Hi all, we are trying to cut the third nap but I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing
Ds will be 9 months in a couple of days, he started fighting the third nap between 6 and 7 months and it was getting later and later and we were having EWs. One day he didn't go down at all for it, so we put him down for the night at 6.30 and he slept till 6! we were pretty amazed so thought that was the solution. Then we went on holiday for two weeks (he was 8 months) and he could not stay up for more than 2.30 hours, so back to three naps, but it was ok, he slept till 6 most days.
Now we have been back for about two weeks and started increasing his awake time again. Some days we have only two naps and he goes to sleep early, other days we have to have another nap. The problem now is that he's starting waking at 5am again! I have read lots of posts in here and it seems that it's quite normal to have EWs during this transition.
Now my question is: do I keep giving him the nap if his second nap ends too early or do I try to cut the nap completely and try to stretch the awake time until we can get back to a proper BT (7-7.30)? As of yesterday we are on 2.55 awake time.
At the moment his routine is pretty much like this:
if he wakes at 6:
6.30 eat, then breakfast about an hour later
8.55 nap, usually about an hour
10 wake, 10.30 lunch
13ish nap, another hour or a bit more (we don't tend to get more than 1h20 apart from rare occasions when he sleeps for 2h, but could be also 30 mins here)
so now, if he sleeps till 2 or later I usually don't give him another nap and put him down by 6/6.15
Yesterday he woke at 5.15, kept him up till 8.10, slept two hours, but then he went down for his second nap at 13.05 and only slept 30 min ( I was expecting this because of his long morning nap), so managed to get another 25 min nap between 16.30 and 17 bed at 18.25
Also, what is the latest he should have the third nap, I'm thinking 4/4.30? and if he sleeps again a lot in the morning, do I wake him? If so, after how long? an hour or an hour and a half?
Thank you very much in advance!