feed. By six months he was getting enough milk and not sleeping during a feed, just taking one feed in a 4 hour period. He also started sleeping 5+ hours at night and I slept through while he nursed. He'll still nurse more when he's ill or while he's teething so any schedule might go out the window at those times. If you plan to bf longer than six months you'll need to be prepared for that. The trick is to get them back on solids and water afterwards.