What are you six to nine/ten month nap routines??

[Fifilottie]

Hi all,

Just wondering about the above question.

DD is now 8 and a half months(adjusted 7 as early). She used to have three naps a day. One 1 hour and a half after she woke up( 30 mins), one before lunch(1 hour ish) and one in the afternoon(1 hourish). She used to get sleepy after at least two hours...Now things have changed I don't know what to do and her sleep cues seem to have disappeared.....just wondering. I am trying today to see if two naps are what she wants. Thinking mid morning then mid afternoon..???

I tend to do it by timings. 1st nap I put him down 2 and a half hours after he wakes up, he sleeps usually for 1.5 - 2 hours. Occasionally he only manages 40 mins, but this isn't very often. Then put him down for another nap 2 and a half hours after he wakes from the first. This nap tends to be about 1 - 1.5 hours, depending how long he sleeps in the morning. I try not to let him get more than 3 hours naps per day or his night time sleep would be even worse...but that's a different story!

I don't look for tired cues etc, just try and stick to these timings. Sometimes he will lie in his cot flinging his teddies around and babbling before dropping off but he always sleeps and hardly ever cries.

But then every baby is different and your DD may need more or less than this....I think it is largely trial and error with naps!

I've had exactly the same thing with 8mo DS. He is definitely going longer between naps (it used to be 2hrs max but is now about 3 or 3.5hrs).

He naps about 2hrs after waking so from about 8.30 for about 1hr 15mins. Then about 3hrs after waking so at about 12.30 or 1pm again for about 1hr 15mins. He will have these happily in his cot. However, he is getting tired late afternoon, but not tired enough to go back in his cot (just screams even though he's yawning his head off!). So I'm having to go for a drive to get him to have a catnap in the car to see him through to bedtime (I'm writing this sat in the car on my drive ).

I'm hoping this will not be necessary as he goes longer between naps so definitely only needs 2 per day, rather than 2 and a bit!

HTH

Yes I know what you mean Mull. If my Dd only has two naps a day they are about the same times as your DS but then because the afternoon nap is quite early on...teatime could be a nightmare.

Yep - if I haven't managed to get him to sleep around 4pm for about 30mins then he gets so upset by bathtime and, on a couple of occasions, has refused his bottle because he is too tired to drink it!

My ideal would be that he woke up slightly later at about 7am so he could then go til 9am for his first nap and then I think I could push the second one to about 2pm so he was awake from about 3.30 til bedtime. He would still be quite tired by bedtime but think it would be managable.

[goes off to tell DS the plan and see what he thinks ...]

My DD is almost 8 months and is in a pattern almost identical to the one Mull mentions. I put her back in her cot about 2.5 hours after she wakes up, even if she doesn't look tired, and she always falls to sleep immediately for anything from 1 to 2 hours.

She then goes back to bed about 2 hours after waking and usually sleeps for an hour, sometimes longer if morning sleep was short. Then she is usually up for over 4 hours until she goes to bed at night as we really stuggle with an afternoon nap - if she just had 20 mins it would be ideal. If we are in the car around 4.30pm it's perfect as she'll nod off.

She's in bed for 6.30pm and sleeps till 6.30am.