Dropping nap nightmare

[melonribena]

My almost 10 mth old ds has been in a 3 nap schedule for ages. His naps only last about 45 mins and its worked well for us!

He takes a bit of shushing to get to sleep but with perseverance I manage it fine.

Unfortunately I'm going to work part time in 2 weeks and my mum, mil and dp struggle to get ds to sleep for 3 naps. He's often missed one, cried lots or had to be pushed endlessly in his buggy.

Because of this I've decided to try to move to a two nap schedule, hoping these would be easier for them, would be more consistent for ds and thinking ds is probably too old for 3 naps??!

Anyway, day 1 has proved a nightmare, ds has struggled and only napped for just over an hour in his two naps instead of over 3 previously.

He went to sleep ok at 7 but has just woken up inconsolable, clearly exhausted but can't get back to sleep. He's currently watching TV with dp. This has never happened before!

Should I go back to three naps and accept he might miss one with others looking after him? Or keep going with two hoping that they will lengthen?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Anyone?

What time did he used to nap & what time did you try today? It may be you need to tweak the times a bit so you get 2 naps of decent length to get him through the day. Usually around 9/9.30am & 1pm(ish) are good.

In the meantime an earlier bedtime may help stop him getting overtired, til he gets used to staying awake for a longer stretch between afternoon nap & bedtime. Hth.x

He used to nap 8.30-9.15, 11.45- 12.30, 3.30 - 4.15 with bedtime at 7.

How will I know when he's ready to drop a nap? I'm hoping his naps lengthen!

10 months is old to still be having 3 naps - 2 would be more usual at this age, so I think you are doing the right thing. Persevere for a couple more days and hopefully he will get the hang of the new schedule. The transition period when they are dropping a nap can be tricky.

Are you able to push his second nap back - perhaps by 15 mins every couple of days? Then he might just sleep for a bit longer for a decent after-lunch nap... I think by this age he should be ok going up 3-4 hours between sleeps. Depending on what time he wakes in the morning, you could aim for 9-10am nap then 1pm for a nap (hopefully a couple of hours). That worked for us at this age (and I think is pretty standard).

Good luck with whatever you try!

That sounds great scampi And is pretty much what I tried. The thing that failed was he only slept for 30 mins each time, which clearly isn't enough sleep! This turned him into an overtired screamer at night.

I wish I knew how to lengthen his naps

Sorry, don't think I read your post properly.

Could you push the first nap back a little bit (15 mins or so) so he's then awake from that one a bit later so won't need the second one till a bit later?

No idea if it will help but he might just then be able to get a bit more sleep as he's got the whole day to try and cope with the extra bit of awake time early on. Clutching at straws here but I think babies are generally better at coping with tiredness earlier in the day so it might just work...

Agree re pushing the naps back. Some babies are very sensitive to overtiredness (mine was one!) so it was maybe too much for him to keep him up right til 9 or 9.30. Whenever i made changes i used to do it in really small chunks, so do nap 5 or 10mins later so at 8.40am for 3-5 days (same with afternoon nap 10mins later) then move it another 10mins wait 3-5 days & so on til you get to where u want to be. I think really at his age you should aim to get his morning nap starting between 9-9.30am. If he has around 45mins then next nap starting at around 12.30-1pm, bit later if morning nap is longer. That should help him last til bedtime. In mean time if you get any super short naps, i'd offer that late afternoon nap to stop him getting too OT. Or a super early bedtime eg 6pm. Hth.x

Thank you for the good advice! I will try to gradually push the naps back!

He's always on the go so I wonder if that's why he can't cope with too long awake!

Everyone I talk to cant believe he's still taking three naps and say I should drop to two - and I will - but I'm curious as to why people r so insistent. Am I harming ds by letting him have three naps? Is letting him have three naps for so long going to have some awful repercussions in the future?

No harm in letting a child sleep as long as it needs to sleep, the trick is getting them to do it when you want them to, not when they randomly decide to!

Another thing: are you sure that when he wakes up from his nap he really is up? DD used to wake up crying from her nap after 45 minutes, when I knew that just wasn't long enough. I'd go in, pick her up to cuddle for a few seconds with a token hush, let her settle on my shoulder then put her back down in the cot. Hey presto, she slept for another 45 mins.

Thanks Sun. Thats put my mind at rest! He definitely is up after 45 mins! He grins up at me from his cot and is raring to go. On the odd occasion he wakes up crying I give him a quick cuddle and he settles back down for another half hour or so. But this is probably only about once a fortnight he does this!