Nap question

heather318

Jake will be 6 months next week. He's always been terrible at napping. Lately though, he's been taking a 1.5 hour nap in the morning around 8:30-9am (he's been sleeping 8-4:30, eating, back to bed, then up for the day at 6:30). Then I try another nap at noon which he's been refusing the past few days. I leave for work (3 days a week.. work 3-11:30pm) at 1:45pm and bring him to my parents house and he may or may not take a 45 min nap and maybe a short cat nap. On days I'm home he usually takes an hour long nap plus a cat nap.

So after that long run on paragraph, my question is. When did your LO drop to 2 naps a day? And what times were they? Now that he's getting older I'm trying to get him on a better schedule. It'd also be nice if he'd stop waking up so early so his morning nap wouldn't have to be so early!

Seattle_JiLLn

Ben's naps were never predictable til after a year old. For a long time he took four 45 minute naps a day. Awake 2 hours, sleep 45 min, repeat. Cooper fell into a good afternoon nap early probably because of bens schedule. But I think he was more like 9 months before only doing 2 naps.

IdahoGirl

Since our babies are so close in age....here's our (attempted) schedule.

Up for the day at 7 (he sets this, not me).  Nap at 8:30 (and he's really random since he's also a terrible napper) - sometimes it's an hour, sometimes two.  Nap again between 12:30 and 1.  He sometimes cat naps at 4.  I start bedtime at 6 for him, though many nights he's not actually asleep for good until 8 or 9.  Right now, he's up multiple times in the night.  In general, he'll be up again at midnightish and then again at 4ish.

It seems like Madelyn did 3 naps until 8 or 9 months, then dropped to 2 naps and then down to 1 nap right after her 1st birthday.

heather318

It defintiely seems like we should keep persisting with the noon nap even if he fights it. I think he's way too young at this point to drop to 2 naps, but he fights so hard to not take that nap. We've even done Ferber for it but he screams bloody murder until I go get him and give up.

Alli923

I think Lucy moved to 2 naps around 6 months.  She'd take a long nap in the morning, usually about 2 hours and then a shorter one in the afternoon.  She still take 2 naps at 14 months.

I would try letting him do 2 naps if that is what he's been angling toward.  Maybe if you let him stay awake later into the afternoon and tucker himself out, he'll take a longer afternoon nap.

Our schedule is:

6:30-7am: wake up

9:30 am: down for morning nap, usually about 1 1/2-2 hrs

2:30-3pm: down for afternoon nap, usually 1-1 1/2 hrs.

7:30ish: bedtime 

Zista

Isaac was a very consistent 3 naps a day napper up until around 7-8 months.  They were usually about 45 minutes long, but sometimes could be a double nap of 1.5 hours.  At that age, he was awake maybe 2-2.5 hours at a time. 

Around 7 months he start to be pretty inconsistent... sometimes three naps, sometimes two, sometimes horrible nap strikes.  We've just recently settled back to 2 a day. 

We originally tried to space these at 9am and 2/3pm (he goes to be at ~7pm), but kept failing miserably.  Then I read Weissbluth and learned that a more natural time for naps is 9am and 1pm.  So they are typically awake 2-3 hours in the morning, nap, awake another 2-3 hours, nap, and then awake a longer stretch until an early bedtime. 

Once we started to follow that (and watch him for tired signs of course), it got a whole lot easier, since we were following his natural cycle vs. trying to force what we thought was right.  We also rock to sleep because I'm attempting a non-CIO approach.

That's our saga... not sure if it helps. 

heather318

Alli923:

I think Lucy moved to 2 naps around 6 months.  She'd take a long nap in the morning, usually about 2 hours and then a shorter one in the afternoon.  She still take 2 naps at 14 months.

I would try letting him do 2 naps if that is what he's been angling toward.  Maybe if you let him stay awake later into the afternoon and tucker himself out, he'll take a longer afternoon nap.

Our schedule is:

6:30-7am: wake up

9:30 am: down for morning nap, usually about 1 1/2-2 hrs

2:30-3pm: down for afternoon nap, usually 1-1 1/2 hrs.

7:30ish: bedtime 

Your wake up and bedtime are pretty close to what Jake does currently. And his first nap of the day is usually 1.5-2 hours currently. So that might work to get him to nap twice with just a late morning and mid-afternoon nap schedule. I just need to convince him that he doesn't need to be eating exactly every 3 hours on the dot to make it work!

Seattle_JiLLn

You could also try putting him down a little earlier for that noon time nap.  Maybe he's over tired by the time you get to it?

heather318

Seattle_JiLLn:

You could also try putting him down a little earlier for that noon time nap.  Maybe he's over tired by the time you get to it?

Today he slept 9-10:15. The day before he slept 8:30-10. Then I attempted a nap at noon. So after about 2 hours of awake time. Should I shorten it to 1.5 hours and put him down at around 11:30?

Seattle_JiLLn

heather318:

Seattle_JiLLn:

You could also try putting him down a little earlier for that noon time nap.  Maybe he's over tired by the time you get to it?

Today he slept 9-10:15. The day before he slept 8:30-10. Then I attempted a nap at noon. So after about 2 hours of awake time. Should I shorten it to 1.5 hours and put him down at around 11:30?

 

hmm... ok well no.  I'd say 2 hours would be about "right"... so then if he really fights it at 2 hours, what about 2 1/2 or 3? 

heather318

Seattle_JiLLn:

heather318:

Seattle_JiLLn:

You could also try putting him down a little earlier for that noon time nap.  Maybe he's over tired by the time you get to it?

Today he slept 9-10:15. The day before he slept 8:30-10. Then I attempted a nap at noon. So after about 2 hours of awake time. Should I shorten it to 1.5 hours and put him down at around 11:30?

 

hmm... ok well no.  I'd say 2 hours would be about "right"... so then if he really fights it at 2 hours, what about 2 1/2 or 3? 

With my work schedule I wouldn't be able to do any later than 12:30, so I could try a nap after 2.5 hours and see if that helps. I just put him down at 2:30 after being awake 2 hours and he slept a whopping 30 minutes. So I'm terrified of dropping to two naps a day because if he only sleeps 30 minutes in the afternoon then it might be a disaster the rest of the day!

Seattle_JiLLn

heather318:

Seattle_JiLLn:

heather318:

Seattle_JiLLn:

You could also try putting him down a little earlier for that noon time nap.  Maybe he's over tired by the time you get to it?

Today he slept 9-10:15. The day before he slept 8:30-10. Then I attempted a nap at noon. So after about 2 hours of awake time. Should I shorten it to 1.5 hours and put him down at around 11:30?

 

hmm... ok well no.  I'd say 2 hours would be about "right"... so then if he really fights it at 2 hours, what about 2 1/2 or 3? 

With my work schedule I wouldn't be able to do any later than 12:30, so I could try a nap after 2.5 hours and see if that helps. I just put him down at 2:30 after being awake 2 hours and he slept a whopping 30 minutes. So I'm terrified of dropping to two naps a day because if he only sleeps 30 minutes in the afternoon then it might be a disaster the rest of the day!

Honestly around 6 months with Ben, everything about sleep got worse not better... teething, learning to move around, being more aware of the world around him, etc....  His naps were all short then.  and 30-45 minute naps are common - it's the end of a first sleep cycle.   Sometimes if you get up there fast enough, you can get them back to sleep quickly and stretch the nap out.  

And if he does just take a 30 minute nap at 2:30, he could take another nap at 5 to push through to bed time. 

heather318

Seattle_JiLLn:

Honestly around 6 months with Ben, everything about sleep got worse not better... teething, learning to move around, being more aware of the world around him, etc....  His naps were all short then.  and 30-45 minute naps are common - it's the end of a first sleep cycle.   Sometimes if you get up there fast enough, you can get them back to sleep quickly and stretch the nap out.  

And if he does just take a 30 minute nap at 2:30, he could take another nap at 5 to push through to bed time. 

I definitely am thanjful we're even getting a long morning nap! We used to be 30 minutes on the dot every single time. Good point about the 5pm nap. We've been doing that the past 2 days. Thanks for the advice!

keri1013

Max was battling the third nap hard core by that age. He's never been a long napper. We had success with going to two naps and putting him down for the night at 6:30. Though still neither of those naps was two hours, but that's always been the case with him.

doublem

E still pretty much does 3 naps a day, sometimes 2, sometimes 4 - I realize she's just a few weeks younger than Jake.  For the most part, she takes a 2-hour nap around 9, another at 1 or 2 for an hour, and then a little catnap after I get home and feed her around 4:30 or 5.  If we go out in the car, the stroller, or the carrier, she'll often sleep then, so I try to time that to coincide with a normal nap time.  I figure she'll sleep when she needs it, and try to stick with the schedule she's made for herself as well as I can.