Help - Is it time to drop the first nap??

[mooncake]

Hi,

My baby is 4.5 months and I'm not sure whether she's ready to drop her afternoon nap. For the last 4 nights she's been awake in the middle of the night for 2-3+ hours(!!) and I just can't seem to do anything to help her back to sleep again. She just seems very awake. We've done some sleep training to help her settle in her cot and normally she'll go to sleep within 5-10 mins for naps so it's definitely wakefulness, rather than difficulty sleeping. What's especially weird is that there is no way I'm able to keep her up for 3 hrs straight in the daytime without her getting extremely upset! She's like clockwork - always ready for a nap 2 hrs from when she last woke up.

She's currently having 30-45 mins in the morning, 2hrs at lunchtime and about 20 mins in the afternoon, which doesn't seem unreasonable from what I've read. It's also the routine she pretty much fell into herself, though she has always found it harder to settle for the last nap.

The only thing I can think of is that I generally register from when she first goes to sleep, so maybe she's having a lot more rest time than I'm counting and therefore too much?

What does the almighty parenting experience of East Dulwich think?!

Thanks a lot!

[Saffron]

Sorry no advice about the napping, but could the wakefulness be due to Baby being on the brink of a big developmental leap?

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-wonder-weeks-predicts-babies-fussy-periods-and-mental-development-leaps-exclusive-interview

Sometimes knowing what't driving the wakefulness can help you with parenting strategies and coping. We had really bad sleep at that age too. xx