3rd nap or earlier bedtime

[teachertami]

My DS just turned 8mo and thanks to help here, I have adjusted his A times to 2.5 to 3h between naps and the naps did lengthen.  But here is my new dilemma.  Most days he has taken a 2 hour afternoon nap from 1ish to 3ish and in bed by 7pm no cat nap and has done great.  But, today his second nap was only 1h20 and when I tried to put him down at 5:15 he didn't sleep.  He played and squeeled.  I didn't want to keep him in there forever to try to sleep because I wasn't going to be able to put him to bed later. I don't really want to do a catnap later than 5 because I like his bedtime at 7.  He sleeps better (and longer) when he goes down earlier.

My question is, since most days he doesn't need a 3rd nap, should I just put him to bed earlier if he doesn't nap as long as usual?  What does everyone else do? 

[Ashtonmom]

I'm having the same problem with my 7 month old at the moment.I can't have his cat naps any later than 4-4:30 or he won't go to bed until 8. Last night I put him down at 6:30(early) and he slept until 6:20, whereas he has always only slept for 11hrs at night. I would try an earlier bedtime for a few nights and see how it works. Good luck!

[Shiv52]

Its tricky!  Here's some info:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85130.0

4-6 months                                                           Two naps, 2-3 hours each OR;
Gaining mobility                                                       3 naps; 2 2hr naps & 1 45min catnap
                                                                                10-12 hours at night

6-8 months                                                            Two naps 1-2 hours each;
More mobility; able to                                                   10-12 hours at night
sit and crawl


By 8 months the CN is usually well and truly gone.  TBH if I had a short second nap, I'd just try a slightly earlier bedtime.  Do you think is your LO ready for a touch more A time?  If you find that that second nap continues to be short it could be he's just not tired enough to sleep any longer.

More info:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64158.msg476652#msg476652

6.5 - 7 months 2.75-3 hours. Some are getting more.
8 - 10 months 3 - 4 hours. Some are getting more.

Your LO is on the lower end and could maybe managed 10/15 minutes more.  See how the nap goes for a few days though and see if it continues to be cut short. 

With the bit more A time a short nap won't matter so much as it won't be such a stretch to bedtime and you'll beable to keep it consistent.

HTH
 

[teachertami]

I actually just started to move his awake time.  As of 2 weeks ago he was still only doing 1h45m of A time.  Adding more A has helped his nap lengths and the short nap was unusual since I started ajusting his A time, but he had a short second nap again today after 3h of awake time so I am going to see what happens over the next couple of days.  I don't want to go too much over 3h A time since he just turned 8months. 

I put him down early last night and he slept 12+hours so that did the trick.  But I don't want to have to do that everynight.  My DS has NEVER had a consistent nap lenth.  I always follow the routine but some days he sleeps 1 hour and the next it's 2.  Rarely is it ever shorter than 1.  But he always seems to get the sleep he nees.  If it's a shorter nap day it is usually a long night.

[Shiv52]

Thats great about the night sleep.   Hopefully the early nights will work on short nap days to keep him caught up on sleep. 

If he's having such great nights sleep and even having 3-3.5 hour naps altogether during the day then that is probably enough sleep overall so he's more than likely getting what he needs.  It helps sometimes to look at overall sleep for the whole day/couple of days and I think he's doing great.