8 month old nap schedule

[bleachblondemom]

Sorry for the long post, there’s lots of timings to explain!
I’m not sure what to do with my DSs nap schedule now he’s getting a bit older. He pretty much always wakes up at 6:30am. So his previous nap schedule was a nap about 7:30am (he has a very short wake window in the morning and gets tired again quickly). Wakes about 8:30/9am. Second nap 11:30/12pm until 1pm. Third nap 4pm to 5pm. In his crib at 7:30pm (sometimes he’ll be asleep at 7:30pm on the dot, sometimes he’s a bit late and it’s getting on for 8pm by the time he falls asleep).
I think the 5pm to bedtime wake window is far too short. I’m not putting him to bed any later though because no matter what he will still wake up at half 6, so all it will do is mean he will lose sleep.
Early last week we had about 3 days of him waking at 7:30am which was brilliant. It means he got more sleep overnight, had a longer first wake window and I could drop him to 2 naps a day. This lasted about 3 days and then he went back to 6:30am wake ups! This morning I said I’d try to keep him awake as long as possible in the morning but honestly I was too tired to commit to it as I hate these half 6 wake ups, and DS was yawning and rubbing his eyes by half 7 anyway. So then he slept til 9am, which makes his next nap 12-1pm, and then the next one ends up as 4-5pm again!
So I don’t know what to do, in an ideal world I want him to have that extra hour til half 7, and then have 2 naps a day. When he wakes up at half 6, it’s really hard to squeeze 3 naps in before 4pm (so no sleep after 4pm) or drag his wake windows out to fit just 2 naps in.
I suppose he could just do 4-4:30 for his third nap if it ended up working out that way. Or stretch out his first wake window so that he has 2 naps completed by 3/3:30pm, and then he’s in bed at 7pm? I feel bad that I let him have so much sleep first thing in the morning, I don’t know if that is the cause of the early wake ups. But I’m just so tired and it’s so easy for us both to go back to sleep after an hour of milk and cuddles. Honestly that one hour between waking up at half 6 and half 7 makes all the difference to both of us!
Weirdly, the handful of times we’ve put him to bed really early (like if he’s missed a nap for some reason or woke up really early from his last one) are the times he’s slept longer. For example a couple of weeks ago he missed his last nap because his gums were hurting so he was upset, and then he was sick so by the time we’d cleaned him up it was far too late for a nap to start. So he ended up in bed asleep at quarter to 7, then woke up at quarter past 7, so he slept 12.5 hours!! Mad that he can do that, but then when he goes to bed at normal time he does 10.5/11 hours. I know 11 hours overnight is brilliant but it would be great if it could be any 11 hour stretch. But no matter how late he goes to bed, his little internal alarm clock wakes him up at 6:30am, so it’s not like he could do 8-7 or 8:30-7:30. He has a blackout curtain so his room is totally dark, and there’s no noises waking him up.
I could put him down 11-12 today instead of 12-1, but 2 hours is quite a short wake window for his age. I’ve just spotted him rubbing his eyes though so I might do 11:30 to 12:30 and then he could do 3:30 to 4:30, bed at 7:30 as normal. So he gets two lots of 3 hour stretches awake. But then that’s 3.5 hours worth of naps in a day which seems like too much? So maybe just do 3:30-4pm and then bed at 7pm and see what difference that makes to tomorrow’s wake up? It’s so difficult to know what’s best to do!

It's really hard to know and all babies are different. I think most babies are down to 2 naps by 8 months. I would personally try and stretch out the awake windows a little and do a slightly earlier bedtime in order to get down to 2 naps. The 2,3,4 schedule of awake windows works quite well at this age (ie two hours from wake up until first nap, 3 hours from 1st nap wake up until 2nd nap etc). A slightly earlier bed time might lead to a bit more nighttime sleep too so he's less tired in the morning for his first nap. Good luck!

8mo DS here - some days it's two naps, some days it's three. Latest I'd do a nap is 3-4pm so he's got a good 3.5 hours awake before bed.

I think a 6.30am start is pretty good going, I've been up before then for several jobs I've had. Baby DS wakes anytime between 6-7am. I have to wake him at 7ish if he's not up for the nursery run with my eldest. My eldest woke any time between 4.30-6.30 for about 18 months as a toddler, including when I was pregnant second time round, I used to go to bed early (and cry! 🤣)

Hmm ok I hadnt heard 2-3-4 before! I thought he should be awake for about 3 hours each time but 2-3-4 might work as he’s tired quicker in the mornings but can go longer in the late afternoon/evening. But if he’s up at half 6 then sleeps after 2 hours, so 8:30-9:30 (he can do 1.5 hours sometimes but it’s never guaranteed) then his next one is 12:30-1:30 and there’s no room for another nap then! God it would be so much easier if he’d just wake up at half 7 😂

Oh and the reason his first nap can be up to 1.5 hours long is because I go to sleep as well so I’m not there to wake him up after an hour, which I should really but I want a nap too!

Sadly 6.30 wakes are pretty standard. My 8 month old has started occasionally waking at 5 which is horrifying! At least it made me appreciate 6.30 again 😆

At 8 months, I’d look at transitioning to a 2 nap schedule.

We do roughly 2/3/4, but the first window is often 2.5hrs and the last window can be a little longer than 4hrs some days if he had a long afternoon nap.

Mine is currently doing

Awake approx 6.30
Nap 9-10am
Nap 1-2.30/3.30 (varies from 1.5 to 2.5hrs)
Bed between 6.45-7.30, (4 hours after waking from last nap if he slept 2.5hrs, 4hr15/30 if he slept 2.5hrs).

*1.5hrs

@FizzingWhizzbee123 wow I don’t think DS would sleep 2.5 hours! I know the 6:30am wake up shouldn’t be anything to complain about it’s just making it hard for me to figure out how to drop to 2 naps. If I could keep him awake until 9/half 9 and could guarantee a 1.5 hour nap (which he might well do as his first nap is normally the longest) then that would help. Then he could do 2-3:30 or 2:30 to 3:30/4pm…. Unfortunately I cannot tell him what naps to take and for now long 😂 i’ll keep trying different things and figure it out!

Is there no way he would go right back to sleep at 6.30 after his milk? My daughter often woke up at 6am, have a breastfeed and go back to sleep until 9am!

Yes that’s his first nap of the day… he wakes up at half 6 and is back down to sleep at about half 7 because he gets tired so quickly. So he wakes up 8:30/9. But then if I keep him awake 3 hours at a time after that his last nap is finishing a bit too late. So I’d rather he had a nap later in the morning and a nap mid afternoon, and not have that first early nap!

Are you back at work soon, and when will you have to get up?

I’m only asking as if it’s early you might find that suits you. To be honest that’s a brilliant nap and sleep schedule. I wouldn’t change that, I’m so jealous!

I mean if you kept him in a dark room, and gave him a bottle would he go back to sleep sooner than 7.30?

Ultimately he'll increase his wake times slowly. I always followed the 2/3/4 nap schedule when my daughter was a similar age. They're all different. 6.30 really isn't that early.

The transition to two naps is messy. It’s quite a jump from 2-2.5hr wake windows and losing the cat nap is hard. Mine went through a phase of only doing 30 mins for his second nap while I tried to drop the third cat nap, which made it all seem impossible! So frustrating. I flip flopped between two and three naps for a few weeks and we were a mess. I bit the bullet and decided to stick with two nap, regardless of what he did. We had a few 6pm bedtimes but then his naps lengthened and he adjusted to the longer wake windows.

You might find your baby starts napping longer once awake windows stretch out. However two 1.5hr naps are fine if you can get that.

I actively wake my son after 1hr in the morning so he’s tired enough to do longer in the afternoon, but he often only does 1.5hrs for his second nap too. I let him sleep as long as he wants for second nap unless we have to be somewhere.

You could try
Wake 6.30
Nap 9-10.30
Nap 1.30 - 3
Bed 7pm

Just another thought, I'd aim for a 7pm bedtime too, keeping the rest of it the same, according to your baby's awake windows etc. Like you say, an earlier bedtime often brings a longer night sleep!
I have a 3.5 year old and six month old.

At that age my DD used to wake at 6/6:30 and her first nap was around 9am. I slowly stretched it until it was 9:30 but she would always sleep 1.5 hours then second nap was at 1:30 (1.5 - 2 hours) then bed at 7. I also stretched the second nap to 2:30 as she got older. I found it easier to stretch her in the morning as opposed to in the evening.

@lavenderandwisteria back to work in October, I think I’d provably have to get up at half 6 in order to get me and DS ready, dropped at nursery and get to work. But it would be good if I could have half an hour to myself and let him sleep til 7 😂 If only we could just tell them what we wanted!

@lavenderandwisteria back to work in October, I think I’d provably have to get up at half 6 in order to get me and DS ready, dropped at nursery and get to work. But it would be good if I could have half an hour to myself and let him sleep til 7 😂 If only we could just tell them what we wanted!

@HalloHello sorry I see what you mean, erm yes he might do but then I’d feel like he was having about 14 hours sleep before getting up properly for the day which seems mad!
If he gets up at half 6 tomorrow I am definitely going to keep him awake. I deliberately don’t turn the tv when he comes into my room in the morning, I might sometime get him a toy to play with but he usually just sits on me and has a cuddle and messes about. So I’ll try getting up properly and stimulating him a bit more.

That would be so nice!

@FizzingWhizzbee123 if I knew he was definitely going to sleep for 1.5 hours for at least one of his naps then it would be easier to figure out a new schedule for 2 naps. But if he only does an hour for each one then he’ll end up awake for like 5 hours before bedtime. I’ll consider bringing bedtime to 7pm, see what happens tomorrow daytime first.

@Vicky1989x that sounds like a good schedule if only I was sure he would sleep 1.5 hours. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. But I suppose if I stretch his first wake window to nearly 3 hours, which he’s not used to, then he may well do 1.5 hours! Will have to experiment tomorrow. He was fast asleep by half 7 tonight and didn’t even have his usual 5 minute whinge before he fell asleep, so I’m hoping for a 7/7:30 wake up 🤞🤞

Thank you everyone for your tips and thoughts, and for sharing your schedules. I’m lucky that his sleep is really good, I just want to make sure he’s not getting too much or too little. Now hes getting a big boy of 8 months, I don’t want to keep shoving him to bed every couple of hours, I think he’ll benefit from being up and about more.

It's completely normal during a nap transition to have a ridiculously early bedtime (sometimes even 5pm) with a normal wake time in the morning! It's just temporary whilst they adjust

@MsChatterbox thank you, will have to experiment and see how things go!

Don’t fear an early bedtime. My son always wakes up earlier when he goes to bed closer to 8pm, and has pulled some amazing stretches after a 6.30pm bedtime. Later to bed doesn’t automatically mean a later morning start. Often it just means a 10 hr night rather than a 12 hr night and baby will wake up at the same time regardless!

My baby is 8 months and 2 hours is a pretty normal wake window for him - he struggles with anything much longer.

He gets up at 6 then has a first nap around 8, lasting 45 minutes to an hour. His second nap is 11 til 12:30. His third nap is 3 (if I can get him to stay awake for that long - sometimes he needs to go down at 2:30) til 4, then he’s in bed for 6:30.

I would love to drop the first nap and transition him down to 2 a day, but it’s a struggle getting him to sleep even til 6am and he’s always dropping by 8.