Please help me with 7 month old naps/sleep

[ToughTimes]

I don't know what has happened! He used to go down like a dream every 2 hours during the day for naps (3 naps in total), then bedtime 9pm-7am. I realise this is a late bedtime but it's what works for us as a family. He then gets up between 1-3 times a night for a quick bf. However the last few nights, he just doesn't want to nap AT ALL during the day. He plays around in his cot but has no interest in sleeping. Yesterday he went from 2pm-9pm with no naps (despite me spending the best part of 2 hours trying to put him to sleep). He then slept 9-12.30am and woke up raring to go! I put him back to sleep, and he was up for the day at 5am. So he'd had 8 hours sleep in 36 hours!!!

Is there a developmental thing going on? He's not crawling yet so could it be that? I'm exhausted as he's awake ALL day and gets up at night not crying, but chirping away and wanting to play. How can I get him to nap again? Is it normal for babies to drop naps at 7 months (from 3 to 2)?

TIA

My dd dropped a nap around that time. She sleeps 10-11am and 2pm-4pm now, then bed at 8pm. She is up through the night still, but sleeps until 7:30am. She has just turned 8 months.

Same here. LO just 8 months sleeps 7-6 ish with a feed in there at some point. Will go back down 3 hours after getting up and if he has a good 2 hour nap he won't go back down at all in the afternoon. I find telly tubbies on the iPad a huge help lol. Long days with these babies. I remember whe he used to do was sleep and I questioned it lol.

yes, dd started being able to be awake much longer than 2 hours at this stage. try having the morning nap after 2.5 hours awake and next nap after 3 hours awake, then no afternoon nap? might need an earlier bedtime though.

Thank you all.. I shall try extending the times between his naps and see what happens. I just can't believe till a few days ago he was happily having his naps, and reasonable night time sleep but it's all gone to pot so suddenly... This coupled with a boisterous toddler and I'm exhausted...

My 7mo has been a bit funny with sleep recently, not sleeping through when he has been previously and being hard work to get to sleep in the day then sleeping for hours and hours when he does go down, I'm just putting it down to his age and letting him go with the flow and hoping it all settles down soon.

Agree about extending times between naps. DS all of a sudden has decided he can stay awake longer than 2 hours when he turned 7mo.

So if your DC is not tired enough that's probably why he is not napping when you put him down.

Our routine now is:

Wake up 0630

Nap 0845 (for around 45 mins)

Nap 1pm (for 90 mins, 2 hours if I am lucky!)

Then he is awake from 2.30pm until his 7pm bedtime.

So he is awake 2.5 hours before his first nap, 3.5 hours until his post lunch nap, and then awake all afternoon until bedtime.

It took me a week or so to get my head round this change, as previously he had been doing an 'awake 2 hours then a 30 minute nap' pattern throughout the day since about 3 months old!

Enjoy the longer naps you might get, once your LO stays awake longer in between them! I am loving having 90 mins every lunch to read Game of Thrones whilst lying on my sofa get some housework done :)