Dropping third nap

[sleephelpp]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of advice on naps.

DS is 8 months old. We tried to drop to two naps, as his naps were lengthening and we were finding it hard to fit in a third nap.

When we dropped to 2 naps, bedtime became hard work- he was really fighting sleep and taking ages to go down. Then waking up half hour later. He also started waking at 5am for the day.

We went back to three naps and that solved the early starts and made bedtime easy again.

However he is now really, really fighting the third nap. Do I drop to 2 naps again? How do I solve the false starts/early wakes?

Thanks in advance!

Hi @sleephelpp im no expert but I also have an 8 month old. Do you have a routine or schedule?
I think if they are fighting the third nap then drop to 2 but keep it as you will assess on each day depending on when nap 2 finishes

example for my daughter is she usually naps 9:30-11 then again 1:30/2-3:30 and bed 7ish
but yesterday I had to wake her from nap 2 so she napped 1:45-2:30 and therefore at 5 she was tired so she had 40 mins then and bed 8pm instead.

personally I found the third nap was always a bit challenging and switching to 2 even as a trial made sense if they are fighting nap 3. I did find initially on 2 nap schedule bedtime had to be abit earlier as she was tired which I sort of managed by effectively starting the bedtime routine earlier but just sitting and cuddling holding until bedtime at 7. As otherwise I know we would have had early wakes which would perpetuate early naps and then early bed again.

good luck! I do think being flexible and judging each day when you’re transitioning naps is easiest.