My 10 month old son is late to the 3-2 nap transition, only really managing it in the last few weeks.
He’s never been the best sleeper and I had to spend the first 6 months holding him for every nap but it’s getting better. Anyway, he tends to favour a longer morning nap (1h15-1h30) and then a 45 minute afternoon nap. Everything I’ve read and info from a sleep consultant we sought help from says the morning nap should be shorter and the afternoon nap longer but this is a struggle! I get it as his longest awake period is from waking up from the second nap until bedtime so it makes sense that he needs a longer stint of sleep to prevent overtiredness. For the last couple of weeks I’ve tried capping his morning nap to 45-60 mins with a view for him to sleep longer in the afternoon but this hasn’t worked and he’ll still do a short afternoon nap and no amount of resettling will get him back down. He often wakes crying from this nap as he’s still tired but won’t go back to sleep. He’s put in his cot awake, in a dark room with white noise and settles himself to sleep. Is the long afternoon nap really so important? I feel like he could get more total daytime sleep if I let him sleep for as long as he wants in the morning.
His night sleep is generally ok; usually wakes once for a breastfeed which I know he doesn’t need at his age but it’s the quickest way to get him back to sleep at 4am!
His wake up time in the morning can be anywhere from 6am-7.20am and I put him for his first nap 3 hours after waking (I know some would suggest 2 hours but he won’t go down so soon after waking). Then it’s another 3 hours awake period before his second nap and usually around 3.5 hours from this nap ending and bed (usually around 6.30-6.40).
Blimey, I’ve rambled so well done anyone who has read this far! Any advice on extending the lunch nap or should I just let him sleep when he wants?
