3 Naps to 2, Dropping Late Afternoon Catnap

[dkjokisch]

Dd (8mos) has started to balk at taking a late-afternoon catnap.  We expected this was coming as depending on her wake-up time and nap length/quality, some days she doesn't need it, and we don't even try and put her down.  So, I have been slowly trying to extend her awake time before her first and second naps to better balance her naps throughout the day.  Otherwise she winds up being awake for 4+ hours before bed, is super-cranky by dinnertime, and falls asleep during her bedtime feed.  (We've also temporarily moved bedtime a little earlier.)  However, when I keep her awake longer (up to 2.5hr or so from 2hr), her subsequent naps are shorter (1.25hr vs. 2hr), which kind of defeats the purpose.  In the end, she's getting less daytime sleep, and I still have a cranky baby at the end of the day.

How do I fix this?

[lil'monkey]

Hi there,

When I stopped offering the catnap to dd (7+ mos), I kept everyting the same except bedtime is offered earlier by 30-45 min depending on her state of mind.  After a few days (4-5 days), I slowly moved bedtime back to the usual time 7:30 pm.  I found that this way, dd kept her 1.5 hr naps during the day and isn't overly tired to go to sleep at night.  HTH

[sa]

do you feed her lunch at the same time? if so, may be try move her lunch 15 mins or 30 mins later if you can. so that she has a fuller stomach before she goes for her 2nd nap.

it works for my DS

HTH