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!

[Summerdays2014]

46 minutes in total. Best yet... (Though still rubbish!)

[Cocolocos]

Progress is progress though Summer! 2nd nap just finished here (45-50min). Another early bedtime tonight I guess. She's teething again too - top 2 teeth just about through. If it's not one thing it's another!

[Summerdays2014]

Second nap was only 30 minutes so he's only had an hour and 20 ish all day. Hideously overtired now. Been trying to get him down since 6 and he's just screaming at me. Long given up sitting next to the cot and patting and now husband is trying to get him down. Not good.

[Tumtitum]

Sorry to hear that Summer, that's rubbish :( I hope he is asleep now? I've gone to ridiculous lengths to avoid overtiredness, you saw how early I put her down yesterday!! But in going to try to stop doing that as I don't think putting her down so early is going to help the routine!!
So last night I decided I was going to be very gung ho and tackle night wakings at the same time! I'm undecided about how it went! She still woke a lot but I let her try to soothe herself which she always did eventually... There was quite a lot of awake time though and although I didn't go in and feed her I was awake too so don't feel very rested today! I also felt hideously guilty as when I got up her at half 6 she was obviously very hungry... Still not sure how I'm going to play things tonight, I guess I'll see how it goes!! It's so hot I don't think I could let her cry and not feed her at least once but might try to leave it as long as I can...
Nap wise she's had a good day. Two 1 hr 20 naps. However I'm not sure if this is due to the routine or due to her being awake lots overnight, so tired in the morning, then we went swimming which i think tired her in the afternoon!! I'm not sure what time she was in bed as I left my husband to it, but she was asleep by 7, she woke once before I got home and husband cuddled her back to sleep.
Let's see how tonight goes for all of us! Summer I hope you have a much better day tomorrow now let's all have some

[Tumtitum]

Hope everyone had good nights. We had a bloody amazing night - apart from one wake up shortly after going to sleep (kept her awake until normal bedtime last night) she slept until 6am!!! I'm still pinching myself.... First nap however was a fleeting 25 min wonder... I'm just giving her ten mins to settle herself but I'm not feeling hopeful! Her room is pretty hot so I'm gonna give her the benefit of the doubt... I'm intrigued to see how the rest of today and tonight will go...

[Cocolocos]

What a great night Tum! We had a bad night (she was awake 2-3.30am then up for the day at 6am). Not sure if it's the teething or what. At least this morning she had a great nap from 9-10.20am. We'll see what happens later....

[Tumtitum]

Coco our naps have gone to utter shit today!! Not helped by DH working from home and disturbing her by wandering around yabbing loudly on the phone

[Cocolocos]

Arrgh Tum! I've been finding that a good night leads to a crap day, and a crap day often leads to a better night. So much for sleep leads to more sleep.

[Summerdays2014]

Tum that's amazing well done, bet you felt great this morning. Do you think the night of letting her self soothe helped? Our night was ok, woke about 3 times but went back to sleep straight away with dummy which was meant to have gone by 6 months... Ooops.

Nap one 45 minutes 2.5 hours after waking.

Just gone down for Nap two 4 hours after waking from last nap. Tried to put him down earlier but he wasn't having any of it, he just kept moving around the cot and trying to push up into a crawling position. I wish he would do these exciting things when I'm not trying to get him to sleep!

[Summerdays2014]

Coco, great nap this morning!

[Summerdays2014]

So nap two was 25 minutes. Took me longer to get him to sleep!

[Tumtitum]

Argh Summer I hate that!!! Yes I think it must have been the night of self soothing. Either that or a fluke!! I'm very much hoping it is the former and that this is a lifelong skill!!! Just about to go for a walk to see if she can be persuaded to have a final nap as there's no way she'll make it to bedtime and I don't want to do a ridiculously early bedtime in case she then wakes in the night!!!

[Tumtitum]

40 mins of screaming before bedtime... Even after 3 naps today! I knew I had it too easy last night...!

[Summerdays2014]

We had an hour and 20 Tum! I hope that your night gets better. Fingers crossed its like last night for you. Think I might just go back to 3 half hour naps as this isn't getting any better. Might Start thinking about controlled crying as well. Tum, when you left your little one to self soothe the night before did she cry?

[Tumtitum]

Nope, the night I left her entirely she whinged and shouted a bit but never really cried, nothing like tonight! I was shocked that she suddenly started crying like that tonight!! Very interested/scared about what tonight might bring! Let's hope it's an easy night for all of us!!! (Sorry just realised how much I overuse exclamation marks )

[Tumtitum]

So she woke once in the night and managed to get back to sleep after about twenty mins of intermittent shouting. Woke at 6 so not bad! Naps have been shit again though! I think we're going to have to drop back to three naps again, 3 hours is definitely too long for her to be awake and o think that's making her naps shorter as she's then overtired! I might try again in a few weeks... How are things with everyone else?

[Summerdays2014]

Crap.

Days are crap and nights are crap!!! Sleep in general is a disaster that is getting worse not better. I have given up and let him sleep on me twice today and once in the car seat. Last night he slept with me as well.

I hate that I have become completely obsessed with sleep, it's all I can think about and talk about.

When my son is older and wants a lie in I will take great pleasure in reminding him of these days and being as loud as possible!

[Tumtitum]

Ha ha Summer I know exactly what you mean re the sleep obsession!! Just put DD into bed (with nurofen tonight to rule out teething pain!) and she's shouting a bit so we'll see how tonight goes. Maybe one day we will start threads about more interesting topics!!!

[Cocolocos]

I'm still switching between good and bad days. I just keep hoping it will start to settle down!

[Tumtitum]

Coco good to hear there are good days! we had a good sleep 7-5 but then she wouldn't resettle so got her up at 6. Have tried for two naps since then and each lasted 15 mins all my plans for the day are shot to pieces and she's tired and whingey and I'm exhausted too! Never mind two or three naps, today is probably gonna be about 6!!!

[Cocolocos]

We are also struggling with 5am waking every day. Today she finally went back to sleep at 6am. Not sure if she is genuinely hungry at 5am or if it's just habit - she doesn't feed for long and it doesn't seem to help settle her. Think I might try to wean off the 5am feed by shortening the length of the feed.
Do you think today's short naps are due to teething? Maybe try some ibuprofen an hour before the nap?

[Tumtitum]

I think you might be right it could well be teething. I have her ibuprofen just now before her nap but probably not enough time for it to work. I'll give your suggestion a go for the next nap! :)

[Summerdays2014]

Well... We had a bad night with 2hours of crying before we finally managed to get him to sleep. Woke up 2 or 3 times in the night but settled relatively easily. He was awake at 5 this morning!

He had an hours nap on me this morning, 25 mins in the car and then refused all naps since 12.30! Wouldn't sleep in the cot, on me, in the car, being rocked so I gave up! He was in a surprising good mood all afternoon and had just fallen straight asleep now after his milk. We'll see what tonight brings.

I think from now on I'll be led by him, trying to get him into a 2nap routine has not worked for us at all!

[Tumtitum]

Summer, what is it about 5am that's so attractive to babies?! I'm pretty impressed that he managed all afternoon with no nap and in a good mood! I finally managed to get a 45 minute nap in her cot at lunchtime then I took her out in the sling for an hour later this afternoon. She was still quite grizzly inbetween tho. Just put her into bed now and waiting for her to settle down... We're out and about over the weekend including a couple of long drives so routine is going to be shot to pieces anyway!!

[Summerdays2014]

I don't know Tum, 5am seems to be the magic hour and it's just so hard to get out of bed, especially as it's now dark at that time. I honestly don't know how I'll manage when I go back to work in January... It's got to be better by then, right?

He's already woken up a few times so far, but settled with the dummy.

We are away and staying in a hotel for the first time this weekend. I'm so worried that he's going to be crying all night and wake all the other guests up. Before I has children that would have annoyed me so much. I've learnt to be so much more tolerant since becoming a mum! Good luck for tonight everyone!

P.S as much as I'm sorry we're all having rubbish times with naps, nights and early wake ups, in also so glad to know its not just me and my baby going through it. It helps to know that he's not the only bad sleeper out there, so thanks to all who have posted and made me feel better!