When did your LOs drop their early evening nap?

[BotBotticelli]

DS1 is 7mo and i am starting to think that the early evening nap (which usually lasts 30-40 mins, and happens anytime between 4pm - 5.30, depending on how he's napped earlier in the day) is not working for us anymore.

It is taking DS a loooong time to go to sleep and he really fights it. Also as he is now fully weaned and having 3 meals per day, the nap is als getting in the way of teatime. For example, yesterday he had a nap from 4.45pm - 5.30pm, and then had his tea when he woke up. Unfortunately, this was such a late tea that he then only drank 2oz of his bedtime bottle - usually he has 6oz.

I would much prefer to be giving him his tea at 5, and then hopefully he would drink the whole bottle at 7pm.

WWYD? Have any of your LO's dropped their evening nap at this stage?

I don't think either of mine had an early evening nap unless we were in the car at that time otherwise they would not fall asleep until 9-ish.

Try moving the nap earlier in the day?

Wow definitely drop that one at 7mths. I don't let my just 8 month old sleep past 3pm now or her bedtime is hell. Usually just awful!!

They only need 2.5 to 3hrs of naps a day at that ages, depending on amount slept at night.

Every baby is different but mine typically does this
Wakes 7
Nap 8.45 to 9.45
Nap 12.30 to 1.30 or 2 on a good day at home.
Bed for 7 but she might not be asleep until 8 or later.

Then nothing more til bed

At that age we were doing a morning and afternoon nap, never as late as you describe. How many naps is he having?

We have tea at 4.30 too. So she is ready for bedtime feed at 6.15/ 6.30

Ah thanks guys - sounds like my instincts are right!

The thing is, he never takes long naps. He pretty much has 45 mins each time. So if he has a nice nap after lunch, it's only 45 mins. Which means he is then awake by 1.15pm. So that's then a really long slog till bedtime. Which is why I have carried on putting him down for a little nap (30 mins) at 4.30pm ish. And he does go to sleep, so I thought he still needed it?

Maybe I should try keeping him up all afternoon and see what happens? Maybe he would start to lengthen that post-lunch nap if he stopped getting one in the early evening?

Last night was typical of recently: had a nap from 4.45-5.25 and then didn't go to bed until 7.30. He then took till 8pm to fall asleep. And then he woke up at 6am this morning, whereas he has been comfortably sleeping from 7.30 - 6.30 before. I wonder if cutting out that late afternoon nap would (a) help him get to sleep better at bedtime and (b) ensure that he is knackered enough to sleep for a good 11 hours??

What do you reckon? Should I try it today??

Ps - just realised: he has just woken up from his post-lunch nap (it's 2pm) and he has had 50 minutes!! A new record long nap!! Do you think a 7monyh old can get through to bedtime from 2pm on a 50 minute nap??

Bot, try it and see what happens but I think he will be fine. BTW my DS1 never napped for longer than 45 mins in the day (always a good night time sleeper) until he was just a bit younger than 1 and had dropped his two other daytime naps...when he started to nap for c. 2 hours every lunchtime. Just happened out of the blue, no idea why! He also dropped his afternoon nap at about the same age as your little one x

My twins had a late afternoon nap until they were 7 months. They couldn't stay up for more than 2 hours at a time (and now at 9 months can only manage 3 hours tops).

They now have a 30 minute morning nap and a 2 hour afternoon nap. We do bedtime at around 5:45/6pm.

My LO does. Last nap today was 1.30-2 and went to bed at 7. Not always easy keeping him happy but he will roll around his cot for half an hour talking to himself till he gets fed up and goes to sleep. When I do let him have a late nap he won't sleep till late at bedtime and still gets up early. He tends to have one good late morning nap and then a short nap at some point. X

Thanks ladies. Here's an update: for the past 2 days I have tried to put a new 'routine' into place with DS, and it seems to be working so far....

wake at 6.30/7ish

9am nap for 45 mins/1hour

1pm nap for 1 hour (hopefully longer, but seem to be only getting an hour out of him atm)

Bath at 6pm, bottle at 6.30pm, asleep just before 7pm.

It is a bit of a long slog to get him through the afternoon from 2pm until bedtime but it does seem possible. I am hoping that if I keep it up for a few days and DS realises he is not going to get the chance to nap late afternoon, maybe he will extend his post lunch nap and have a nice 2 hours so I can finally watch some of those DVD box sets everyone bought me as my mat leave presents....until now, there's been precious little sitting around watching TV going on, ha ha!

well done Bot, so your instincts were spot on! Always a nice feeling (until they through another spanner in the works!!)

Yeah, yesterday it all went to pot cos he woke up so early which brought all his naps forwards. Which meant he ended up going down for his post-lunch nap at 12.30 and only slept till 1.15pm :(

I decided that he couldn't possibly get through from 1.15pm until bedtime without being an unbearable misery so i reverted to the old routine and put him down for an additional nap at 4.10pm. He slept till 4.45pm and was in bed asleep by 7.30pm. Slept through till 0600 this morning so am pleased to see that I can still do an afternoon nap if I need to, and it doesn't seem to interfere with his nighttime sleep.