[Phoenix Blue]

DD is 6.5 months and we're getting into a reasonably predictable routine.

I'm playing around with the 3rd nap as sometimes she sleeps longer for the 2nd nap, like til 3pm, so going down around 5 really seems too late. But I find if she goes to bed too early, like 6-7pm she wakes after 45 and thinks its playtime again.

So just wondered when you dropped the 3rd nap, and I'd also be interested in your daily routine if you want to share.

Thanks Kate

Ps - and night sleeps, we're still feeding 2-3 times a night. Hoping to stretch to 4 hour blocks soon....???

[follies]

never had a third nap...

[Babetty]

DS dropped the 3rd nap around 5 months.

DD is just turned 5 months, now I will rarely put her down for 3rd nap in her cot (unless she's been running 'early' all day) but may put her in her swing to relax and doze a bit in the late afternoon - which is what she's doing at the moment.

She is usually in bed for the night round 6.30. Has been sleeping through the night, but that has recently fallen to pieces. DH can usually settle her without feeding up to and including a 1am wakeup.

We only have a loose routine. Until recently she was up for about 2 hours at a time, am just starting to stretch that to 2.5 or 3 hours.

[MeN3Ps!]

.. Hey Op,

We dropped the third nap (5.00pm) at around 7 months. It has not been easy.

They now go down for bed between 6.30pm and 7.00pm.

We offer a dream feed at 11.00pm. Then they should sleep through till about 6.00am.

Cheers.

[AvadaKedavra]

Up to you to manage the naps. If its an issue, wake him up from nap 2 earlier so he will take nap 3. It depends on the baby and how much sleep they need. DS2 is 7 months and needs 3.5 hours sleep a day, and struggles to be up longer than 2.5-3 hours at a time. I manage his naps accordingly. Usually this is two 1.5 hour naps and a 30 min nap, sometimes it's 3 1 hour naps. Sometimes he has 2x2 hour naps and is happy to be up a bit longer after each one. Depends on what else we're up to that day.

Work it out from number of hours of sleep needed in total rather than number of naps. And it IS ok to wake a sleeping baby in order to manage your day - god knows that's what all 2nd plus babies have to do!

[KRT]

We dropped the third nap by about 5.5 months. It was definitely gone by 6 months. I never had success with trying to fit a third nap in past 5 months or so. It was always a struggle and often there would be 30 minutes of attempting to settle before I just gave up. We would go for an early bedtime if we ran early or had a catnap in the afternoon.

Our routine was roughly (as in, when the stars aligned...)

Awake 5-6am, play alone in cot
Up at 6:30am, BF
Breakfast at 8am
In bed for nap by 9am
Up at 11 am, BF
Lunch at 12
Down for nap at 1pm
Up at 3pm, BF
Dinner at 5pm
Bath
Bed by 6pm

Those two hour naps weren't particulary reliable. It was two hours between me putting DS in his cot, and getting him up - he'd often take a while to settle himself, and then be awake for a while before I got him up. And at least a few days a week we'd have 45 minutes for one or other of the naps. For some reason, DS always slept well on the weekends when DH was in charge...

Things were much more predictable once that third nap disappeared, though.

He would need up to three feeds overnight, but I had supply issues at that age. He suddenly dropped all night feeds by himself at 8 months. The plan had been to try to settle without a feed past 8 months, but we never had to.

We also had a few months of DS needing to be resettled repeatedly after bedtime. He'd wake every 45 minutes up until around 9-10pm, when I would feed him again. DH did all the settling before midnight in our house - I was just called upon to feed.

ETA: What MsN said was spot on. We had a max awake time of 2 hours at that age.

This post has been edited by KRT: 30/11/2012, 05:41 PM

[~ky~]

Still 3-4 naps a day here for my 10mo!

[Kemma]

My 6mo has 3 - usually 4 - sleeps.

If she has 3, it's usually because she's had one long sleep and its usually ok for her to stay up longer between sleeps.

But I go by her cues. As a PP said if its 3 or 4 sleeps its usually the same totally amount. In our case it's about 3-4 hours.
She's usually up 1-3 times a night and has slept through once.

[~flaxen~]

Another who never had a third nap. Sleep has been an uphill battle for us.

Roughly for the last few months (she's 7mths now)

Awake at 6am (in bed with me usually)
Breastfeed about 7
Breakfast about 8
Sleep in pram at 9.30ish while we are out, usually very short (same if in cot, so we just go out and get stuff done in the morning)
Breastfeed about 12 then lunch
Down again about 1.30, 2ish (depending on morning sleep)
Awake anywhere from 3 onwards, I try to resettle to get her past 4
Breastfeed on waking
Dinner about 6
Bath, breastfeed, bed by 8

She will wake at least twice in the night for a breastfeed, the last is usually about 3am when I'm so buggered I just leave her in bed with me

[Phoenix Blue]

Thanks for the replies. I think we're still in that transition phase. Although if she does have 2 good naps, then she can make it to 6-7pm OK. But if one of those naps is short, then she's passing out by 5:30pm.

And it IS ok to wake a sleeping baby in order to manage your day - god knows that's what all 2nd plus babies have to do!

She's my 3rd - and with school and kinder runs, Gymnastics and cricket, the 3rd nap just doesn't happen most days. Occasionally I can get her to have 20 mins in the pram at cricket...

So yes, it's probably just a time management thing and she (and I) just have to suck it up and work around all the other commitments. Hard though when her eyes are bugging out of her head and you've got a pick up in 10 mins. Argh! Only 2 more weeks left until holidays - will become easier then