any tips/general rules about moving from 3 naps down to 2?

[Meg's Mom]

First off, i encourage you to stick w/ your guns w/ mom and MIL.  You are the parent and what they did 30yrs ago has been proven to be wrong.  For example: smoking while prego, no car seats and drinking to improve breastmilk while BF...need i go on?  :wink:  Feel free to use any of my material w/ mom - tee, hee.

Anyway, I think you should follow your instincts and stick w/ your current routine until:
1) he refuses his catnap for several days in a row
2) refuses other naps           "
3) catnap gets so late that bedtime is moved back again...you are on the verge of getting too late.
4) nightwaking come back or increase.

PS: when he does drop the catnap, he won't go 4hr till bedtime...you will increase A times between the 2 naps so it is more like 2.5/3.0/3.0.

Hope that helps!  Good luck w/ Mom.

[Paulsmama]

Thank you so very, very, very much.

This is stupid of me, but when we go to 2 naps am I supposed to fit 2 bottles + supper solids into 3 hours instead of 4 hours?  I'd think he'd get indigestion?  I'll look at the EASY forum and see if there's something there.

I think at least MIL believes me about the catnap now.  DS missed his catnap yesterday -- I went to church and MIL was going to put him down but at 6 pm he was still awake after having woken from nap 2 at 3:00.  So I said forget the catnap, he was fussy but we stayed with stories and quiet activities etc.  Fed him early and he did not eat well at all, almost fell asleep on the bottle then had a HUGE spit up when burping, cried, then just passed out at 7:15 pm.  The night went ok, but he woke early this morning and still seemed tired so probably will want to nap a lot.

[Meg's Mom]

Hi, not sure what you mean about the bottles but here was our schedule w/ 2 naps...how funny i went to get our schedule from EASY forum and totally forgot that we dropped the catnap then went back to it. 

Hope this helps, but also check out the easy forum for excellent schedule/feeding ideas.

Megan is 6 1/2 months now. Here is our ideal schedule - just recently moved from 3 to 2 naps.

awake: 7:00 AM (varies 6.30 - 7.30)
1) Bfeed: 7:00 AM
solid 8:00 AM
1st nap 9:30 AM (ideally 1 ½ hrs, but usually 1 ¼)

2) Bottle 11:00 AM
Lunch - Solid 12:00 PM
2nd nap 2:00 PM (ideally 1 ½ hrs, but ranges from 1 ¼ to 1 ¾)

3) Bottle 3:30 PM

Dinner 5:30 PM
Bath 6:15 PM

4) Bfeed 6:30 PM
BED TIME 7:00 PM

5) bottle: 9:30 PM
(want to phase this out, has slept thru the night since 3mnts but recently has been waking at night for a feed so afraid to until I get that under control) 

I have to change our schedule, shortly after posting the above (a month ago) Megan started rocking and rolling (literally  ) - hence is more tired w/ all that activity so back to 2 + cat nap. Here is our schedule now at 7 1/2 months:

Ideal awake: 7:00 AM (usually 6.00-6.30  if anyone has ideas on how to make later send me private message - TXS)
1) Bfeed: 7:00 AM
solid 8:00 AM
1st nap 9:30 AM (ideally 1 ½ hrs, but usually 1 ¼) (adjust to wake up time but not earlier than 9am)

2) Solid and bottle 11:30 AM
2nd nap 1:00 PM (usually 1.50-2.00hr)

3) Bottle 3:30 PM

Cat nap 5.30-6.00 (gives me a break)
Dinner 6.00 PM
Bath 6:30 PM

4) Bfeed 7:00 PM
BED TIME 7:30 PM

5) dreamfeed: 9:00 PM (currently phasing out)

[Arwyn's mom]

Hello,

I have been TOTALLY lurking on this thread as I think my lo is ready to move to 2 naps and has been really resisting the catnap for a week now. We just have screaming sessions until Mommy gives up. :roll:  I have been struggling to get a good time frame so thanks Michelle for posting Megan's schedule at 6.5 months. Arwyn is exactly that age so I will give it a try.

Did you find it was hard to adjust at first? I am still not able to keep her up very long in the morning. 2 hours seems to be her max and sometimes if I miss the "window" I am stuck with a 45 minute nap. Trouble is, I can't put her back down as she is happy and wanting to play so we stick it out until she has been awake for at least 2.5 hours. We usually end up with a really needy baby by the end of the day. She isn't overly difficult to console but just not the same happy baby. We end up putting her to bed at 6:15 as she can't hold out. How long did it take to adjust Megan's schedule (if you recall)?

Sorry Paulsmama for jumping in like this  :oops:

[Paulsmama]

No worries!  I jumped on sunnysideup's thread, and any more information helps us all.     (DS is down for his catnap today right on time!)

[Meg's Mom]

I couldn't remember but looked back at my log to see what happened.  Boy, i am glad i forgot  :wink:

Meg was doing the 45min AGAIN so i new it was time to make the the change.  First week was a bit tough- needed lots of pu/pd to get her to extend the short nap.  But by week 2 she was doing just better and only need extending a bit but overall had lots of long naps!

Hope that helps.