8 month - 3-2 nap transition

[Lgw20]

What's your routine for your 8 month on two naps?

Our only problem is it seems when we do a 2 nap day he wakes a few hours after bed crying and it lasts for hours. Like he can't handle the wake time.

But then also if we try do a 3rd cat nap he won't sleep! Any advice?

Did any of you suffer from night wakings with this transition.

There's so much that could be going on - sleep regression, teething etc it's so hard to know.

Neither of my DC had a nap routine at that age. They just napped on the go when it suited them. The only rule we had was no naps after 3.30pm so they had a 7pm bed time.

My 8 month old dropped to 2 naps last month. Our day looks like:

7:30 - wake
8:00 - bottle & breakfast
10:30 - nap 1
12:00-12:30 - wake
12:30 - bottle
1:30 - lunch
3/3:30 - nap 2
4:30 - wake & bottle
6:30 - dinner
7:30 - start bedtime routine for sleep by 8

I try to get 3 hours of nap a day, but between 2.5 and 3.5 is good. Also try to keep 3 hours between waking up and sleep.

Also, meant to say, the transition took a few weeks where he would occasionally need a 3rd/power nap in the evening if his day sleep had been poor. Flexibility is really helpful if you can manage it!

Agree that flexibility might be needed for a couple of weeks. If you have a two nap day it might be worth an earlier bedtime just while he adjusts.