7 month old naps

[mermaid101]

I'm having trouble with my 7 month olds naps. He usually gets up around 6am, sometimes earlier. He has a short nap in the morning which is fine, but his lunchtime nap is all over the place.

I usually put him down in his cot, after lunch at about 12. Ocassionally, he sleeps for between an hour to an hour and a half, but mostly this nap lasts for between 20 to 30 mins. The only way I can get him to sleep longer, is to take him out for a walk in the pram. However, I have a toddler as well, so I can't always to this.

If he only has a short nap, his night time sleep seems disturbed and he usually wakes about 4/4.30 and won't go back to sleep, or he's up from between 1-3am.

If I try to get him to go back to sleep in his cot after his short 20 mins, he cries and screams so much I just give up.

Is there anything I can do about this?

[mrsmugoo]

Are you sure he's tired enough when you put him down at lunchtime? It doesn't seem a very long gap if he's already had a morning nap, presumably about 9:30ish?

At 7 months I was doing 2 naps at around 9:30 & 2ish. I would stretch him out as long as I could and it encouraged two nice long naps of about 1:15

[mermaid101]

Never thought of that. Thanks! Because he often gets up so early, his nap can be quite early too.

What time do you give your DC their lunch? Do they go to sleep quite soon after?

[mrsmugoo]

It's important to keep a decent length of time between waking up for the day and first nap (3 hours at 7 months would be reasonable) this stops them wanting to catch up on night sleep in their nap which helps with stopping early rising.

Our routine from 6 months to now (11 months) has been
7am wake up
10am nap
Midday lunch
2:30/3 nap
5 dinner
7:30 bath
8 asleep

[mrsmugoo]

Closer to 6 months the naps were more like 9:30 & 2 but then I stretched them to 10 & 3 and that makes for a much less stressful evening!