nap changes

kaybee10 · January 2013

Lo is 8 months old and she has been transitioning from 3 naps a day to 2. Is this normal for others who have 8 month olds? Just within the past week, she has only taken 2 naps and within the past 2 days she has fought those! Yesterday she went down for a morning nap just fine and fought the afternoon nap, only taking a 30 min nap all afternoon! This is unheard of to me bc she has always been the baby who needed a nap every 2 hrs or less. Now she can go 3 hrs and still fights naps. This morning she is fighting the morning nap, but she did sleep 12 hrs last night so maybe thats why? She's in the crib rolling over and playing, fussing & crying when she rolls over and gets stuck. Just not sleeeping lol. She never used to roll over in the crib either so thats new, but she wont sleep on her belly she hates it. Around 6 months we stopped swaddling as well which made a difference in her going down I think too. Whats your lo's schedule? She used to go to bed around 8:30, up at 7am, nap at 9, nap after lunch, nap around 4 or 5. Now she is asleep before 8 bc shes missing her late nap, up at 7, nap at 10, nap at 3ish, but she can barely make it to bedtime bc these naps aren't long enough. Its so confusing to me bc I feel like she still needs 3 naps but wont take them!

kpearse99 · January 2013

I read that around 7 months babies will start to need less sleep during the day and would subsequently cut one of their regular naps out of their schedule. LO is only 6 months and 3 weeks old and recently he went from 3 naps to 2... not sure if this is sticking, but it's been like this for about 5 days now.

I read that it is completely normal though. DS is doing the same thing with his bed time that your DD is doing, He usually doesn't take his bath until 7:30 but now its at 7 because he's barely hanging on since he has been up since 3:30pm! It's all a work in progress right? And then once we figure it out, it will change again

TMNTgirl · January 2013

Nap transistions generally suck.

I think DS is trying to drop from 3 naps to 2 naps - but is pretty overtired and cranky in the evenings. He's been refusing a 3rd nap in the crib, so yesterday I took him out in the stroller during what would have been his 3rd naptime and he did fall asleep and took a quick little 30 min catnap. That helped us not being so overtired and bedtime. And I figured if he didn't sleep, he'd at least just be chill in the stroller and not getting overstimulated like he would be in the house.

With my first son I remember that when he dropped from 3 to 2 naps it was rough for a few weeks until those other two naps got a little longer and the time he was awake between them got a little longer too. It just took a while for him to adjust. Same when he went from 2 naps to 1 nap. At first that one nap was only a little over and hour, but after a few weeks it got to at least 2 hours.

Just hang in there for a few weeks and hopefully his little body will figure it out and start lengthening those other 2 naps.

vrj0522 · January 2013

My LO turned 8 mos today and he is a little bit of the same. He usually is up at 7 am and goes down at 8 pm just like your LO. He used to take 3 naps in the day, one at 9 am, then one after lunch and one at 4 or 5 pm, depending on how long the other naps went. He now takes 2 to 3 naps a day. He no longer needs 3 every day but sometimes still does. I've moved his naptimes to going down between 9-9:30 am (depending on when he is acting tired) and then some time between 2 or 3 pm on the days that he only takes 2 naps. If he is so tired that he ends up taking his second nap at 1 pm, I usually put him down for a third. He goes down at 8 pm without a problem.

The big thing you have to make sure of, is that baby is not overtired or she'll have a harder time going down for her nap. Babies this age usually need 14 hrs of sleep between day and night so if yours is sleeping more at night, that might mean she needs less sleep during the day and it makes sense that her naps would be later. Just keep going, eventually they'll even out and become more predictable.

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