HSHHC Moms

Hi everyone! I haven't posted in awhile because things have been going pretty well. Tho, I have a new challenge. I have been following the HSHHC and both babies do very well with waking up at 7:30 am and having a nap after 2 hours of being awake (naps fall around 9:30am, 1:00pm, 5:00pm). My problem is their 3rd nap...at about 4:30/5:00 pm I am having to wake them up so that they can be in bed around 7:30/8:00. I feel horrible for this and they look so tired and really want to keep sleeping. But if I have them hold off by skipping their 3rd nap they are such cranky babies. Should I try to get ride of the 3rd nap all together and do an earlier bedtime? Their 2nd nap falls around 12:30/1:00 and they sleep for about 2 hours. That would put them at being awake from 3:00 till ???...when do you think a good time to put them down for the night would be?

Thanks in advance!

 

I would push up the bedtime, even if just for a half an hour. Our DD started SSTN about three weeks ago. Thats when we started a set daily schedule. They wake up 7/7:30, nap from 10-12 and again from 2:30-4:30, with a bedtime at 7:00/7:30. It's been a godsend only having two naps. I feel soooo much more productive during the day. I felt like I was always stopping to put them down or pick them up and they were always cranky. We can also go out for a couple hours at a time now without a meltdown. Good luck!

 

What worked for us, is try to stretch out the time between nap 1 and 2...try to hold them off until 1:30-2:00 if you can, and combine that with an earlier bed time. Our goal has always been 2 hour (before nap 1) 3 hours (before nap 2) and no more than 4 hours (until bed). They are in a great routine now. Good luck!

 

I'm definitely not a sleep expert, but if I remember correctly yours are getting close to the age where Weissbluth suggests possibly dropping the third nap and instituting an earlier bedtime. If they wake around 3, and are getting cranky in the evening, I would maybe try a 6:00 bedtime and then adjust from there. Of course mine are only 6 months so I can't speak from experience, just from what I remember after reading the book about 20 times :laughing:!

 

Once we dropped the third nap ours went to bed a 5:30. They just could stay awake any longer.

 

Drop the 3rd nap and put them down early instead. You should get rid of the 3rd nap at 9 months anyway (he always asks this at the 9 month visit). My oldest dropped it at 6 months combined with a 6 pm bedtime and the twins already at 4 months (I kind of had to in combination with my oldest). It has worked really well and my day works so much better. The sooner you can get rid of it, the better in my opinion. Just make sure they go down earlier since they'll be more tired early on.

Mine go down at 1.15 pm so that they can sleep until 3 pm, and then they can stay up until bed time which is now 6.30-7.00 pm.

 

Well, I dropped that last nap tonight and it seemed to work much better for us. They woke up a little after 3. They had their bottle a little later than usual (4:00) then had some solids at 5:40. They were ready to go to bed a little after 6:00 but I held them off so I could give them their last bottle. They couldn't finish it they just wanted to go to sleep. So we'll see how tomorrow goes but I think this is what I'll do. Thanks ladies for the feedback!

Kelley

 

Glad it worked for you

 

QUOTE(DATJMom @ Apr 29 2008, 10:17 AM) [snapback]745900[/snapback]
Once we dropped the third nap ours went to bed a 5:30. They just could stay awake any longer.


Ditto this, and overtime bedtime got moved to 6:00 then 6:30 and once they were around 18 months it became 7:00pm.

 

I found that the last nap didn't really affect the bedtime too much. How long will they sleep if you put them down at 5? Mine would usually only sleep for 30-45 minutes for their last nap so I tried pushing that nap up to 4:30 and still put them down at 7. I think even if they are sleeping for an hour from 5 till 6 I would still keep the bedtime at 7:30. I just noticed their age and agree that, that's about the time they went down to 2 naps ours were a little after that closer to 8 months.

 

I would go to two naps and an earlier bedtime. Try it and see what happens.

 

Didn't have time to read pp's.. so if this is a repeat I'm sorry! My girls took a third nap until almost their first birthday. Sometimes they'd sleep from 5 until 6:30pm and they still went to bed at 8. If the third nap is interfering with bedtime, I'd drop it and move up bedtime. It may mean rescheduling dinner, bottles, and baths but it will be worth it because there will be less fussy time. GL!!!