Dropping to two naps

[melonribena]

My 9mth old ds has had three naps a day for as long as I can remember. His day looks like this...

6.30 - bf and wake
7.30 - breakfast
8.30-9.15 - nap in cot
11.30- 12.30 - bf and nap in cot
1.00- lunch
3.00 - v small bf
3.30 - 4.15 - nap in buggy
7.00 - bf and bed
Bf through the night usually 9.30,1.30 and 5!

It is getting harder to get him to nap for that 3rd nap and his naps are woefully short! I feel like he's ready to drop from 3 to 2 naps but what times should I do them?

He's a v active baby, he never looks tired, I have to look at my watch and put him down!

He is definitely ready for his first nap after being awake for two hours but if I condense the other two naps into one will he get screamy and overtired?

Is it likely that his naps will lengthen if I drop one?

Has anyone else dropped from 3 to 2 naps with their dc successfully? How did you do it? How did you know they were ready?

Thanks in advance

It kind of happened naturally here, he was probably around 7mths. My DS is also not a boy to go to sleep on his own volition (?) so I have to watch him carefully but I also use the clock. I think his awake time at 9 mths was maybe 2.5 hrs but after reading mn threads I dont let him nap before 9. For us we noticed we had trouble getting him to bed at night, so I stretched out his morning nap, and dropped the third. I never let him sleep after 3:15 or he wont go down at night. Sorry I probably haven't been very constuctive here. I think trial and error perhaps. Good luck :)

My 8mo seems to have dropped her third nap too. To be honest she would like to still nap but its so late now she won't go to bed if I lee her nap after 3.

She naps 2 hours after she wakes so usually just after nine for about half an hour and then she sleeps after lunch. For anywhere between 40 mins to 2 hours...depending on I'm not sure what!

And she wakes up 3 times through the night if I'm lucky...if I'm unlucky it's a billion times ;)