How much nap time for 7 month old?

[EdwinaIRL]

Hi,

Looking for some help pretty please. DD is on four hour EASY an dis almost 7 months. We're on EASY since 3 months and still we're not getting a full night sleep. We are following EASY, she naps from 9-11am and 1-3pm and from 5-5.30 and goes to bed at 7-7.30 and up at 7am and her sleep at night has jsut been getting worse an dworse the last 2 months or so. She feeds well and there seems to be nothign else wrong so i'm thinking she's getting too much day time naps. Alot of my friends on another message board said she's getting far too mcuh naps to ever sleep the night but I explained the Baby Whisperer routine and they still thought 4 and a half hours napping was far too much. Could they be right??? I can't see any other reason for ht night waking whihc is continuous and gradually getting worse as the weeks go on.
PLEASE PLEASE can someone help me.
Thanks in advance
Edwina

[Samanthas mum]

Hiya,

It sounds for sure like she is getting too much daytime sleep.

Tracey suggests dropping the 5pm catnap around 6 months. I actually queried this on the boards recently as we were having trouble getting dd to go to sleep at night even though she was quite happy to go down for her naps. (I'm sorry I don't know how to post a link within my posting but it was entitled "Confused (sorry quite long)" - if you read that it may give you some tips).

As soon as we dropped the catnap dd started settling much better at night. Her sleeping routine goes something like this now:-

7am wakes up - stays awake for 2.5 hours (sometimes 3)
9:30/10am - 1st nap
11/11:30am wakes up and stays awake for 3 hours
2/2:30pm - 2nd nap
3:30/4pm wakes up

As she doesn't wake from her second nap until 3:30/4 that means she can now last without a catnap until bedtime at 7/7:30pm.

It may take a little while to settle into a new routine but it will be worth it and should solve the nightime problems.

Good luck

[EdwinaIRL]

Hi Samantha's Mum

thanks so much for your helpful reply. I had been searching through the baby whisperer book and getting frustrated on finding little on change of nap times for 6 months but now that you say it I do remember reference to dropping the catnap but of course I read this back when DD was around 4-5 motnhs so i'd forgot :roll:
Your routine sounds good, I'm going to try entend DD's awake time next few days, this evening I got her to stay awake from 2.15 to 5.15 and then put her down just a few mins for catnap, but tomorrow I'll try drop the catnap and extend her awake time earlier in the day so that her feed time that was about 3 will now be closer to 4 and I think I should manage to keep her awawke from 4-7. It looks like you've dropped the dreamfeed or have you? We only re-introduced it a month ago after failure with it a fe wmonths back and it's been working well. I'm only giivng DD tiny amounts of solids yet for breakfast and lunch so I think we still need the dreamfeed for another few weeks.
Routines are forever changing aren't they, I've no sooner grasped it and then it all goes pear shaped and I've to do something to adjust it all ! I must go look for your confused post to see if there's anything else I need to learn.
Thanks a million
Edwina

[Samanthas mum]

Hi,

Glad I could help.

As far as the dreamfeed is concerned we are in the process of dropping it. We are more or less following Tracey's guidlelines set out in her latest book, i.e. every 3 days dropping an oz from the feed and moving the time back. Having started with 7oz at 11pm we are now on 3 oz at 9pm. Samantha is however on 3 solid meals a day now so I think she is ready for it.

As for things changing - I couldn't agree more - you just get yourself sorted and it is time to change. Sam is teething at the moment so that is mucking up her naps slightly but that will be over for a while in a few weeks and we will then be onto something else. Keeps us on our toes I suppose!!! :lol:

[Gigismom]

my dd is over 8 months and we are barely beginning to drop the catnap, so your lo may not be ready yet.  you can try it though.  right now we are working toward a similar schedule as sam's mom posted.  dd is SO tired at the end of the day though that this is disrupting her night sleep now.  so we are kind of at that in between weird stage where they need 3 naps but don't need 3 naps...sorry i'm not much help, just wanted you to know you're not alone!