Frustrated with catnap at 8.5 months!

[*Becky*]

Hi,
My DS still has a catnap and I just wondered if anyone out there had a lo who did not drop their catnap until quite late?
It is very frustrating and in 6 weeks I go back to work and so he won't be able to have his catnap in the car as I will have it. I cannot APOP him any other way so really hoping we can get rid of it by then. Tried yesterday but he had to go to bed at 6pm and that was about 10 mins too long. Woke at 5am which is fine for him but TOO early for me. Also only drank half bedtime milk as just wanted to go to sleep.

AAGH!
Becky x

[lilac83]

Some LO's don't drop that 3rd nap until 9 months. I haven't really heard of anyone keeping it much past that though. So I bet by the time you're due to go to work, he'll have dropped it.

[*Becky*]

phew - 3 weeks and counting!
Thanks
bx

[NadeneR]

How long are his A times? When my dd moved to 2h45 min, she automatically dropped the catnap and for a while had a slightly earlier bedtime. She has a 2hr morning and 2hr afternoon nap and bedtime around 7h30 now. Any chance you could gradually increase his A times?

[*Becky*]

yes thanks. He has never really done 2 hour naps. I am lucky if I get 1.5.
I think that is part of the problem.
Becky

[NadeneR]

How long are his A times now? Try to increase them by 5 - 10 mins every 3rd day so that his little body can gradually adjust. That way you're not pushing him too far too fast, but also not causing him to become OT (overtired) either. He should then also take longer naps and manage slightly longer A times. This might help to drop that catnap.

Keep me posted.
Nadene

[mmom]

Henry, I had a hard time dropping it too.  Our problem was shorter naps or crappy naps at day care and my LO would fall asleep in the car on the way home.  I would let him sleep for a bit because of the short naps.  Eventually, he started handling longer A's on his own and dropped it.  I bet as your LO has longer A's, he will too.

[*Becky*]

thanks After a night sleep or a good nap he can do 3 hours/3.10 but his naps are usually less than that so even with a catnap getting to 7pm is really hard and then he wakes early i.e. 5.30am and we are back to square 1! Going to have to stick with the catnap for a few days as his naps are all over the place.
Becky x

[NadeneR]

I hear what you say about naps being all over the place.  Makes it REALLY hard to follow EASY.

Not an expert, but the first thing I would suggest to work on is increasing the length of those shortish naps.  Has he always been a "short napper" or is this something relatively new?  Adding A time usually gets them to increase nap length, provided they're not already OT, which does'nt sound like this is the case.

My lo is 7.5 mo is now doing 3hrs A and is sleeping for 2hrs +, so I normally have to wake her (I love having to wake her as opposed to her waking early from a nap).

I agree with mmom, as A's get longer (and naps), he'll drop the catnap more easily.

HTH
Nadene

[*Becky*]

yes maybe he needs longer A time. We were stuck a couple of weeks ago with 2.5 for the first A time so moved it to 3 hours after BW advice and got about 4 days of great naps All gone again now. I don't think he is usually OT as he sleeps well at night but don't want to push him too much as he is touchy/spirited and when it goes wrong, it really goes wrong! I think this might also be related to strating to crawl. He cannot actually crawl but he is pushing up onto his knees a lot so maybe that is causing the extra short naps etc.
My aim is to get him to bed around 7pm with a catnap and once he is waking around 6/6.30am again I will start to try increasing the first A time and see what happens.
Thanks for the help
Becky x

[*Becky*]

to answer your question - yes naps have always been a problem and since he was 3 months I reckon I have woken him from 3 naps in total!!!

[lilac83]

The 1.5hr nap is perfectly fine and doable without a catnap. When my DD was on 2 naps she never (seriously can't think of a single time) slept longer than 1.5hr. Usually the first and the last A time are the shortest. So if he can do 2.5/3hr in the morning, then 3/3.5hr in the afternoon and 3hr before bed he would be fine on 2 naps. However, like you said, if he has short naps you're stuck trying to squeeze the catnap in again.

It sounds like he's working towards dropping it though, so I wouldn't worry too much. If he had a good nap and seems willing, I would try giving the second A time a bump by 10/15min and see what happens.

[*Becky*]

thanks Will try that.