When do I do a 3-2 nap transition?

[vero86]

Hi everyone,

Just wondering when babe will be ready for her 3-2 nap transition. She is 8 months old and here is an example of her current schedule. Her current A time is usually around 2h30-45min

6 am - wake
6:15 am - bottle
7:00 am - breakfast
8:40 am - nap (until 10:15 approx)
10:30 am - bottle
11:45 am - lunch
1:00 pm - nap (until 2:30 usually)
2:45 pm - bottle
around 5 pm try a cat nap but sometimes takes until 5:30 to sleep (goes to 6)
6 pm - dinner
7:30 pm - bottle
8 pm - bedtime

When I put her to bed earlier than 8 pm she seems to wake earlier. SOMETIMES if she wakes at 5 am I can put her back to bed around 5:45 until 7:15 or so.

I know the last nap is late and 10 h sleep during the night isn't ideal but she has never really slept longer than 11 h (if I am lucky).

Let me know what I should be working on please! Thanks!

[creations]

Hi there
Sorry you had to wait a while for a reply.

Honestly your routine looks great!
Although most LOs move from 3 to 2 naps around 6 months if you have a routine that is working for your LO then really I would keep with it until it clearly needs changing.  You can change it if you choose to of course, perhaps you would prefer to drop the CN and go for an earlier BT, return to more like 11hr night sleep rather than the 10 you get now?
But if you are fine with the 10hr night and she is fine with it then I see now need to hurry along with any change.  One of the reasons for the shorter night length is because she is getting lots of day time sleep - that is not necessarily a bad thing. Mine only ever did 10-10.5 hr nights really too, I'd think myself lucky if it got to 11hrs.
I think the only thing I'd likely change right now would be to stop trying to put her down for a CN at 5 and just accept it will be at 5.30 so begin your WD a bit later.

I would probably wait a while and look out for signs that a change is needed - unless you already spotted these signs but didn't mention them in your post?
Things like:
nap refusal, crying and fussing at nap time trying to tell you she is not tired
short napping, sleeping only 40 mins instead of 1.5hr
refusing the CN
refusing BT
EW (you did mention 5am WU but it seems not often? And this only happens if you put to bed earlier than 8pm?)
middle of the night cot-parties

Just for info.  To move to 2 long naps and drop the CN, LO needs to be able to do 3hr A time, in your case possibly a bit more than 3hrs on 1 or 2 of the A times.  A 3hr A time will get you through a 12hr day with 2 naps of 1.5hrs but that leaves a 12hr night.  She *might* lengthen her night to 12hrs when teh CN is dropped but she might not, if 11hrs is usually her max. For this reason if she could do 3hr 15 or 3hr30 A time it would help take up some of that extra hour in the day so she can do a comfortable 11hr night.  Hope that makes sense. Here's an example:
WU 6
A 3hr 30
S 9.30 - 11.00
A 3hr 30
S 2.30 - 4.00
A 3hr
BT 7pm
11hr night

Maybe I wasn't much help but perhaps a reassurance that you are okay for now?