Set times for naps?

[ecwinters]

Here in the UK a lot of people seem to go by 'set times' for naps (i.e like Gina Ford).  Although I don't do this, as my DS has a set getting up time and bed time the naps do fall at very similar times each day, but they are not fixed rigidly. 

I was wondering if anyone uses set nap times, and if so, do they work?  I am struggling a lot with the morning nap as my DS can wake up to an hour before getting up time, play around, doze, talk to himself etc. and so each morning I just have to watch his sleep cues to know when to put him down.  I often don't know exactly when he woke up.   I almost always get a 40 minute nap for this first nap so feel I'm not losing anything by trying a set time!  Has anyone had any success with getting longer naps from a set nap time?

Thanks!

[lauradj]

Hey there,

  I did set naps with DS1, and will likely do the same with DS2, however I didn't do that until DS1 was 6/7 months.  Basically whenever he went down to two naps, I set them and he was totally fine.  However, if he was pooped and we didn't have anything planned, I'd let him go do sleep a little early or sleep a little longer.  I just found it made it easier in terms of organizing activities, appointments etc. 

[Martini~]

I did set naps from 4mo roughly? We did had a schedule of short morning nap, longer noon one and short afternoon one. I started set naps just because of what you wrote... I had enough of looking for sleep cues which were getting much more vague. In general I am doing set naps from that moment until now. However I was moving "set" time every couple of weeks during first year and really set only on 1 nap. We have nap at 12noon from 12mo and DS is 18mo. I didn't have a choice as he is at the nursery but still it's ok. During transition to one nap which was quite tiring for DS I could start a nap at 11:45 instead of 12 - but I was really afraid of UT, so just tried to ride it out:).

[ecwinters]

Thanks.  I guess 5 months is a little early to set times then.  I will wait and see how his routine develops!  But you're totally right - it would be so much easier in terms of planning the day!