Sleep routine 7 months old

[Irons]

Hello, I need some help and advice please.

My little girl is nearly 7 months old. For the last 2 months we've been in a good routine where she would have 3 x 40 minute naps during the day and I would put her down for these naps ever 2 - 2 1/2 hours. She's never slept longer than that unless she has been unwell.

Anyway, she is now nearly 7 months old and I'm wondering if this routine is no longer working. She is becoming more difficult to settle and waking up very early. I know she is not getting too much sleep during the day because her naps are short.

My question is should I now be extending the time she is awake between naps? And if I do that how will I be able to fit in 3 naps? Would she manage on just 2 x 40 minute naps or is that too little day time sleep?

I've done a test this morning and she has just gone down for her first nap after being up for 3 hours. There was not a lot of fussing

Help please.

I personally have found that day time sleeps have been more when baby tired rather than fully routined.
So for 6pm bedtime, after 4pm I wouldn't allow a nap, and would keep them up, but from wake up time until 4pm when they slept was almost up to them. I found this meant that if they only slept for an hour in the morning, but then being out and about and being stimulated didn't sleep again until bedtime, this did not impact them, but then may find the following day being a quiet day at home, they may slept an hour in morning, and an hour again after lunch.
HTH

I think it all depends onw hat you have to do in the day/how many children you have and how much sleep your dc needs.

Ds 1 had 2 naps till he nearly 2
9-11 and 1-1.30 ish. He now does 6pm -5/6am and he's 5.10

Ds 2 also had 2 naps but only till 20 months because of the arrival of ds 3. He now naps in the afternoon 12.30-2.30 and sleeps 6pm -6am. he's 2.2

Ds 3 is 6 months and only has 1 nap 10-1 (ish) as we get back from the school run around 9.30 and he's cat napped in the car.
We have to leave at 2.45 to do the school run so he can't have another nap as we can't fit in lunch/bottles etc. He sleeps 7pm -5.30am.

I would say try to have 2 naps if you can, but don't turn naps into a bttleground that's something to be dreaded by all.

Thanks for the replies. That's exactly what I didn't want muppetgirl. I was starting to feel like nap times where literally that, a battleground. I've just put her down for her second nap again after being awake for 3 hours and we'd been out for a walk with the dogs and had lunch during that time. Hopefully after this nap she will be able to make it to bed time. It will be a test today and we'll see how it goes.

Icedgems thanks for your reply too. I have found I have to watch her for sleep times because if I don't put her in her cot she won't go off to sleep anywhere else, not even in her pushchair or the car now, which she used to do with ease when she was younger. Now there are too many more interesting things going on!

Anyway, thanks again ladies, I'm glad to see other babies aren't sleeping at much as I thought they did. I was under the impression they should be sleeping at least up to 3-4 hrs in the day. I won't push her then, I'll let her guide me

d2 used to have a very similar pattern of 3 short naps

it did start to change around this time though (she is 10m now), as in sometimes she would want to stay awake for longer (could manage over 3 hours) , and/or sometimes one of her naps would be longer eg 1.5 hours, and she also started to only want 2 naps some days but it was all rather random!
One thing I did find was that if her second nap went on much past 2.30, she was unlikely to want a third nap

It is still slightly random now but has settled down to 2 naps a day rather than 3, these can be both short, both long, or one short and one long...

I would be guided by her and how tired she seems...and maybe go for an earlier bedtime if she hasn't had a late afternoon nap

having said all that ds 3 has decided today that as I missed the 10am window of sleep (neighbour ill we did some shopping for her) he doesn't want to go to sleep now!

Arrrggg! Children!

Oh well, he'll have a cat nap on the school run and my favourite mantra is 'tomorrow is another day!'

Well my test seems to be going well. She's still sleeping from when I put her down at 1pm! It's caught me by surprise and I wasn't sure what to do next, but it's given me a chance to catch up on some housework

I like your thinking muppetgirl. I'll try relax a bit and think like that. I guess you're used to it with 3. I'm a first time mummy so still learning.

CatIsSleepy - do you find if you put them to bed earlier that they then wake up earlier the next morning. I'm not keen on a 5am wake up call

I hope your day ended better than mine! Ds 3 didn;t sleep at home all day and only had cat naps in the car. Put him down at normal bed time and he had other ideas!! He screamed and screamed and had to come back downstairs with me. He's asleep now (thank goodness!)

Tomorrow is another day!

Hi irons (cool name)

My dd 9 months only has one nap from 1-3pm and has done since she was about 7 months. She sleeps 7-7 (unless ill or teething) at night and this seems to be enough.

I was a bitat first as, like you I thought she should be having more daytime sleep but she seems fine on this.

PS I'm also a first timer who wants to get things right!

TheHappyCamper you must have a job keeping her busy during the day! I hope my dd doesn't decide to quit the morning nap. I need that 40 minutes . Although I suppose it can be a good thing because you can probably get out and about more than I do. I want to take her swimming and go to baby groups but I find they usually clash with her meal times or nap times

muppetgirl - I hope you enjoyed that drink

I will probably be shot down for this, but personally the less rigid you are re meal times sleep times the easier your life is. Not as in the kids run around causing havoc, but when things go wrong in your plan, the kids aren't thrown.
Kids are now 13 and 5, but I was purposely non-rigid during the day, after seeing what my sister was like. 40yr old woman still has to have breakfast at 7.30, lunch at 1pm, dinner at 5pm, otherwise she's ratty.
My kids will have breakfast between 7am-10am, lunch 12pm-4pm, dinner 5pm-8pm. This is great, if we are going out and they are not I can feed them early and get ready, or if they are coming they will wait patiently in the restaurant for dinner at 8pm.
It also means they have always slotted in when invited on playdates or to parties or the like. Sometimes parents are like what time do they need x, and I'm like they will fit in with your family, and they do.
Works for me HTH

I with icedgems - we were rubbish at routines but sometimes that actually helps = baby less thrown by changes to it. Even now DD can wake anytime between 6.45 (which feels horribly early now) and the latest she's notched up was a huge lie in until nearly 11am - I went and checked she was breathing as it was so freakishly late, but she was just sound asleep.

Just and update - the change to 2 naps a day is working very well. She's having a morning nap and an afternoon nap and she is her happy self again

Thanks for all the help again everyone. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with them, they just grow to quick!