How to implement a daytime nap routine

[Twinklestar2]

My son is 7 months today. He has generally followed the EASY routine and used to have 30 min naps 30 mins before his bottle was due which was great as you always knew where you were!

In the last month his daytime sleep has gone all over the place. Sometimes the morning nap is longer, sometimes the lunchtime nap is 2 hours and sometimes he drops the afternoon nap!

So I don't know where I am anymore!

Would love some advice on how to implement a daytime nap routine for a 7-month old

Sleep routines do change. The only problem here is that you expected it to stay the same. I love the EASY routine because it is so flexible and baby-lead.

For example from 2-3 months my DD was on a 90 minute cycle:

• Eat (takes 15 minutes)
• Activity (for 30 minutes)
• Sleep (for 45 minutes or until wakes)

.. repeated for the whole day.

From 3-5 months my DD was on a 2 hour cycle:

• Eat (takes 15 minutes)
• Activity (for 60 minutes)
• Sleep (for 45 minutes or until wakes)

.. repeated for the whole day.

She is now 5 1/2 months and is just transitioning to fewer, longer naps. This has just been born from her simply staying asleep for longer in the morning.

We now have two main sleeps:

Starting around 9.30am for 2 to 3 hours
Starting around 1.00pm for 2 hours
Sometimes also have an afterschool 45 minute shorter nap, sometimes doesn't.

If I didn't have school aged children (so be tired to the school run) I would say 2-3 hours at 9.30am and 2 hours at 2.00pm would be best for my DD. Just follow your baby's lead, he'll find his own routine.

The problem is that it's different every day! How do I follow his lead whilst trying to bed down a routine?

The transition will take some time. Just go with the flow, it shouldn't take many weeks to settle back into a new routine.

Moving from frequent shorter naps to fewer longer naps is normal development at this age. So try to elongate every nap. Keep resettling your son if possible so that he sleeps for longer in each sleep.

The key then will be figuring out a new feeding routine too, because changing sleep routine also changes feeding routines.

Thanks you Fate

I do try and stretch his naps, we had some lovely 2 hour lunchtime naps last week but they seem to have stopped now and the early morning wakenings have started again! Will keep trying.

Today I gave him 3 hours between naps and he went down a treat! Napped at 8.45 for 45 mins and then12.45-2.15ish. I had a friend round so he didn't nap in the afternoon and was tired at 5 which was too late to naps and managed to stretch him to 7 to sleep for the night

You could try keeping a sleep log on pen and paper or via an app, I've got one called feed baby. Its suprising what patterns you see when you think there are none. Then use the data to decide upon specific nap times

Wake the baby after 45 mins in the morning. This encourages a longer lunchtime nap in most cases. 7 mths is around the time a baby will begin to try to shake off his afternoon nap and this takes his brain and body a bit of getting used to.

Thx both.

I do have an app and he does only sleep for 45 mins in morning now. I have def noticed he sleeps longer when he has a shorter morning nap.

I had to keep going in and resettling him for the lunchtime nap which is why it was a long one. How long should I do that for before he 'gets it' and naturally starts sleeping longer?