Afternoon naps, short naps, and more

"Getting my baby down for her afternoon nap is such a struggle. Help!"
In the wise words of my friend Samantha's pediatrician, "When your daughter really needs to sleep, she will." Some babies, like Samantha's adorable 1-year-old, Ava, thrive without much daytime sleep-though the lack of shut-eye can be hard on their moms. "Other infants need more help learning to nap since it's not as natural even at this young age to sleep during the day," says West.

How can you help your baby take a break? Dim the lights, read a book, do a short variation of what you do at bedtime. "I always play the same Calm Baby CD to help my twin daughters wind down for naptime," says Tanya Ceccarelli, mother of 1-year-olds Nadia and Sophia in Dobbs Ferry, New York. A snack can also do the trick, say some moms. "Since eliminating breastfeeding before my daughter's naps, we've replaced it with a snack, usually yogurt, so that she can rest on a full tummy," says Pam Wells of Great Falls, Montana. And even though most sleep experts would say to put your baby down "drowsy but awake" for sleep (yeah, right), I give Lucy a bottle, sometimes just filled with water, to help her relax.

A baby between 15 and 18 months who routinely resists napping could be ready to move to one nap a day. To ease this transition, try to gradually start the "morning" nap later so that it begins around 12:30 p.m., says West. Ideally, your baby will take a single nap that lasts for two hours or more, and then have enough energy to make it until bedtime.

"Should I be concerned that my baby's naps last only 45 minutes?"
"There's nothing unhealthy about a catnapper," says Dr. LoFrumento. "Some babies are happy on less sleep  -- you can just see it in their eyes that they're awake." If your child sleeps through the night and seems rested in the day from two to three 45-minute naps, then leave her pattern alone, says West. But if your baby is irritable during the day, then you might want to try lengthening her nap. To do that, when she wakes up, instead of taking her out of her crib, immediately try to soothe her  -- pat her, make shushing sounds, or put her pacifier back in if she uses one.

"How am I supposed to know when my baby's ready for a nap?"
It can be hard to recognize your baby's cues because the nap window  -- from the moment she first rubs her eyes to the time she needs to be asleep  -- is often 30 minutes or less, says Dr. LoFrumento. April Jones, mother of a 21-month-old and a 2-month-old in Modesto, California, says that she knows her babies are ready when they're fussy or cry for no apparent reason. "I've changed them, fed them, they're not warm or cold  -- and it's been a few hours since their last nap."

"As soon as you see eye rubbing, yawning, fussiness, those are signs that you should start preparing your baby for a nap," says Judy Owens, M.D., director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorder Clinic at the Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Still not sure if your baby's ready? Act sooner rather than later, says Dr. Owens. "If you wait too long, your baby might get a second wind and then be too alert or too irritated to sleep."