When did your baby drop from three naps to two?

[newmum234]

DS is approaching 6.5 months and I’m wondering whether it’s time to drop his afternoon nap. When did your baby drop their third nap and how do you know when it’s time?

Hi @newmum234 My little boy is 9 months old, he's only consistently started having 2 naps a day over the last couple of weeks, we occasionally have 3 nap days if one of his naps are short (usually 35 minutes). I new it was happening as he was able to stay awake longer and his naps have lengthened, we try to follow 3/3.5/4 to 4.5 where possible but everyday doesn't always go like this :D xx

9m here, sometimes a very occasional cat nap if he's woken up from his second nap before 2.30pm but very rarely 🙂

Mine always fought the 3 naps. Would only cat nap for 20-30min each time. He dropped to 2 naps quite early, around 6.5 months I think. 10am and 2pm (ish). He sleeps so much better now. 1-2hrs each time. I think he just wasn’t tired all the three times I was trying to get him to sleep!

Thanks - so DS has got a while to go then! In the book I’m reading it says most babies drop the third nap at 6 months, but that seems quite young to me?

@LolaLollypop same here! I tried following the 'books' with awake times etc and it just was not happening, I was so paranoid about this whole overtiredness thing but I think in the end he was just undertired so didn't sleep for long and really fought it xx

@Dexy2020 I know what you mean! I kept reading how small babies should have X amount of naps at this age, and DS was having a few paltry 20mins which would take him AGES to drop off, lots of tears etc. It’s so much better now he goes to bed when he’s actually tired.

@newmum234 - go with your baby, not the book! If he’s happily settling down for his naps then no need to change anything.

Around 7 months but it should have been sooner, I just didn't realise what the signs were and tried to force it. I spent many many hours out pushing my DD around in the pushchair to make her nap and keep her asleep. The dog was tired, happy and very well behaved as a result though, so not all bad, and it was summer so no great hardship. As soon as she dropped the nap all I had to do was rock the pushchair for a few minutes and park her up in the garden and I'd get 2+ hours free time twice a day.

Kept an eye out for the signs that she needed to drop from 2 to 1 and that was at 10 months, then she stopped napping altogether at 23 months.

Around 8 months - she just stopped falling asleep in the pushchair on the way back from nursery.

You will know when they don't need it anymore because they just won't go to sleep. I think we moved bedtime earlier for a while until she settled into a nice 2 nap routine.

@Cyw2018 what were the signs for you that she needed to drop the 3rd nap?

We always struggled with the 3rd nap - usually did it in sling / pram.
Eventually at coming up to 6 months even that wouldn’t work and was quite traumatic for everyone!
So bit the bullet at 6m and cut down to two and shifted lunch nap a bit later and a bit longer and bought bedtime a bit earlier (so 3.5 hours between wake up and bed) and worked a great!

If his lunch nap is much shorter - and he’s looking a bit wired we will go for a walk in sling / pram and have a 5-10 min cat nap at 5ish to get him through to bedtime.

About 5 months for mine. I took a while to cotton on with my eldest, but usually we would do that third nap in the buggy whilst out for a walk. He would fuss in the buggy and still be awake when we got home. I just stopped taking him out at that time and he made it through to bed time.

9 months here too - it was an easy / natural transition. Going from 2 to 1 naps (at 15 months) was a little bit harder!

Ergh, mine started fighting it at 5 months and it was all over by 6 months! He was an early nap dropper though.

Anything up to around 8 months is normal to keep the third nap, some babies a bit longer. If baby is happily napping at 6.5 months, I’d say carry on. When baby starts fighting the nap, it’s probably time to drop it.

Around 9/10 months.

He had an hour long morning nap , a 30 minute lunch nap and then a 2 hour mid afternoon nap . It was the 30 minute lunch nap he stopped settling for so I dropped it .

[quote newmum234]@Cyw2018 what were the signs for you that she needed to drop the 3rd nap?[/quote]
Taking longer to get her to sleep at night, needing a later bedtime, and generally poorer night time sleep (although difficult to tell when they aren't great sleepers anyway).

Harder to get her to sleep at naptime and to keep her asleep, ie couldn't just get her off to sleep and leave her had to keep the pushchair moving (she had all her naps in the pushchair or sling from quite early on). Wouldn't go back to sleep if disturbed.

Around 5 months DD had 2 naps some days & 3 other days. From 6 months consistently only 2. Became an absolute nightmare /virtually impossible to get a 3rd nap out of her so I just gave up.

Dd never had a third nap once she was past the cat nap stage. She's 10 months and down to one a day so they are definitely all different - go with what you think rather than what you think you ought to do because others are doing it

Mine's 7 months next week and he's been mostly having two naps for the past few weeks (occasionally adding a third if the first two were shorter). But he pretty much did that himself; I don't really do anything with him by way of a nap schedule. I just gradually found that the time until I was expecting he might be tired and maybe want to snooze stretched out to longer than it had been before.

Around about 6 months I think.