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Honestly, i think naps just start working at a certain age. We sleep trained for nighttime around 3.5 months and it worked pretty well, but naps stayed 45 minutes (NEVER longer) until he was 5.5 or maybe even 6 months. Then all of a sudden, he started sleeping 1.5 to 2 hrs per nap, with me doing absolutely nothing. I let him fuss a couple of times just cause I was desperate to go to the bathroom and couldn't hold him, but other than that it seemed like he just figured it out on his own. He also started rarely taking his late afternoon nap at this point, since he was racking up 3 to 4 hours of sleep over 2 naps during the day.

So basically I have no advice about nap training...I am totally NOT a wait-it-outer - but for naps things just kinda clicked after 5 months. Good luck!!

Following this. Our guy is sleep trained but naps are still a disaster. Exact same story as you, 40 minute naps, etc, except napping in my arms has stopped working as well. I'm not sure when we will nap train but there is so little information and resources out there. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Sandy has great advice in this thread on her method, which I know other Bees have used with success. http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-to-do-before-sleep-training

@BabyTsMom: I'm still holding him. Yikes! Sometimes I can put him down after about an hour and he'll keep on sleeping. He still ends up having four naps because he wakes up around 5am and the last one can be pretty difficult. I've found that if I give him a bit more time awake before that one, he goes to sleep a lot faster. Maybe try that?

Agree with a PP - 4.5 months is a bit young for nap training. We sleep trained around then, but my Isis sleep consultant said naps don't really consolidate until closer to 6-7 months, so waited a bit longer to nap train. But every kid is different so if he takes to it, great! If no, don't fret - give it some more time.

@BabyTsMom: I will second what m@ScarletBegonia: wrote about the nap transition. If the late afternoon nap is what he's fighting, it could be that he's ready or close to ready to drop that nap. Our bedtime kept moving forward as my son's naps and schedule changed from four naps to three, and now that he's on a solid three-nap schedule, he is either fighting that third nap or going to bed pretty late, so I think we're getting close to transitioning to two naps. The transition is definitely a pain. Every time I feel like I have a routine going, he fights naps for a week and we have to do something different. argh

If the nap training doesn't work for that late afternoon nap, you could play around with dropping it and moving bedtime way up. I've also been playing with his awake time -- seeing if I can stretch any of his intervals by 15 mins or so. It almost never works first thing in the morning, but sometimes it works in the afternoons.

This is all very relevant to me, because I'm trying to figure it out myself. He naps pretty well so we probably won't nap train, but ugh, the nap fighting and the inconsistency. It can be really frustrating.

@JoJoGirl: sorry to hijack this thread, but this is relevant to my current dilemma my LO seems to be close to dropping his thrd nap and he is almost six months so I have been thinking it's too early. Probably not then. Were her naps long when she dropped to two? I'm getting 1-1.5 hours and he can't quite handle the awake time. I'm wondering if keeping him up for a few extra mins at a time might help lengthen the naps? Eh. It's probably just going to be a long transition haha.

@JoJoGirl: thanks, I appreciate it. I think the 28-minute napper was my LO. You could have a set a timer by it. It's only recently that he's started napping well, so the transition is a little fuzzy to me. I've been forcing the third nap because he can't handle that long stretch to bedtime and just will not go down before 6:30 no matter what I do. So I think I might need to wait it out a little. Maybe I'll try wearing him like you mention; I could see that being helpful.

I wouldn't worry about it at this time. My pedi told me most babies don't start napping well until at least six months. My DS (15 weeks) naps in a swing at home and they are only 25-40 minutes. He is in daycare five days a week and naps terribly there, but he sleeps pretty well at night because I think he is so tired. He gets 12 hours of sleep at night, so I don't feel so bad. I used to really stress out about naps and try and force it on my DS, but I decided to just let it go and not worry about it. I feel so much better. Good luck!

Partly just dealt with it and partly moved bedtime up to try to get another 30 mins or so of sleep. I started out trying to force the nap, but it got to the point where he just would.not.sleep no matter what I did.

I have a really hard time doing early bedtime because I'm so scared he's going to wake crazy early...this has never happened though. And yet I'm worried about it every time.