3 naps to 2 naps - are we ready??

[MomofKieran]

I need some help in determining if my six month lo is ready to go from 3 to 2 naps.  He is pretty inconsistent with the length of the three naps...meaning sometimes the first nap is the short one and sometimes it's the mid-day, sometimes late afternoon, etc...  However, he is often waking early from naps so I'm wondering if he's just not that tired?  He only sleep about 9.5 - 10 hrs. at night, though...  And about once a week he'll have a day of 'power-napping' where he sleeps like crazy!!  We keep his 8pm bedtime consistent or even move earlier if he seems tired.  He can usually last 2.5 hrs. of E & A time before I catch some yawns.  I know if I could extend his morning nap consistently, we'd probably make the transition.  Should I just wait for him to get there naturally or try to start working on it??  Two longer naps would be so much more convenient for me!! (selfish Mommy..LOL)

Here is our schedule.  It's hard to be more specific re: wake time 'cause as I said the naps are varying in length at different times.  But I usually get two long and one short.


5:30-6AM - Wake (UGH!!) 
7:45 - Nap
Noon - Nap
3:30 - Nap
7:30-8 - Bedtime

Thanks for any advice!!

[Mom to M&M]

At 6 months, you're probably transitioning into dropping the catnap - which may take some time. So you'll have to start gradually extending awake time maybe by 15 minutes every 3 days. Or if he gets overtired with that you can even do 5 minutes every 2 days. At 6 months, he can likely stay awake 2.5 hours at the most comfortably. So if you want to try to push his morning wake time out, I'd start by delaying his first nap. Often this helps - so if you'd like his wake time so be say 6:30 instead, you'd want to try to delay his first nap until no sooner than 9am. Of course you can't do this all at once, but perhaps start by delaying first nap until 8 for a few days and then 8:15 and so on. I'd limit this nap to 1.5 hours and then try for a second nap about 2.5 hours after first nap ends and see if you can get that one to be 2 hours. You may still need a short catnap in late afternoon or early evening until he can consistenly handle 3 hours of awake time - which for us happened around 7 months or a little after... HTH

[MomofKieran]

Thanks - I will definitely try to start extending morning A time slowly.  I would LOVE a little later wake up time so I hope that helps!!