Question about the 3rd nap...

matt'sbride · June 2012

Hi, I usually post on the 3-6mo board, but I have a question I'm hoping some of you can help with.

Does your LO take a 3rd nap? Has anyone's LO dropped the 3rd nap already? If so, when did they drop it? How did you know it was time to drop it? How did you go about dropping it?

My LO is 5 months old and she hasn't been sleeping well at night anymore. She is also harder to get to sleep at night. For daytime naps, I put her down awake and she goes to sleep on her own. But at night, MH rocks and feeds her and she usually falls asleep during that process. I thought since she wasn't going to sleep as easily these days and staying asleep, maybe we should work on dropping her 3rd nap?

Thanks for any help or advice you can give!

gracefulruby33 · June 2012

DD put herself on 2-3-4 with a little bit of mommy nudging. I honestly can't remember a time before she had two naps.

What is your schedule like now? Her (approximate) sleep schedule is:

6:30- DD wakes

Nap #1: 8 or 8:30- 10 or 10:30 (sometimes 11)

Nap #2: 1:30ish- 3ish

Bedtime: 7 or 7:30ish

This typically follows the 2-3-4 pattern- Nap #1 starts 2 hours after waking up. Nap #2 starts ~3 hours after waking from Nap #1. Bedtime is ~4 hours after waking from Nap #2.

I would really try to stay away from having your LO fall asleep by bottle. I know it's hard and it's an easy thing to do, especially since they fall and stay asleep that way. I would try to have your LO fall asleep on their own like they do for naps.

matt'sbride · June 2012

gracefulruby33:

DD put herself on 2-3-4 with a little bit of mommy nudging. I honestly can't remember a time before she had two naps.

What is your schedule like now? Her (approximate) sleep schedule is:

6:30- DD wakes

Nap #1: 8 or 8:30- 10 or 10:30 (sometimes 11)

Nap #2: 1:30ish- 3ish

Bedtime: 7 or 7:30ish

This typically follows the 2-3-4 pattern- Nap #1 starts 2 hours after waking up. Nap #2 starts ~3 hours after waking from Nap #1. Bedtime is ~4 hours after waking from Nap #2.

I would really try to stay away from having your LO fall asleep by bottle. I know it's hard and it's an easy thing to do, especially since they fall and stay asleep that way. I would try to have your LO fall asleep on their own like they do for naps.

This helps a lot. Thank you for the advice, I'm going to try it today! That's almost what our schedule looks like now, except she stays awake for only 2hrs at a time so we fit a 3rd nap in before bed at 7-8pm. Thanks again!

brewcitybride · June 2012

I would never force a baby to drop a nap. Usually that backfires. My DH is almost 8 months and he usually takes 3 naps.

Julz629 · June 2012

We dropped the 3rd nap about 3 weeks ago. His last nap of the day was when I got home from work -- around 6 or 6:30, it only lasted 20-30 minutes. He was going to bed around 8:30, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to get him to fall asleep. He was falling asleep around 9:15 or so. Since the last nap was so short, we decided to drop it and put him to bed at 8 instead. He falls asleep SO easily now. It can get rough some nights -- we have to keep him busy so he doesn't get crabby. And he doesn't play indepently as well when he is tired, so he needs more from us. But it's so much easier come bedtime.

mben1119 · June 2012

DS only takes the 3rd nap sometimes. Lately, it just been 2 long naps, as long as we're not out and about somewhere.

preggersin2011 · June 2012

How long are the naps? My LO never took longer than an hour nap, usually it is a half hour and only takes two of those a day. She naturally on her own dropped a late afternoon nap.

celiabwatson · June 2012

Mine just dropped it naturally. I'm trying to get her to bring it back because a 2 nap schedule doesn't mesh as well with my toddler's schedule, and a 3 nap works great. Unfortunately she's pretty adamant about not napping in the late afternoon anymore.

Nwlywed07 · June 2012

DS also naturally found a better sleep/nap rhythm. Two long naps, each about 2-2.5 hours long and down for bed around 7:30 equals the best night sleep for us. He also get a bottle before every sleeping period. I try to not let him fall asleep while eating and I will take the bottle away when he starts his sleepy eating face. Works for us. (Our schedule also looks like the 2-3-4 method)

blu-eyedwife · June 2012

My guy still usually takes a short third nap when he gets home from daycare. It's long enough for me to get dinner ready, so I'm okay with him not dropping it quite yet!

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