Baby has gone down to 2 naps and not sure when they should be

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

Hey! I am always on the Sleep board but just a quick question, grateful for any tips.

DS 7months seems to have consolidated down to 2 naps a day, which I am very pleased about. It took me an hour to get him down for his 2nd nap today though, so I'm wondering should I keep him up that hour longer or would it still then take another hour to get him to sleep? He was cranky, rubbing eyes etc so don't know why it took him so long to settle down Should I grit my teeth and keep a cranky baby up for another hour to really exhaust him? I thought you were meant to put them down at the first sign of tiredness to avoid over-tiredness.

DS' day today:

Up for the day at 7:15 (co-sleep from 4am-ish as he's wide awake then )
Nap 11:30am - 1:00 - unheard of to take such a long nap! Baby group in the am meant he was up for a long time so v tired.
Up 1:00
Play play play
Nap 16:10-17:05
Bed 7pm at the latest as he cannot deal with later than that! He would usually just roll over and go to sleep, but had taken ages and lots of crying tonight so I think his 2nd nap was too late :( I rocked him to (bedtime) sleep for the first time in months.

Also he's decided he likes sleeping on his front so current tactic of hand on chest to stop him rolling over and crawling around is losing its effectiveness!

If I leave him in his cot to fall asleep by himself at naptime he gets very sad indeed.

So I guess I'd like tips on the 2 nap timings and nap wind-down. How not to have it take an hour. Thanks!

[FATEdestiny]

Yeah, his 2nd nap was too late.

I wouldn't want baby asleep after 3pm/4pm really, to allow a good 3 or 4 hours to bedtime.

2, 3, 4 is a decent guideline. My DD never followed this, but many do. It means first nap 2 hours after waking, second nap 3 hours after waking from 1st nap and then bedtime 4 hours after waking from 2nd nap.

Its just a guideline though. Much depends on baby's nap length and awake-time tolerance though. But really you want 1 morning nap and 1 afternoon nap - rather than 1 afternoon nap and one early evening nap, as you have.

When we moved to 2 naps, they settled at 9am-11am and then ideally 2pm-4pm, with bedtime between 7pm-8pm and wake up 7am-8am. I say "ideally" for her afternoon nap because in fact I have to manipulate this to fit in with family life - school runs means she actually naps 1pm to 3pm, but at the weekend and school holidays she is better on a 2-4 afternoon nap.

[Artandco]

I would say naps too late if you want bed at 7pm. Ours napped later but bed also later
Here something like:

8.30am wake
11-1pm nap
4-6pm nap
9.30pm bed

[MummaGiles]

It will take a little time to adjust to it, it always does when they drop a nap, but you will get there. Just look for your baby's sleep cues. If he wants to sleep on his front now, maybe try naps in the cot again. My DS suddenly went from all naps on me not wanting to sleep on me at all any more in the space of a couple of weeks.

[GenevaMaybe]

At 7 months we were doing

Wake 7am
Nap 9-9.45
Nap 12.30-2.30
Bed 6.30

[PennyHasNoSurname]

Id do a short nap in the AM (9-9.45) Then an early lunch and down for a nap by 12.30. Bed early if needed.

[AnnoyedByAlfieBear]

At that age, dd would nap at about 9/9.30 (2 hours after she woke) then again at 12.30 ish (or after lunch). It could be that he was too tired when it took an hour to get him down.

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

Great, thanks for sharing your routines. It is only this last week that he's made the change (and started crawling too, argh, all change!) so yes I suppose we will gradually adjust. Looks like it will be hard to get out to baby groups but we agreed in the beginning that our family rule is 'prioritise sleep for everyone'

[Caterina99]

I'm kind of in this at the moment too. My ds will be 7 months this week and has been really fighting his 3rd nap so I deliberately went to 2 this past week and it seems to be helping a lot.

What seems to be working is
Up about 6.30/ 7am
Nap 9ish (usually an hour to hour and half)
Nap 12.30/1ish (usually hour and half)
Bed early 6/6.30 depending on timings

Ideally I'd like the afternoon nap to be a little bit later as he's really tired by bedtime, but I'm assuming that will naturally sort itself out. I've only been doing this a week ish, and I've already had up and down days, but overall he's sleeping much better during the day and also overnight and gone to sleep within 10 min almost every single time. On a really crap nap day I still did the 3 naps. Good luck!

[catsofa]

My 8 month old does roughly 8am wake, 11 - 12 nap, 3 - 4 nap, 7ish bedtime.

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

What do others do to settle baby for nap?

We do change nappy, light off, blind down, maybe a lullaby, cuddles etc, into cot, white noise on, then I sit next to him enduring soul-destroying crawling, standing, banging head, laughing, crying until he falls asleep at least half an hour later!

So aiming for the 2-3-4 routine thing, I start putting him down for a nap 90 mins after he wakes for the day to allow for the 30 mins of faffing? Or should I just keep him up that much longer? He is tired.

I haven't had a shower since Sunday, the house is a mess and I have visitors coming!! I need nap time!!!!!!

[Artandco]

Before 7 ish months mine just napped on the floor on Blanket in living room. After that they sometimes still did, but usually we just put them in the middle of our bed, little lullaby and stroked face a few mins until they went to sleep. Easier as can then lie next to them. Pulled curtain a little across but not fully so they Learnt to nap in the daylight and sleep all night

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

Wow DS would neverrrrrrr do that, he just goes and goes and goes unless all stimulus is removed!

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

Also can't put him to sleep on our bed anymore unless I'm sleeping too, as when he wakes up he's just get up and crawl off it and injure himself.

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

and he can't get down without falling, which he just did. So he's not safe in his cot so I can't leave him here awake while I shower.

[AnnoyedByAlfieBear]

You really need to lower the base of that cot!

It was at about that age that I started some mild sleep training. It helped my dd loads.

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

Yeah. That's the middle setting, was just thinking of lowering it again! That's why I want to have him able to fall asleep without me touching him, that's what this is all about!

Just gave up after an hour and rocked him to sleep. Had a whole thread about how I can't keep rocking him a few months ago. Bah.

[FATEdestiny]

Awww cute picture!

You need to drop the mattress height now he's standing. He should be able to be safe in his cot awake and alone. That is the basis of self-settling - the aim being that you put in cot awake and he will settle himself to sleep. So the cot has to be safe for this to happen.

The fact that he is currently 'flopping' (ie falling) to get down from standing isn't going to last long and also isn't all that dangerous in the cot. Babies are fairly hardy creatures!

nap time at 7 months would be nappy change and trousers left off, milk downstairs, upstairs and into sleeping bag (wearing nappy, vest and top only). Blind drawn.

Then I would stand by the cot with a firm, reassuring hand on chest/side/back, with occasional finger pat to settle if needed. Occasional long, quiet shushhhhhh but mostly I avoid sound or stimulation.

The firm hand teaches baby the need to stay still and lie down to sleep. Any wriggling about is discouraged with the firm hand. Any time baby ties to sit, stand or get onto all-fours when it is sleep time will result in me placing back in lying-down position and re-setting again.

I stay until baby settles. I aim to lift hand just as baby is falling asleep (rather than leaving it there through into a deep sleep) so that he gets used to falling asleep alone in the cot. Then I'll stay standing by the cot for maybe a minute or two to make sure baby is fully asleep, and leave.

The long-term view for me would be gradual withdrawal, to slowly reduce the amount of reassurance needed to go to sleep.

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

FATE you always speak so much sense. That is my plan but my god this kid is crazy. He was obviously tired as he just fell asleep straight away when I rocked him, but he was laughing, screaming, standing all of that for the past hour (9:30-10:30, nap time should have been 10 if following that routine), it was as if he'd just got UP from a nap. I just need to not let him stand up I guess, and not give in. But he gets up onto his all fours then takes my glasses off
Hah aaaaaaahhhhhh!
He slept 6:15pm-7:45 this morning with 2 wakings so THANK GOD he sleeps well at night, I'm very glad it's this way round! And he does nap well it's just the wind-down I think.