Awake time or set nap time?

[emmajack87]

Hi my daughter is now 7 months old, just wondering if she should have a set nap time? At the moment she wakes every day at different times, between 6:00am and 7:00am. She usually has a sleep after about 2.5 hours of wake time.
She usually has a morning nap and afternoon nap but then it seems a long time until bed time as she never seems to squeeze a late afternoon nap in?

Any help/advice?

It's not clear from your post whether or not you think there is a problem. Do you think baby needs more sleep? Or is it that you think she 'should' have three naps a day!?
If she's happy and healthy and sleeping well at night I wouldn't try to change anything as her rhythm will change when she gets more mobile.

A by-the-clock routine has always developed naturally in my experience. However for the to develop it does need a set wake up time in the morning.

Because I have school age children and DH gets up to go to work, our whole house gets up around the same time every day, which includes getting baby up (if not already woken by the commotion as 3 older siblings and both parents get up).

By having a set morning time, it means that the 2h30m awake time to first nap is also always at the same time. Then the timing of other naps depends on the lengths of those naps and awake time between. But I've always found that give it time and you start to notice by-the-clock routines developing (like, she's usually ready for second nap between 12.30-1pm, for example).

Im not one for forcing a by the clock routine, but I am a naturally routine fan so I find as patterns develop in a baby led way, I reaffirm them to keep the routine going.

It's really up to you to be honest and what works for you. Set nap time doesn't work for me as I'm totally unorganised and don't know what I'm going to be doing from one day to the next. I go by awake time (2 hrs for us). She is a happy baby

Sorry! Re-reading my post it is a bit waffly!
Just wondering what other babies this age tend to do? She's starting nursery soon so thought a set nap time would be easier to tell the ladies rather than just saying put her down when she looks tired, as they don't know her like I do.

Night sleep is good, usually asleep 7:15/7:30pm and rises between 6:00/7:00am. So can't complain there!

Just feel the mornings are ok, nap/routine wise just seems not to follow the same 2.5hr of awake time from then on?

Once you're on 2-nap days, a 234 (hours of awake time) is a good approximation. It's assuming 3-4h of daytime napping over those 2 naps though.

So first nap 2h after waking, second nap 3h after waking from first nap, bedtime 4h after waking from second nap.

@FATEdestiny that's a good idea, definitely worth trying thanks for the suggestion.
Hopefully we can find things to do in the 4 hour awake period before bed!

My DD dropped her late afternoon catnap at around 6.5-7 months. I was also a bit worried about the long awake time before bed but she was absolutely fine with it.

We ended up with something like 2.5 - 2.5 - 4 hours awake time (which is also a version of a 2-3-4 routine).

@wintertravel1980 thanks for your response! Good to know it works for you too I was thinking she would need a nap about tea time but then never seem to get one in. Plus it seems daft to put her to bed only to get her up, then start bedtime routine and put her to bed again! Wondered if bedtime should be a little earlier to compensate? She's usually asleep for 7:30pm now x

We did 225, so a really long before bed awake time. This because naps had to be fitted around my school runs, so it was the only realistic option that worked. Ours was 9-11am and 1-3pm naps (woken from both naps) and 8pm-7am night. That's not the "right answer", it's just what worked best for our already established household routine.

Third nap dropped by 7 months and 2-nap days maintained right through until 20-22 months old, when we dropped to a single nap. 234 is just meant as an approximate, find something that works for your family.

Crossed post

I was thinking she would need a nap about tea time

Does she need the third nap still? It's ok if she does. We were doing 3 nap days from 5-7 months and some babies will keep that third nap longer.

Because I had established 2h awake times, I just sort-of guaged if the teatime nap was needed on an ad-hoc basis. I did this as non-cot nap (in bouncer downstairs) so that it stayed a short power nap. So I kept 9-11am and 1-3pm nap, then if needed DD would have a teatime power nap in the bouncer about 5pm (2h awake time maintained from earlier in the day) for 30-60 minutes. That gave me a 2222 awake time structure for 3-nap days.

@FATEdestiny
Like you say, she maybe needs the late afternoon nap sometimes but not always? Depends on how the other naps have gone.
Sounds like you had a good sleeper? Having to wake my daughter from naps never happens!
I suppose I need to realise there's no set rules and to do what seems right on the day.
I've just put my bouncer in the loft as she wasn't keen on sitting in it, maybe I should get it down and see if she would have a rest or nap in it.