another nap ?

I just wrote another post this am about my 8 months old total crankiness and the fact that I can't get them to sleep more than 1.5 hours in the afternoon leaving them cranky till bedtime.

Anyway a friend (whose another avid HSHHC follower) as am I reccomended waking them from thier morning nap early (they normally sleep 9-11 and putting them down for pm nap at 12:30

anyone have sucess with this? I think maybe they ARE sleeping too long in the am and so not sleeping well in the pm..

just curious what others thoughts and experiences were....

tia

ps sorry to have so many ?'s today but if you read my other post im loosing my mind over here with what feels like the world's crankiest unhappy babies

 

When we adjusted to two naps, we had afternoon fussiness for a while. I did my best to give them some down time (even if it meant a 1/2 hour with Noggin!) in the afternoon on those days. Other times we would go outside and do quiet activities on a blanket, or took a walk. It is so hard getting through this period, but they will adjust.

 

We had the same experience Michelle did, so I will just wish you luck and hope they get adjusted really soon! :hug99:

 

Our afternoon naps were really messed up when we went down to two naps. It lasted for a couple of weeks and got better but mine never handled the afternoon nap well and did much better when we switched to one nap at one year. Mine always slept more during the morning nap than the afternoon.

Btw...what time is bedtime and wake time...I didn't catch it?

 

So, if you put them down for a nap at 12:30 are you hoping that they will sleep longer or even wake up at the same time and at least get another half hour out of it?? I am just trying to understand what you are thinking. I think its worth a try but for us once they dropped that third afternoon cat nap it was a bit of an adjustment period for all of us. I tried to take a walk every evening to help stretch out the happy time. And they went to bed at 5:30pm for the longest time.

 

they wake up at 6am and HAD been going to bed at 6:30 pm but were starting to wake too early in the morning consistently around 5 5:30 so we tried pushing bedtime back to 6:15-6:30 which was helping them sleep in a bit ( I know it's contradictory to what HSHHC says)

I don't if we can put them down much before 6pm w/o ending up with early risers who won't go back down...

Thanks for all the input we do go walking EVERY day but they aren't always happy in our stroller so often end up crying/fussing in the stroller and I have to either reinsert paci's a billion times or listen to them cry.

Thanks again hopefullly we'll get thru it

 

What about extending the time between the 2 naps, we do 2.5-3 hours of awake time now, our schedule now looks something like this:

7 am wake
9:30-11 nap
1:30/2ish-3:00/3:45ish nap
6:30-7:00p bedtime

 

I'm one who has never been a fan of waking a sleeping baby. I did it briefly when they were SUPER little for night feeds & only now will I do it if they are still napping past 3:30pm (unless it hasn't been an hour yet). My guys typically nap better in the morning, but like most everyone else has said, it was a rough transition when dropping our 3rd nap. We do a 9 & 1 nap schedule with a 5:30-6am wake up & 6-6:30pm bedtime. Have you TRIED the earlier bedtime for a few days to see if they'd adjust? You may have to go back if they're getting up too early, but it might be worth a shot! It wasn't until mine became more mobile that their naps got longer & they last better between their afternoon nap & bed.

Hang in there...eventually it'll all fall into place !