7 month old wake/nap times

[LMac502]

Hello
I’ve already had some decent advice on here so thought I’d ask for more!
My 7 month old currently gets up between 6 and 7am, first nap is around 9 for 45-60 mins, second nap is around 1230 and varies from 45 mins to 90 mins, with a last nap squeezed in before 445pm. The last is usually out in the pram, sometimes in the cot and can be anything between 15 and 30 minutes.
The morning nap she sleeps great, and 9/10 I have to wake her. Then the lunchtime one, she usually wakes after 1 sleep cycle and we have to shush her back to sleep. Sometimes it’s a bit of a battle.
Bedtime is 7pm, she sleeps relatively well, although lately when she wakes for her night feed between 2 and 3am, she’s awake for a long time, around an hour or more, feeding only takes around 10 mins as she’s breastfed for that feed. She also has a dream feed around 1030pm.
She’s quite crabbit lately, which I know could be a number of things (weaning on solids, now mixed fed, hot weather etc) but I feel like it’s due to broken sleep.
So, my questions are;

1. should I let her sleep longer in the morning
2. am I leaving her awake too long? Sometimes it’s a struggle to keep her awake to morning nap
3. Should I be trying to transition to 2 naps? In an ideal world I’d like her to sleep til 7am, but I know 7pm-6am-ish is good. She goes down awake, has a dummy and was exclusively breastfed until about 2-3 weeks ago, so now is bottle fed formula during the day, and breast at night (with last feed before bed being expressed breastmilk).

Thanks x

Yes, I'd let her sleep longer in her morning (and lunchtime) nap.

Sounds like she's ready to transition to 2-nap days. An approximation for awake windows for 2-nap days are 234. So 2h from morning wake up to first nap - leave to sleep as long as possible. Then check the clock when she wakes and aim to have her back to sleep 3h after waking (factor in settling time, so maybe start getting her to sleep after 2h30m so she's asleep within the 3h awake window).

Then you judge your day based on the final 4h awake window. You might be able to stretch this to 5h but I wouldn't go much longer. So if your two naps were short then you may have a much longer gap through to bedtime - this tells you today needs to be a 3-nap day. So cut awake time to about 3h and have a short teatime power nap.

But if your two main naps are longer, by the time baby wakes from second nap try to power through to bedtime without a third nap. This might mean an earlier bedtime - aim for about 4h awake time through to bedtime on 2-nap days.

One small extra bit. You didn't ask about it but might be worth mentioning that st this age you could try for night weaning too. If you have an alternate settling methods (dummy) then you might find long term benefits from st least trying to resettle baby without feeding in the night. You can always feed if resetting isn't happening. But by this pint I'd be consistantly trying yo resettle instead of feeding at night.

www.weebeedreaming.com/my-blog/sample-schedule-4-months-up

Followed this to a T with my son. Would also recommend huckleberry app it will work it all out for you.

I agree with PP. I’ve just transitioned my 7 month old to 2 naps a day which is working well.
Wakes up between 6-7am (usually closer to 7) nap at 9 for at least 1.5 hrs.
Next nap at 1pm until at least 3 and then awake until bedtime at 7pm. It might take a few days for baby to get used to this!

Hi. I have a 7 month old and he now has two naps a day. Our day looks like this:
5am: Feed and back down in cot (has on occasions skipped this and gone through to 7. Will feed him at 7 then instead)
6am-7.30am- wakes up at some point during this time.
9am-9.30am Feed, cuddles, story then in cot when showing signs of being drowsy
Naps until between 10.30 and 11am. I used to wake him when he was on a three nap day by 10.30 but now I just let him go as long as he wants.
Depending on when he woke he will have his second nap starting between 1.30 pm and 2.30 pm. He gets up anywhere between 3 and 4pm.
Bedtime routine starts at 6.30 and he is usually asleep by between 7 and 7.30pm. He then sleeps until 5am.
We transitioned to 2 naps at about 6 and half months. This is early for some babies but seemed right for him. He does on occasion have three naps- squeezing one in around 4.30 if his other 2 naps have been short but that happens about once a week. I found that the third nap was getting harder to get in and the usual tricks to get him off to sleep at that time (going for a walk, cuddles in dark room or going for drive no longer worked).

Hope that helps.

Sorry usual tricks didn’t work.

Thanks very much for the replies everyone, this is really helpful and kind of what I thought would be the case.
@FATEdestiny I was going to mention the night feed and weaning, but figured I was asking a lot already But yes, definitely want to work at getting rid of that when I can. Would you keep the dream feed? I’m happy to, just asking out of interest. Sometimes she wakes before it, sometimes sleeps right through.

The dream feed need not be an "all or nothing" - it can come and go as you see fit. It would be fine to try a week without it, see what happens then bring it back. Maybe trial another again at a later date.

First focus on the ability to resettle baby without feeding. Once you've mastered that, then see what happens if you don't give the dream feed.

Thanks @FATEdestiny, will give it a go

@FATEdestiny sorry to come back to you with another question, I feel like you should be charging me for your consultation
The two naps are working well, maybe a little too well. In the morning, she will have over 2 hours without fail, first day 2hrs 25. Next two days I’ve woken her at 2 hours as I’m scared it’ll impact negatively elsewhere.
She does well getting to the next nap 3 hours later, though quite cranky for the last 15-30 minutes. This nap varies a little, but is usually at least 90 minutes. She’s then awake 3.5-4 hours before bed, she’s usually pretty cranky in this wake time, particularly the last hour.
Trouble is, she’s now waking twice a night and/or before 6am. Should I regulate the naps so she’s having less day sleep? Or keep going with it til it beds in more?

Thanks

The long naps could be baby catching up, to overcome over tiredness. Plus, it takes a while to settle into a new routine (I usually say to allow 3 weeks), so at one week in you are still in early days.

I wouldn't have a problem with 2h plus naps. My youngest when she moved to 2-nap days would sleep 2h morning and 2h lunchtime every day - she stayed on two naps right through until 20/22 months old. Your DD is still settling in to this, just persevere.

Remember the 234 is just a guide. Use it to find what works for your DD rather than a gospel you must follow. If she's consistantly getting cranky sooner than she's "supposed to", then make awake time less. It might be that 225 works better for your DD, or 2.5/2.5/4 - or whatever works.

I found it easier once we moved to longer 2-nap days to start a "by the clock" routine. Because I had school aged older children, mine had to be based around needing to leave the house for school runs. So I did:
7am wake up if not already awake
(2h awake time in which was breakfast)
9am nap
11am wake - usually had to wake her
(2h awake time in which was lunch)
1pm nap
3pm wake - usually had to wake her
(5h awake time)
8pm bedtime
(11h over night sleep. Was not sleeping through at 7m but was night weaned. Wakes dealt with by quick dummy / hand on chest resettles, no more than 5-10 mins awake at a time)

Regarding night wakes - limiting daytime sleep us not the way to solve these. In fact if over tired from lack of daytime sleep you'll end up with a more unsettled night.

Are you night weaning? Your night wakes are more to do with the habits in place to get baby to sleep. If baby is used to needing a full tummy and/or feeding to sleep in order to resettle then it creates problems between sleep cycles. You could do with completely separating feeding and sleeping and instead have an in-cot method to go from fully awake to fully asleep.

@FATEdestiny thanks so much for the response. If you’re not a sleep consultant, you should definitely consider a career change- I would highly recommend you!
That’s very reassuring about the naps, and today she actually slept a bit less but that was more to do with hubby putting her down a lot later than I asked while I was out a run

I am night weaning (following your suggestion previously) and have already cut it right down and now just getting rid of the last one. She’s kind of doing that herself to be fair as she’s refused a feed a few times now. She uses a dummy and always goes down awake for naps and bedtime, so just working on that night wake.

Thanks again, really appreciate it