When can I drop 3rd nap?

[Tumtitum]

So my DD has always been a nap resister. Her night time sleep varies but at the moment it seems to be asleep by 7, 1/2 wake ups then awake for the day around. 6. A bad day for naps sometimes impacts on her night sleep but other times not. She has her first nap around 2 hours after waking then another 2-3 hours after that. If she's in her cot she generally cries for about ten mins then sleeps. Her naps range from 30-40 mins to 2 hours, although shorter naps are much more the norm! Occasionally she's only had two naps, if she's woken too late from the second to squeeze in a 3rd (she has to be awake from 4 otherwise she takes forever to get to sleep at bedtime). But generally she has a third nap which she FIGHTS. I cannot get her to have it in her cot at all, it has to be in the sling which is getting to be a huge PITA especially if I have been out in the day and need some time at home!! Basically I'm wondering do I just suck it up knowing it won't be much longer until she drops it anyway, or should I do some kind of sleep training around having the third nap in the cot?! She's 7 months. Thanks!

I've been leaving her for 10 min before going in if she wakes early. Mostly she won't go back to sleep but sometimes she does. I'm hoping that she might start to do it more often, and join up her sleep cycles. She can do it, just not consistently!

Also I definitely find that physical activity is a good way to tire them out. I've been for a quiet walk this evening with her in the sling to try and keep her calm, as she was starting to get a bit hyper and over-tired. Good luck tonight and tomorrow!

Coco I do the same, sometimes she does sometimes she doesn't! I've just put her into bed early as she's been awake since 2.20. Currently listening to her shouting from her room... She's not best pleased!!

How's everyone getting on?
We had quite a few wake ups last night but I was able to get her back to sleep (although mostly by feeding ) and she actually stayed in her cot until 7am which is good for us! :)
She slept for an hour 9.20-10.20 then around 1.40 had another nap but only 40 mins... I think the gap between the two naps was too long as she fell asleep feeding again and was visibly knackered... I wonder if I put her down a bit earlier for her second nap she might sleep a bit longer (assuming here that she might not be napping for long because she's overtired??)? So I might try that tomorrow.
I'm going to try to get her into bed for 6/6.30 tonight as there is no way she will make it to 7 without a melt down. She's currently playing very manically with balls in her ball pit, think we have a hyper overtired baby

We've had a pretty good day today with 2x75min naps. I won't count my chickens as no doubt it will all go wrong tomorrow!

Coco that's great and Tum a 1hour nap in the morning is good. We had a bad night-wide awake between 9 and 12 and cried everytine I put him down. Came in with me in the end and slept until 6.30.

1st nap -40 minutes
2nd nap -25 minutes, stopped as soon as the car stopped
Didn't want a 3rd nap but was crying so put him down and he did 30 minutes.
I'm making no progress at all.

Coco that's brilliant, I know what you mean about not counting your chickens though, the amount of times I've got excited thinking she's finally cracked the napping and then she doesn't want to sleep at all!!
Summer that's crap sorry you feel like that :( it's so frustrating isn't it!! And so hard to know whether to persevere for a bit or just go back to the old way!! We are travelling a week on Tuesday so I think I'm going to give it until mid week and if she is struggling then go back to three naps for a while... My main concern is her night sleep really, I don't mind putting her to bed early (although I'm sure I'm going to get lots of stick from my in laws for it when we go away as they already think I put her down super early!!) but if it increases her wake ups then I'll assume she's overtired and needs more naps... Bah it's so difficult!!!
She's just gone to sleep now so let's see how the night goes... I think I'm going to get an early night myself as well just in case!!!!

Oh and to add in to the mix I can see another tooth popping through so that's going to screw the nights probably anyway!!

So frustrating summer. Tum, I hope the tooth doesn't cause too much trouble. I'm wondering what to do in terms of days when we need to go out. E.g. we have a music class one day which means leaving the house at 10am and being out til about 11.30am. Maybe just accept less nap time? I'm thinking she may sleep in the car and bugger up the routine!

Yes it's tricky isn't it!! We have been invited swimming at 10.30 on Tues, if she wakes early and naps early it'll be fine but otherwise I'm considering walking over an hour to get her nap done in the buggy instead

Hope the teething doesn't set you back Tum.

I agree, it's very difficult when you have activities to plan around. The other day I wrote a list of all the things we go to and tried to work out how naps would fit around them. Basically they don't! Whist I really want a routine, I also love getting out to all the classes/groups as it gives me a focus for the day and gets us both out. I've come to the conclusion that it's pretty impossible to fit naps, milk, solids and activities into one day (let alone any type of housework) this is why I'm determined to make these naps longer!

Fingers crossed we all have good nights and good naps tomorrow!

Summer I hear you re trying to fit stuff in!! We also go away a lot visiting family (husbands family not in uk and mine not in London) so I haven't really done much with DD in terms of activities at all, more ad hoc stuff, which I feel quite bad about sometimes! I'm also currently trying to conquer the buggy nap to make it easier to get out and about and get naps in as well! Probably a bit mad trying to do it all at once to be honest!

My friend told me today that her LO has 2x2h naps plus sleeps through 12h at night. FFS

God what a boring baby

Little one slept 3 hours then up twice in the past hour... Settled without feeding though, I think it might be her tooth so just given her some nurofen... Fingers crossed!!

Hope your night got better Tum. We had another bad one that resulted in him coming in with me for the second night in a row. Really don't want to make this a habit and I am meant to be doing gradual withdrawal so not really happy.

1st nap has also been a disaster... He just wouldn't settle so he is now asleep on me and I'm back on the sofa. He's been asleep for 30 minutes so far (often sleeps for an hour on me) so the only positive is that he will hopefully have a longer nap.

How's everyone else doing?

Well he slept for an hour and 20 minutes, which is great. But it was on me, which is not so great!

Summer, it's so annoying isn't it!! Try not to worry about forming habits too much as I'm sure it takes longer than two days, but I know exactly what you mean I worry about it too when I stop and start feeding her etc etc! If it's any consolation sometimes when DD fights naps I really wish that she would sleep on me but she's just as averse to that as to sleeping anywhere else!!! ;)
The rest of the night was better, a few wake ups still where I fed her but I managed to get her to sleep on and off until 7 again which I thought wasn't bad considering she was in bed at 6.15!! Her nap this morning wasn't great as she woke and I had to resettle her and it still wasn't that long... I'm trying the second nap in her buggy to see if I can force it to be a bit longer... We'll see if it works or not!!!

Well that was a dismal failure... She slept for 25 mins, would have slept longer in the cot! I'm refusing to take the blackout shade off and still pushing a very whingey baby... Got a 40 min walk home... no way will she make it to bed time without a nap so I'm going to have to have a late afternoon battle I think as I'm pretty sure a 5pm bedtime would be a disaster!!!

Oh no Tum! We've had mixed success again. 1st nap was an hour and a quarter. 2nd nap, woke just now after 40 min. May need a slightly earlier bed time tonight I guess. I hope your nights go ok Summer and Tum!

Tum that's such a shame. Our second nap was in the cot and he went down on his own in about 5 mins which was great, but only slept for 30. Oh well. Will try again tomorrow.

Well I've just put DD to bed and she's fallen asleep with hardly even a peep!! I was aiming for asleep around 6 so a little early but it's so hard to judge how long they'll take to fall asleep! She managed very well this afternoon considering she's been awake since 1.30, didn't seem all that tired really until I started doing her bedtime routine. She hasn't fed that well though due to being tired I think and I also didn't give her any dinner this evening as she's been struggling a lot with her poos since starting weaning, so I'm sort of anticipating she might wake up hungry at some point
Part of me feels like this isn't really working, her naps haven't got longer, in fact her afternoon nap is getting shorter, and her bedtime is getting ridiculously early, I can't keep this up!! Not really sure how long to persevere... Might see how the next couple of days and nights go and if her nights keep on being so restless I might have to go back to three naps...

Well done for tonight Tum. My son also went down fairly quickly which was nice. I feel the same, naps are not getting longer and I'm just getting more stressed about it all. I will keep going until Saturday when we are going away for a long weekend so naps and evening sleep will be totally changed then anyway! Have a good night everyone (I'm already in bed!)

So frustrated! After a few fairly good days, she is awake again already after a crappy 30 min! No doubt the rest of the day will be spent with a grumpy baby . I hope you have better luck today.

Coco that's such a shame as it was going so well. Hopefully just a one off and you'll get a good long afternoon nap. We had a good night with only 1 wake up. Currently been napping for exactly 38 minutes...