Author Topic: 8 months - reducing nap length?  (Read 1524 times)

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Offline Mummy1982

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8 months - reducing nap length?
« on: May 29, 2018, 11:05:23 am »
I thought I’d start a new thread for s new question :)

My little boy is 8 months old (yesterday) we’re getting 2 good naps, however some days it’s didficult to fit them both in and get a 7-7.30 bedtime! He has a good first A time which is pushing the nap later and later  especially when he wakes up at 6.30 rather than 5.30.

Eg  - today

Wake up - 6.40
Nap - 10.15-12.05

Next nap would then be 3.30ish but really don’t want him to have much more than an hour?

I am wondering would it be better to have a slightly shorter a time in the morning and get 1 hours nap (what should the z time be roughly?) and then get a longer afternoon nap or should I keep going with the morning nap getting later and let him have 2 hours and then push that afternoon nap until it disappears?

Thanks

Offline becj86

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Re: 8 months - reducing nap length?
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2018, 08:27:06 am »
I am wondering would it be better to have a slightly shorter a time in the morning and get 1 hours nap (what should the z time be roughly?) and then get a longer afternoon nap or should I keep going with the morning nap getting later and let him have 2 hours and then push that afternoon nap until it disappears?
This depends on a few things. There are pros and cons with each approach:

Long AM/Short PM
- You get another chance for a long nap if the first on goes to pot.
- You can just reduce the length of the second nap by capping it and there's less juggling around of A times to achieve that.
- It can get tricky in a few months time when he starts to refuse the second nap.

Short AM / Long PM
- If you want him to take an UT short nap, you have to have a child who will go to sleep UT - not every child will do that and the ones who do it at 8mo don't always continue doing it.
- By doing a shorter than ideal A time to put LO down UT, you can open yourself up to long happy NWs and EWs
- Usually the short AM nap can just be capped shorter and shorter until it disappears whilst the PM nap time stays reasonably static.

Either way will work. It is quite normal at this age to have one long nap and a shorter nap to keep your day to ~13hr max. The one thing I would suggest strongly is to keep at least one nap that LO can sleep as long as he likes (still cap at 2ish hours) so he doesn't get in the habit of never sleeping more than 1hr, for example, as that can cause issues when you get to one nap.