I'm having trouble getting LO to be awake in the evenings, he wants to nap anywhere from 6pm to 9pm it is usually a 2 hour nap... He's not sleeping great through the night and I'm thinking it may be because of this nap... ugh...trying everything to get more hours at night!!                
                
 
Married 11/10
Birth of our 1st bundle 11/11
MC 05/14
EDD of our 2nd bundle 06/15
              
        
Re: when's your LO's last daytime nap?
after anovulatory diagnosis and TTC for 1 1/2yrs with several medicated cycles and one chemical pregnancy, we have our first bundle of joy!
IT'S A GIRL!
#2 EDD 2/5/13 dx with anti-BIG E antibody, seeing a MFM
I don't take one single minute for granted.
_When he takes this long evening nap, is he in his crib/bassinet/PNP? I'm asking because my DD naps after daycare, but we don't put her where she sleeps at night. I did that once and regretted it because she slept for two hours and was up all night. She takes about a 45 nap next to me on the couch, on her playmat, or in the swing - wherever she fell asleep. That way she hears the TV, us talking, and all the commotion with making dinner, taking showers, loading the dishwasher, etc. I think it helps her to know it's not really bedtime yet. Also, if she goes longer than 45 minutes, I wake her up for her bath and to play a little more before she has her last bottle-
He sleeps in his swing or PNP during the day, we also didn't want to confuse the crib with daytime/nighttime sleep. We've tried waking him up but he is very grumpy when woken up from his nap and won't play. Unfortunatley he's not a big fan of his baths yet so we don't do that as part of his routine.
I've had multiple people tell me that you should really shoot for a 7pm-7am ish schedule, and that babies need to get solid sleep in the evenings (times when grown-ups would still consider daytime). If your LO wants to sleep during the early evening, then put him to bed, don't consider it a nap. You say he is not great sleeping through the night, but you should be considering the 6-9 pm timeframe as "the night". My suggestion: start his bedtime routine (we do bath, lotion, jammies, sleep sack, rocking to sleep) at about 6:00-6:30 and then put him to bed - don't keep him in the living areas with you, put him in his bassinette or crib, whereever he sleeps for the night. Even if he gets up to feed before you go to bed, it is better for him than you trying to keep him up. Sleep begets sleep, so trying to keep him up longer in order to have him sleep throught the night is probably making things worse.
Plus this gives you some alone time in the evenings.
This what I've been doing. We've learned by trial and error that if he actually goes down in his bed at 7:30 that he will wake up more frequently through the night. Instead he cat naps around 7:30-9:30ish then he is up and eats we play and then we go to sleep for the night around 10-11. He will then sleep anywhere between 5-8 hours straight. His last really solid nap is from 1:30-4:05 like clockwork everyday.
My LO usually takes an early evening snooze around 7:30. She typically takes her last bottle around 8:30(ish) so her evening nap can go for an hour sometimes.