Spreading naps out too far

[dycey]

Just wondering if anyone can advise me?

DS is 8 months and has amazing stamina and seems to need little sleep. He only has 10 hours at night and clocks up 3 hours in the day. Trouble is he now wants to be awake for hours between his two naps.

This morning he got up at 5.45, napped from 9.30 to 11am and then was full of beans and wide awake til 4.45.... Seems too late to me if I want him to sleep at 8, especially if he sleeps another 1.5 hours now.

Any experienced nap controllers out there? Should I wake him from his morning nap? I have always just followed his lead over everything....

He settles v easily with a cuddle if he is tired. If he isn't tired then I can't do anything! Do they just cut down on day time sleep at this age?

Wonder what anyone thinks?

Does he go off easily in pushchair if tired? I walk mine up and down road to get to sleep...

DD went to just one nap a day when she was 8 months old. Mind, it was a longish nap (up to 2.5 hours), but still, just one a day!
Yes, sounds like normal development.
You could limit the length of both his naps (so he'll nap sooner in the afternoons, and not go to bed too late).

Ideally you'd skip morning nap altogether, but I know that's easier said than done; my 20 month old does one big nap, today it was 8:45am-10:45am.

Dycey

I've generally limited my DS's morning nap - at 8 months I think he was having about 30 minutes at about 09:15. If he was really tired I would let him go until 10. He would then nap again at 12:30 and I would wake him after 2 hours so that he was tired again by 7. In total he had about 14.5 hours sleep. It sounds like your little one might need a bit less so you could try a 1.5 hour lunchtime nap depending on if you want him to sleep longer at night or during the day.

Mine is nearly 14 months and still usually has 2 naps but he is extremely energetic and it sounds like he needs a bit more sleep than your DS. Maybe yours could go to one nap but he might be better having 2 shorter naps. You could try a couple of different things to see what works best for you both.

Thanks clop and fullmoonmarmite - I think he must be heading to having only one nap but not there yet. Funnily enough he woke at 6pm and was still ready for bed at 8pm so maybe it doesn't matter - the late nap?

I will experiment a bit and see what happens. Only thing is, if he has a short am nap then he tends to have a short pm nap - generally.

Have moved his bedtime to 8 instead of 7 and it has got him to waking at 6am instead of 5am - so experimenting works!

www.babywhisperer.com talkboard is a great place for experts on nap timings. I would say 8m is a bit too young to drop to just one nap.

dycey my 12 month old does that. He'll nap at 3 or 4 or as late as 4.30 for his afternoon nap, for between 30-60 minutes and he's still tired by 7pm, most of the time by 6.30pm for bed, waking between 5.30-6.30am (usually closer to 5.30, but we both work ft so like the early start anyway as it means we get to play with him a bit in the morning). Loads of books make you scared to let them sleep past 4pm for fear that they won't sleep at night, but I think that's rubbish for some babies. Certainly is in our case! Do what works for your baby. I just put my baby to bed when he's tired.

Thanks flimflammum - sure you are right that he's too young for one nap. He just wants to be awake for a long time... fair enought, life's interesting!

Thanks also star6, books are really quite unhelpful aren't they? I wish I had never bought any baby books. Glad to hear yours does something similar. I was thinking that about the early rising - good when am back at work as gives us time together.

Sometimes it's hard having a baby who does his own thing when all the babies he knows are GF routine children - often means we can't fit with meeting up and playgroups because he sleeps at odd times!

oh yes, dycey - I know how that goes. But GF babies are the rigid ones! We tried GF for a week but it was just horrendous. tbh I can't see DS (nearly 13 months now ) going to just one nap anytime soon. And he does seem to love that 3 or 4pm (forbidden by GF!) nap... sometimes he does nap earlier in the afternoon but not often unless we're in the car for a distance. However, a lot of babies on my PN thread sleep loads less than he does (none are GF babies, I don't think) and are also perfectly happy "different strokes for different folks" - someone recently said that to me.