Cap morning nap?

[xmasbaby20]

My DS will be 7 months on Saturday, he has 3 naps a day and I am wondering should I cap his morning nap and aim for a longer afternoon nap..

He usually gets up between 6-6.30am and has a nap 2 hours later, he can nap for around 2 hours at this time. Then in the afternoon he will have about an hour over lunch then 20-30 mins late afternoon. He goes to bed at 7pm and wakes a few times overnight for his dummy, however recently he is waking at 4.30am and it's taking around an hour to settle him back. If we swapped his longer nap for the afternoon would this help with his waking at 4.30am? Or should I just let him sleep as long as he needs during his naps?

My aim would be to have two long naps - both morning and afternoon map as 1.5-2h each. This would be preferable to swapping a long morning nap for a long afternoon nap, so still having only 1 long nap per day.

After your morning nap, I wonder if you're not stretching the awake time enough ready for the second nap, resulting with it being shorter. I'd aim for 2h awake time from morning to AM nap, then 3h awake time between AM and PM nap (to include large, carb/protein heavy meal, plus a full milk feed before the second nap).

Thanks @FATEdestiny I will let him sleep for a long morning nap and try to extend the lunch nap. We usually have 2hr 30mins wake in between so I will stretch that today. Should we still have the late afternoon nap? He has started to fight it the past few days but I don't think he could make it to bedtime without it

I always capped mine at an hour as I then found it more likely that they would have up to 2 in the afternoon. It's all such a minefield!

Should we still have the late afternoon nap?

Yes, I would still have the teatime nap (and later bedtime, if needed) initially. Then if you do manage to establish two long naps, reassess at a later date to see if baby can get through to bedtime (an earlier) without the third nap.

I should add that while my preference would be two 1.5-2h naps and an 11h night (plus teatime powernap while needed), other families work better aiming for a shorter 45 minute morning nap, 2.5h afternoon nap and 12h night (plus teatime power nap while it's needed). Both of these work for a baby this age.

I've always found that long morning naps = early waking.

I would aim for an hour max in the morning and two hours after lunch.
Late afternoon cat nap is fine for now but if it starts to interfere with bedtime you can shorten and drop it.

Thanks all. I do enjoy his long morning nap as I can catch up on a bit of sleep then shower etc in peace 🙊 yesterday I had to get him up after 1 hr 15 mins as we had a sensory class to go to, he then slept 1 hr 45 mins in the afternoon! Still had the 4am wake up but he didn't take as long to go back down again. He woke himself after 1hr 15 mins this morning again, will see how his afternoon nap goes today 🤞