Starting 3 naps a day question

Ho
I have 7. 5 month old twins who have been taking 4 naps since they were probably 3 months old. Recently I've tried them on a three nap schedule and it seemed to be okay, granted they slept at least an hour for each nap.
My question is what do you do if your child takes a shorter nap like 30 or 45 min? Do you keep them up longer so they still do three naps or do you do an extra nap?

So for the three nap schedule I do something like:
7 am wake up
830 till 930 or 10 nap
12 or 1230 till 1 or 130 second nap
330 till 430 third nap
Bedtime 630 ish

But when their first nap is only a half hour I can't keep them up from 9 am till 12 as they are obviously tired.

This is the third day of the three nap schedule and I rest know they aren't always getting three hrs a day of sleep and last night dd woke up at 9 pm which she never does so am not sure if they are over tired because I'm extending their wake up time from 2 hours to 2.5 hours?

 

At 7.5 months we were already working toward a 2 nap schedule (2 hours each at 10.30/11am and 2.30 pm if I remember correctly) with a short morning catnap for any baby who needed it (not in the crib, not with the whole nap routine). So mine were fine going 2.5 to 3 hours during the day, but their naps were longer.

If your babies cut short their morning nap you could either have an earlier second nap and hope they nap longer for that (do they catch up if one nap was shorter?) or give them the opportunity for a short extra nap before lunch. My preference was for longer naps and I worked quite a bit with my babies to soothe them through the transition from one sleep cycle to the next. Waking up after 30-45 minutes sounds to me like your babies are waking after the first sleep cycle and not moving into a second one. For longer naps (1.5 hours and more) they will need to learn to sleep through the transition into the next sleep cycle.

 

My LOs were late to make sleep transitions, like yours.. the good news.. from what i can tell, it also means they are going to keep their nap until they are older! so hoping that is true. I really like my afternoon down time!

For a while going to 3 naps we played each day by ear. if the first nap was good we did 3, if not we did 4... those days i was really grumpy. I got spoiled with the less nap idea fast.
It wasn't worth it for me to try to stretch their awake time. they are such GOOD kids when rested and soo not easy to deal with when tired.

I did find that i had to teach DS to move through his sleep transitions so that he would sleep longer. I know some moms can go in just before or as they are stirring and sooth them back to sleep. That never worked for me. they saw me they were up. I had to let DS cry it out. when he would wake at the 45 minute mark i would watch the clock. I let him cry 30 minutes before i would get him. sometimes he would go back to sleep, sometimes not. Eventually, he learned to sleep longer.
I hated hearing him cry but it was so worth it.. to have longer naps and a rested baby.

After a while, he would still wake if he was behind on sleep but he would only fuss, not cry. I would let him fuss for 45 minutes.
I would put him down for the next nap at the same time as DD. I figured if he was waking early he was over tired and would benefit from a nap sooner than later.

Good luck...
I use to get on TS when he was fussing.. made me feel less alone.

 

Thanks daisies
DD has to get three hours or more in a day or else she'll wake up more at night and wake up early. DS doesn't seem to mind the three naps a day as he will sleep more than three hours per day. I do have to let them CIO to get them into their next sleep cycle and they usually go in it as early as 5 min or as long ad 25 minutes. I only CIO if they wake at the 30 or 45 min mark but not at the hour mark.

DH notices DD more hyper during bed time bottle feeding ever since we moved to three naps- maybe she's over tired? Not sure yet bc she's teething and is more irritable and full of beans

 

Do you have my kid?? lol
yep i get the more hyper when tired! you should see my DD bounce off the walls when she is tired. she is running circles around the room and slamming into the couch and falling down and laughing. I say.. 'she is tired' and people look at me like i have three heads !! It makes soothing really hard. He might try dimming the lights during that last bottle to give her the 'going to bed' soon cue... sometimes that helped my DD.
The change is going to make them somewhat tired.. the same way jet lag makes you tired even if you get the right number of hours of sleep. Get them the sleep you can and then just get through it. Transitions are always rough.

That is what i did too. he would not go back to sleep if he had slept for an hour.

 

So my LO's have been on a three nap schedule for about a week or week and half and am wondering if their behaviour is due to lack of sleep or being overtired (are these two different concepts or just the same?)

DD cries when I put her down for her naps. Before the transition to three naps she never cried going down and especially never cried for her first nap. But right before I transitioned her she was crying when I put her down so i thought maybe she's teething as DS has two teeth. So I felt comfortable moving to a three nap schedule.

I also thinks she wants to be awake and is learning to crawl and doesn't want to nap even though she's tired. Most times she'll sleep an hour but other times its only 30 min and shell wake and cry.

DS likes to sleep and has always fusses when being put down but he's been needy lately but not sure if its bc if three naps or seperation anxiety or teething?

Both their night sleep aren't being affected...yet

 

All of those things.. fussing when going down, more needy when awake could be many things. Being over tired is certainly a possibility. It is also likely that they are getting ready to make a big developmental step (like crawling). Babies often get more fussy just before they learn new skills.
Throw teething into the mix and sometimes it is just hard to tell the cause and often they all kind of compound each other. I handled all those things by managing their sleep as best i could. The rest will take care of itself... they will be less frustrated once they can do that new skill (crawl, sit, roll), they will adjust to the new schedule, the tooth will come in and stop hurting...

Is 7.5 months their adjusted age?
They should be developmentally ready for 3 naps. Still the change can make them tired until they get use to it. At one week they could still be adapting to the new schedule. As long as their night sleep stays good and their naps aren't getting shorter and shorter i would keep the 3 nap schedule.

You might try a 4-nap day every once in a while if you think it is lack sleep. (I think we did one day of 4-naps every 5 or 6 days or so. It acted like a re-boot and they were good to go for a while.) If the day of 4 naps decreases the fussiness then you know it is about sleep. You can also try an earlier bed time, especially if their night sleep is good. this is a good way to catch-up when naps are short. (no lie, we did 5:30 bed times for a long time, wakeup time was always 6:30am. i had to talk myself into those early bed times.. still hard to believe anyone can fall asleep at 5:30 and sleep for 13 hours. every once in a while when everything had gone to hello i put them down at 5:00 - instant improvement.)
All of our sleep transitions have been made smoother (not smooth) by moving bed time earlier until they got use to the new schedule.

Short naps are tough. keep working on getting them to move through into the second sleep cycle. Keep track of hours of day/night sleep and use their good night sleep to help them stay rested.

 

During the first yr, my kids always followed 90 min window schedule. Basically, from wake up to nap was 90 mins, even though they didn't look tired/sleepy. And we sleep trained around 5.5 months. So after 90 mins of being awake, we put them in cribs, gave kisses/hugs said 99, walked out, closed door. If I remember correctly, their naps were always around 60-90-120 mins. When they woke up and whined, I always waited 5 mins before I came in got them. Many times, thy went right back to sleep. They slept alot. But the more thy slept, the less fussy they were. Some days, they even got sleepy after only 60 mins

Many kids don't show obvious tired/sleepy signs. But when they start showing some, it's way too late. And when they are too tired/sleepy, they will have hard time to fall asleep themselves and won't sleep well enough, then tired later on.

Personally, I would let them take the lead. If they are happy with 3 naps, then they have new schedule. If not, then 4 naps then. But I would do strict schedule (everyday same nap time -/+ only 5-15 mins).

My kids are almost 3.5. Still nap 2.5-3 hrs everyday

 

Daisies they were born at 37w2d so about three weeks behind.
So. Far the three naps is going well. Some morning naps are an 1.5 hrs or 40 minutes while all three naps exceeds an hour but generally fall in the 45 to 55 minute range. I find a long walk getsxthem nap longer.
Usually the last nap ISA 45minute nap but yesterday after a long hour walk they slept an hour and a bit! Nice

 

If you know a walk improves sleep you can use that to 'help' the nap you are most concerned about. for example.. getting out after the first nap, before the second nap.
It is normal for the third nap to be shorter.. it will be the next nap to disappear (around 9 months) and some kids never really have an established third nap (my two always did though ).

Glad you are finding your rhythm.