7 months and 3-2 nap transition

[LCF2021]

My DD is a few days shy of 7 months now and over the last week she’s been napping much longer meaning no time to fit in a 3rd nap.Nights can still sometimes be hit and miss. She’s never slept through (we had 2 months of hourly wakes 😵‍💫) and generally now only wakes once for a feed but can be moaning on and off from 6am. I tend to leave her unless she’s properly crying and she usually settles back off to sleep for a little bit.
With my DS I was too terrified of stretching his awake times for fear of causing overtiredness so he had 3 naps until almost 10 months. DD seems young to drop the 3rd one (this week she’s had 3 days with 2 naps and the rest has included a 20 min 3rd nap).

I’d love to know your 7 month old routines. She’s generally doing:
9.15am Nap for 1.5 hours
1.30pm Nap for 1.5-2 hours (can sometimes wake after 1 hour in which case I try to squeeze a 3rd in)
Bed 6.45pm (but would love to move this closer to 7.15pm to fit in with DS)

My lo at 7 months was doing.

9 till 10 I would wake. Or no time for 3rd nap.
1230 or 1 to 2 or 230pm
445 to 5. Awake by 515 to 530
8pm bed

I think what you doing is right, tbh. If you want a slightly later bedtime, You could do something like

930am till 11am
2pm till 330pm or 4pm.

Bedtime can be between 7 pm and 8 pm, depending on wake-up time.

@ChittyBang1987 Thank you! I’m hoping it’ll just be a couple of weeks of some 2 and some 3 nap days as I can’t wait for the 3rd nap to go!

My baby is the same age and still has four naps most days as two are usually 20-30 minute cat naps (because I put her down) and two are longer contact naps/pushchair/car. They're so different aren't they!

Yes, it likely will be 2 naps soon! I think it was shy of 8 months for our lo at 2 naps we did
945am till 11am
2pm till when she woke never later then 4pm.
730 to 8 bed.

I can't take credit for sleep routine I went roughly by huckleberry.

Every lo is different. 😆 🤣 some will drop to 1 nap by 12months

Well today she only managed 40 mins in the morning which is unusual for her so let’s see how she goes with her lunchtime nap. I find it so much easier once they drop to one nap!

Then, I would have added a 3rd cat nap in. But that's me.
.Out of interest, what time did you put your lo down for first nap?

@ChittyBang1987 She woke at 7.20am for the day and I put her down at 9.30am for her nap. I’ve generally been doing 2ish hours awake in the morning and for the last couple of weeks she’s napped 1.5 hours. Gave her a 30 min 3rd nap yesterday but I should have pushed bedtime a good 20 mins later as she took forever to settle. To be honest I’d had a tough day with both kids so just wanted to get them into bed!!

I think 2 hours is about right at this age, for the first nap. Though if keeps happening, I would consider lengthening the wake times potentially.

Hahaha, yes, it's hard, isn't it? You want them in bed as you have had enough, but their undertired.

I would have a look at huckleberry on Google, just type in 7-month sleep routine huckleberry. It looks quite good for two naps. My lo never did it as she wanted 3 naps.