Naps and when they change?

[SharkSkinThing]

Hoping for some advice!

DS is 6 months old - currently has 3 naps a day of around 30 - 45 mins each.

He is EBF but now on three meals a day with BF in-between meals/morning/bed time, 2 - 3 times in night.

When do babies stop needing the late afternoon one? Is it a case of watch and see? Just asking as he woke a bit later this morning, and didn't go down for nap until 10.30, and is still asleep, so at this rate he's only going to need one more nap this afternoon. Is that how it starts?

But DS often up at 5am, so until that changes, find it hard to imagine him not needing three sleeps to get him through!

Any advice on your experience welcome!

Hi Sharkskin,

They usually drop the third nap sometime between 6-9 months. My DD was late (think it was about 9m iirc) but she's always needed lots of sleep. So the chances are your LO is ready to move to two naps. When it happened to DD it was just like you say - the other two naps were starting so late there wasn't really time to fit a third one in anymore. We kept trying for a while but she wasn't settling. You may find that once you drop the third one the other two become longer and that your LO stops waking up quite so early. I had an early waker too and it did gradually get better as we headed towards a year. Her naps have certainly become much longer as she's got older (and I used to despair that they ever would).

There's a great sleep book called "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child" by Dr Marc Weissbluth. He has some pretty brutal methods (e.g. he is not completely against CIO if the parents can take it) that wouldn't be to everyone's taste but he is very goods at describing roughly what happens when as far as naps/nightime sleep is concerned.

HTH!

Thanks, DrCosyTiger - that makes lots of sense!

It's just so random, still, with regards to when he'll nap, despite me watching him like a hawk for signs he'll still take a nap when I don't expect him to, and thus know the whole day out. I try to go with the flow but it's very frustrating!

He had a good nap from 10.30 - 12 this morning, but then fell asleep on his mid afternoon milk feed from 2.30 - 3pm - meaning there was no way he'd last until bed time. Queue melt down whilst trying to give him his tea at 4.45.

Some days, well, most days, I feel like a total failure tbh.

Oh Sharkskin, please don't feel you're a failure, you're not. I remember feeling exactly the same way but my DD is 22m now and has turned out just fine. It's not easy this mothering lark, especially when they insist on dropping off when you don't want them to and then get overtired. But keep the faith, the sleep thing really will get easier as he gets older. I remember taking out my DD for a 6 month birthday tea at about that age - she hadn't slept well during the day and it was a complete disaster screamfest. We had to leave the cafe before they even brought her little sparkly cupcake birthday cake I felt like a failure that day but now with the passage of time I can see it was just one of those things and really didn't matter in the long run.

And just to make matters worse, my spelling above seems to have gone to the wall. Oh the shame!

Sigh. I'm just feeling a bit sorry for myself, the result of 6 months' worth of cumulative sleep deprivation, and general shock of how hard it all is!

But I'm not the first, nor will I be the last to go through this - so thank you for reminding me to keep some perspective!

Ooo mine is the same. 6mo. Weird isn't it. On the days when he has three naps everything dovetails beautifully but if that morning one turns into a mega snooze then the late afternoon is custard. I just have to wing it but do get VERY annoyed by DH saying "when will he sleep?" - how the hell should I know! I have a feeling that the morning one will start to become 1030-1200 and the afternoon 3-4 but not quite yet.

I know, Athrawes, god knows I know!

Well, he had another ropey night (teething and DH's inability to check FIRST for a wet nappy before trying to sooth with u/pd, so I ended up feeding him 3 times last night).

But one victory - got him to go to sleep last night awake and he self-settled, and when he woke at 4.45am this morning, I held fast, didn't feed him just popped the dummy back in a couple of times, and he went back to sleep until 6.30am. Yes!

He went down for a nap at 8.50am this morning, so am hoping today we'll get three naps in.

I give him a bit of a cuddle and he drops off on me first before putting him down - does anyone else do that? Is it A Very Bad Thing?

Hi again Sharkskin, and in answer to your question absolutely not. He's still so little, if you've found something that works just stick with it. Don't worry about him not being able to self settle, he will learn in time (and as last night shows he can do it). And it's so lovely watching your LO fall asleep. Mine never falls asleep on me now and I miss it.

I'd been cuddling my little baba too and feeding to sleep till now. He is now 8 months and we've been doing a bit of non-harsh sleep training (although there are a few tears), and habits can be broken and I loved him cuddling in to me for a nap up till now.

Just not practical now and he couldn't self settle, but does now.

With regards to naps, not much help, DS hardly ever slept up till now and just got to 3 naps by 8 months, but today was all over the shot after a week of 3 consistent sleeps. Arrghhh.

He's keeping me on my toes! S x

DD is 7 months and we sort of dropped the 3rd nap at 6months as was becoming a nightmare to put her to bed at night as she wasn't really tired enough. However, on days where her afternoon nap is short, if she's a bit poorly or grumpy she has a short late afternoon nap to see her through dinner and bath time.