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What age did you drop the third nap?

17 replies

Lemondrop99 · 28/03/2018 20:40

My baby is almost 6 months old. He’s been fighting the third nap for the last month. I hate it and I can’t wait for it to go. He settled well for him morning and lunch nap and night time, it’s just the third one he fights nail and tooth.

The thing is, I think he still needs it. He’s often tired after just 2 hrs awake, although can go to 2.5 hrs. Dropping the third nap is a huge jump (even if I bring bedtime forward, it’s stilk about 3.5 hrs awake). When I do get him to sleep, he conks right out.

A few weeks ago he refused the nap two days in a row. Both times he was bolt awake between 3-5am then up for the day at 6. Now I’m terrified he’ll do that again.

All the usual stuff isn’t effective with him. Nothing works. He won’t feed to sleeping and won’t nap on the go (sling/car/pram). He likes to be in his cot and I usually can get him to back but after 30 mins feeding him first then 30 mins battle. It’s awful.

Today he point blank refused his nap. It all went a bit wrong and by the time he was actually asleep in bed, he’d been awake over 4hrs!! Thankfully he actually seemed chipper enough but let’s see what the night holds.... It’s frustrating as only in the last week have we started to have reasonably good sleep at night.

I don’t know whether to test dropping the nap for a few days (but fear ruining our recently improved nights) or whether to persevere (on the grounds that he can usually only be awake 2-2.5 hrs).

What she did you drop it successfully?

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keepitgoing · 28/03/2018 21:06

Not till 9m but he was only doing short days. 6m is not unreasonable. I certainly wouldn't persevere if it takes 30mins feed and 30mins struggle! Just space the other two naps out a bit and maybe take him for a walk late pm, even if he doesn't sleep he might zone out and rest a bit

keepitgoing · 28/03/2018 21:08

*short naps

Lemondrop99 · 28/03/2018 21:11

Thanks. Mine averages 40 mins in the morning. He sometimes wants to sleep longer (which would be preferable if we went to 2 naps) but not reliably. Luckily he tends to be pretty good at doing roughly 2hrs at lunch time. It’s mainly the length of the awake time between lunch and bed that concerns me and the impact of that overtiredness on the night and morning wake up time.

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RoryHatesCoffee · 28/03/2018 21:21

Six months after using a sleep consultant. I thought he was tired really quickly and needed more naps but within a day or two he was sleeping better at night and so sleeping better for his naps and so better at night and so on...

We worked to:

7am wake up
9.30am nap 1 (45m)
1pm nap 2 (2 hours)
7.15pm bedtime

We very rarely get a full 2 hours even now at 9 months but it works pretty well in general.

Lemondrop99 · 29/03/2018 12:55

So you’re almost on the 2-3-4 structure?

Well last night was ok in the end. Only one wake and almost slept till 7, so definitely wasn’t as bad as I feared! Still going to aim for three naps today but if we fail again, I’ll try a few days of dropping it.

Anyone else? When did you manage to drop it?

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wintertravel1980 · 29/03/2018 13:04

6.5 months. I was also not convinced DD was ready but it worked very well. It turned out DD was perfectly capable of handling 4 hours awake time just before bedtime. It took about 3 days to adjust but we never needed to go back to 3 naps after we had switched to a 2 nap schedule.

We did:

  • 6.30/7am - awake
  • 9.00-9.30/9.40am - nap 1
  • 12.30/12.45-3pm - nap 2
  • 7pm - bed
LiquoriceTea · 29/03/2018 13:05

I don't think I knew when my baby's third nap was ! It changed at least weekly as we went with when it suited them/us!

childmindingmumof3 · 29/03/2018 13:30

My 6 month old usually has 2 long naps for 3 short. If she wakes from the second long nap before 3pm though she sometimes needs a 10 minute power nap about 5.

usercantsleep · 29/03/2018 13:37

I think if you're pretty much sleeping through with only one wake up at 6 months then just continue doing what you're doing!

GnotherGnu · 29/03/2018 13:41

Third nap? What luxury is this? It's not a concept that was ever known to my children.

childmindingmumof3 · 29/03/2018 13:58

Mine need 4+ naps up to 4 months! Short naps and couldn't stay awake more than an hour or two at a time.

Lemondrop99 · 29/03/2018 14:07

Thanks all

User, that’s literally only been the case for the last 10 days!!! We’ve been having multiple wakes and terrible nights ever since he was born. The fact they we’re just settling into better nights for the first time ever is one reason I’m scared to change!

Winter, your post is interesting as I imagine that’s about the nap structure mine would naturally do.

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Lemondrop99 · 30/03/2018 00:13

We got the third nap in today but accident why DS decided to take an unprecedented nap in the pushchair on the way home!! So that meant I had to keep walking in the rain for half an hour Shock Every time I’ve tried to plan a nap in the pushchair, he point blank refuses.

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prettypaws · 30/03/2018 00:29

Things always change. If possible try not to over analyse, and go with the flow. I had DC who was the same. Following sleep cues and being flexible is the best thing you can do.

BackforGood · 30/03/2018 01:01

Third nap? What luxury is this? It's not a concept that was ever known to my children. Grin

Agree GnotherGnu - that is just what I was thinking! I mean it is a long time since mine were small, but I don't ever recall any of them having 3 sleeps in the day!

WineandDine · 30/03/2018 08:44

Before 6m. Think it was around 5m as lunchtime sleep was short and DS was a very awake baby. No overtiredness problems and he slept through consistently. We used to do an early bedtime if lunchtime sleep had been short or disturbed.

Lemondrop99 · 30/03/2018 17:11

Overtiredness is definitely a problem for my lad. He’s ridiculously sensitive with his sleep needs. I would love to just go with the flow but it was only after 12 weeks of hysterical screaming that I finally realised that he needed a lot of help with his sleep and couldn’t be trusted to just flake out when tired. He’s been a lot happier since I’ve been more focused on his naps. I fear going back to the hysterics 😱

He did a random nap in his pram yesterday! Which he never does! So I ended up walking in the rain for 40 mins until he was finished 😩

Today we’re on nap reversal. Lunch nap went wrong so now he’s having a massive third nap as a catch up (but didn’t go down without a protest despite being totally exhausted!)

I don’t think he’s ready for it to go entirely, but equally I’m not going to force the issue if he’s clearly not settling so I think we’ll have some mixed days going forward until he’s ready to ditch it.

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