Nearly 7 month nap transition?

[SKA86]

My DS is 7 months next week. Since he turned 6 months he started napping for longer, so I cut his third nap and he currently has 2 long naps (second nap being 1.5-2 hours).

However the past week, he won't nap for longer than 40 mins for his first nap and even his second nap seems a bit unsettled. He doesn't actually even seem that tired when I put him down. His first nap is currently 3 hours after wake up (I know this is long but has always worked fine) and his second around 3-4 hours after his first nap.

This schedule has been fine up until now. What do you think I should tweak?

He wakes up around 6-6.30.

Thanks!

How is his night sleep? Sleeping through? If not, then over tired is the obvious reason.

Also 7 months is still in the age range when resettles are needed at the end of naps - sometimes at the end of every nap, sometimes just at the end of the occasional nap. To get a resettle right you ideally want to get to baby before waking up and then have a settling method that disturbs baby as little as possible. By the time baby wakes (cries or eyes open) its too late and you're unlikely to be able to resettle.

@FATEdestiny he kind of sleeps through the night though he does cry out a few times even though he's asleep as his eyes are closed.

I think sometimes his nap is cut short because he needs a poo, sometimes I go in and he's done a poo when he's woken up 😆. It's just bad timing I guess?

Ah that could be a reason. It's a bit early in weaning to start playing around too much with what they eat when, because at 7 months basically you just want as many different types of food eaten as much as you can. But longer term aim to eat solids early in the awake window, include a big drink and then aim for exercise throughout the rest of awake time. The movement encourages bowel movements so they hopefully come before nap time, not after.

If you're getting 11-12h uninterrupted sleep overnight, it may be that he's moving towards a shorter morning nap to enable a longer (2.5h ish) afternoon nap.

Thanks so much! Funnily he has a very short nap this afternoon which is very odd, so he only had 1 hour 15 mins in total the whole day! He does have a slight cold so maybe is because of that.

I'm learning to appreciate that sleep is very unpredictable and I should just go with the flow some days!

I'm learning to appreciate that sleep is very unpredictable and I should just go with the flow some days!

I agree with this. I've a seven month old and I just let him nap when he's sleepy. Works fine.