7 month old sleep

[HakunaMatataa]

My LO is 7 months and having been fed to sleep for the last 7 months I have started with CC sleep training which is working really well. Hardly any tears and now wakes once a night rather than every 45 minutes. Happier baby and happier mummy.

However, I cant seem to work out nap times. Hes only slept twice today for 30 minutes each time and hes very grumpy. This is the norm for him.

He wakes around 6.30 and then has a nap just after 9 but after that it's very much hit and miss.

Any advice would be welcome as he clearly needs more sleep during the day. At 7 months how many naps should he need and what times are best? How much awake time should we aim for between sleeps?

I’ll caveat this with all babies are different but my 8 month old was waking at a similar time and tended to only be able to go 2-2.5 hours between naps. So a rough schedule for her would have been:

6.30 awake and feed
8.30 feed
9.00 down for a nap
10.00 awake and play
11.30 feed
12.00 nap (this one could be anywhere from 40mins to two hours)
2.00 feed and play
4.15 ish nap - usually forced by going in car or in sling
4.45/5 ish awake and play
6.30 bath time
7.00 bed

Hope that helps - for me, the key was starting to wind down for a nap early enough in that window. Sounds contradictory, but if I went over 2.5/3 hours, she could keep going indefinitely whilst being massively overtired.

Should also say, if she woke later or the first nap was longer, the second nap moved back and we just lost the third nap 😴

Thank you @LikeSilentRaindrops I think this is where we are having issues. He will wake at 6:00-6:30, has a half an hour nap at 9:20 ish and another around 12 (sometimes) for the same length of time. He just wont sleep in the afternoon even though he needs it.
He wakes from naps still obviously tired and grouchy

I will try every 2 hours after wake time to do some calming down and our nap routine of story, cuddles lullaby and cot.

Hopefully I can get an extra little nap in the late afternoon and that may help him.

Thank you

You’re welcome - this is my second, but I’d forgotten what a pain sleep can be! Couple of other things that may help:

• 7 months, or post 6 months, is a good time to encourage gentle self-settling. For naps, mine started to accept being put in the crib awake and whinged herself to sleep. It didn’t feel comfortable, but a 10/15 min low level whinge is fine - actual sobbing might need a different approach
• their sleep cycles are naturally every 40 mins, which is probs why yours is waking up when he does. Try and be on hand around that time for a few naps and see if you can shush / stroke / pat him back to sleep.
• be rigid in your routine for a few days - work out your schedule, inc when you need to start settling him, and plan everything around that. I’ve done this a couple of times when we’ve needed a ‘reset’
• linked to the above, force the naps if necessary for the first few days. In one of our resets, I drove the length of a local dual carriageway every day at 4 for 3 days 🤣

They’re creatures of habit, so he should pick up the general gist pretty quickly. Lots of luck

Thank you
We have been up since half 4 this morning and he went down to nap at 7 [tired]
I am also known to drive anywhere randomly to get him to sleep.. sometimes it's all that works.
I'm doing sleep training with naps at the moment as well and will let him whinge.. it's horrible but it has made a difference at night.
I go in and pat and shh hom when he wakes up after a half an hour nap but he just wont resettle despite being clearly tired.
Today is another day and I will try again. May have to do as you suggest and force naps as he needs them and hopefully itll start to help.

Thanks so much for all the advice.