2 to 3 nap help

LisaLisa1980

We've slowly been transitioning from 3 to 2 naps. Today, for example, was the perfect schedule - up ay 7:30, 2 naps, last nap ended at 4, bed by 7. HOWEVER, My problem is that he is treating bedtime as the 3rd nap, so he is up after about 20-30 mins and is wide awake for another 2 hours. What should I do? keep him up longer between the 2nd nap and bedtime? we're doing the 2-3-3 and he's been waking up at 7:30-8 am lately.

=Lee=B

Are his other naps only 20-30 min too?  Or is he just waking this early at the bedtime?  My daughter does this when something is off (teething or other pain etc), she wakes after 1 sleep cycle (45min).  I just go in and lie with her for a few minutes and she passes back out.  Sometimes she's will play a few minutes but I just snuggle and do not engage and then she clues in that it's still time to sleep. 

If he tends to have 20-30 min naps then he may just think this is a 3rd nap.  Does he typically respond to rocking or something that would cue him that it's still sleep time?  We've had many periods (again teething, wonder weeks etc) where my daughter has done this and not gone back to sleep, so we just go with it and let her get up and play for a few hours then put her back to bed.  After a few nights she goes back to her usual routine.  Daddy enjoys the extra play time with her in these stretches.

LisaLisa1980

His first nap is 30 mins, 2 nap is 3 hrs

JTGochnour

Maybe try and stretch bedtime a bit later?

Leni410

Try to encourage the morning nap to be the longer nap

LisaLisa1980

Leni410 said:

Try to encourage the morning nap to be the longer nap

Never gonna happen. He's been doing that for a very long time. Some days it's a full hour but most days it's 30-45 mins

honeydew01

Every kid is different but to me 30 min is a very short first nap (cat nap) and 3 hours is a long second nap.

If they're taking 2 naps, usually the norm is an hour to 1.5 morning nap and 1-2 hour afternoon nap. 

Dragonfly1226

If my girls were sleeping three hours for nap number two then they would not be ready to go to sleep for the night three hours later. DS was always on a 2-3-4 schedule when he went to two naps and K&A have fallen into a similar 2-3-4 schedule. I would say try to delay bedtime a little longer or end the second nap sooner.