Third nap

When did others drop the third nap? My DS has not taken it in about 3 days. He lays in his crib and hollars and babbles and rolls around. I left him in there yesterday for 45 mins and he was wide awake. He has been waking at 4 or 5 and after a quick feed and diaper change he does the same thing for 30-45 min before he will go back to sleep. Now he is in there playing around for his morning nap.

Also, how long do others keep their LO's up during the day in between naps?

 

Mine dropped it at 9 months and when they did, they HAD to go to bed at 5:30 and not a minute later or they were so overtired it took over an hour to get them down. You can always give it a try.

At 6 months mine were up for about 2 hours between naps sometimes 1.5 hours.

 

When you put them down at 5:30 what time did they sleep until?

 

I would say between 9 and 10 months they dropped that nap. I knew it was time, because they wouldn't go to sleep. They would either cry or just lay in there babbling. Now, they nap at 9ish and 1ish for around an hour or so each time. Some days, they'll throw me off and sleep for 2 hours. Those are the days.

 

QUOTE(BlessedByTwo @ Apr 30 2009, 08:48 AM) [snapback]1294746[/snapback]
When you put them down at 5:30 what time did they sleep until?

:rotflmbo: *gulp* 5am :tomato:

 

Mine dropped their third nap a little earlier...probably right around the time they turned 8 months (didn't write it down...), but it was obvious that they didn't want it any more. Every time I would lay them down for it, they would just fuss and cry and play around...no sleeping, but they would go down for the other naps and bad with no problem. So I said forget it and we were all so much happier. They were still only staying up 2 hours between naps so it was rough around dinner time (wouldn't nap, but getting sleepy), but within a week or so they started spacing out the daytime naps. Now they get up at 7, nap at 9/9:30, wake at 11/11:30, and don't go back down until maybe 2/2:30 which lets them nap until 4 or so. Then it's no problem staying happy until bedtime, which for us is 7. I don't want to mess with bedtime because I like waking up at 7 It did take a week or so to make the transition, but now it's going great! I didn't try to force it, though...if they looked sleepy, I put them down. They just sort of spaced it out on their own.

 

Ours dropped their 3rd nap at 5-6 months. It was at 6 months that their nap and day schedule seemed to work out and everyone was much happier. They would wake around 7:30 and be back in bed for a nap at 9:30. They were awake by 11 and back in for another nap at 2 and would sleep until 4 and then bed time was 7-7:30 at that time. Good luck

 

we dropped the 3rd nap around 8 months as well (6.5 months adjusted age) - the first week was rough as the girls adjusted. we also moved their bedtime forward (it was 7:00pm but we moved it to 6:00pm). that lasted about a month or so - now we're back at a 7:00pm bedtime. their wake up time has always been 7:00am (although, i should say get-out-of-bed time since they're usually wide awake when i go in there - i don't actually know when they wake up).

 

My girls dropped the third nap around 6 months. It was kinda gradual, some days they seemed to need it and other days they didn't. It probably was about a 3 week transition before it was gone completely.

 

My guys have very slowly dropped the 3rd nap, and I think now at 10.5 months it's all done. I was having a big problem with early waking, and when they wake early (5AM) they need three naps, but if they get up after 6 then 2 naps works best.

Right now our waking interval needs to be about 3 hours for Eli and 2.5 hours for Mark. They wake between 6-7 closer to 6 for Eli and closer to 7 for Mark. Then the go down for their nap between 9-9:30. Usually Eli wakes after 1.5 to 2 hours, and Mark wakes at 2 hours. Then they need to go back down around 2, and hopefully sleep until 4. Bedtime is between 6-7 depending on their behavior and how long it takes to eat dinner.

 

We used to be on a solid, up two hrs then nap [repeat] [repeat]. Around 7 months their napping was horrible.. they'd be up for 4-5 hrs, be over tired and not sleep.. sometimes sleep a LOT. It was a roller-coaster ride and I was getting exhausted and quite irritated. Then, a fellow TS member [I don't remember who :blush: ] suggested trying the 2/3/4 schedule. Awake for 2 hrs, then nap. Awake for 3 hrs, then nap. And awake for 4 hrs before bedtime. After reading that I remember thinking - pshhhh, this'll Never work with these girls!! ------- What do you know... it WORKED!!

Every baby is different and some things will work while others won't. But, it's worth a try IMO ardon:

To answer your question about the dropping the third nap.. we did that around the 7 month mark also. Though that last nap was/is usually only for about 15 mins [we like to call it an attitude nap] cause we don't want them to ruin bedtime [as in ruin I mean, stay awake and not want to sleep] nor do we want to have a screaming tired baby for 1.5 hrs before bedtime. The only time we do the third nap around here anymore is if their naps were interrupted [cut short] for one reason or another and their schedule got thrown off. Did that all make sense or did I just confuse you? :lol: