At what age is the 3rd nap (evening catnap) usually dropped?

[JWB's Mom]

My 5.5 month old is on the 4 hour EASY and can usually follow the schedule very closely. Here's his schedule:

7:00am   Bottle
9:00am   Nap (1.5-2hr - but sometimes only 45 minutes)
11:00am Bottle
1:00pm   Nap (1.5-2hr)
3:00pm   Bottle
4:45pm   Nap (45min-1hr)
6:00pm   Bath
6:30pm   Bottle
7:00pm   Books & Bedtime (he usually sleeps 10-11 hrs)
9:30pm   Dreamfeed

I was wondering what to expect as he gets older as far as when he will drop naps and how I will know when to drop them or change his schedule.

Thank you!
Julie (Jack's Mom)

[Leah's Mom]

My DD is almost 9 months old. We are just starting to drop the catnap. I knew she needed to drop it because she wouldn't go to sleep at night. Normally she would go to sleep very easily. 9 months is a long time for the catnap, some children drop it as early as 5 months. But I think the average age is around 6-7 months -when he can stay awake longer between naps.

[Tammy: Ethan & Kaden's Mom]

Julie - my ds was around 7 months before he dropped the last catnap of the day.  And even now (he's 8 months), we still sometimes have "quiet time" in his room, which is just me rocking with him for 10 or 15 minutes.  Sometimes he doses off, sometimes not.  But it's a quiet time for him to calm down.  Otherwise he would not make it from 3 until bedtime at 7!

I starting dropping the catnap when I noticed ds would just crawl all around his crib at that time, and would never drop off into sleep.  I probably let him do this for one or two weeks before I quit putting him down altogether at that time. 

Good luck!

[notenoughshelfspace]

Mine is six months and only needs the cat nap only if she has had a 'bad' naps during the day. Usually she is fine without the final nap. Now we have a bath at 6:45; bed and story; in bed by 7:15

[JWB's Mom]

Thank you! I'll start watching for the signs. He slept over an hour during his catnap yesterday but woke up early this morning, around 5:30am. So I'm going to wake him up after 45 minutes from his catnap in hopes that he'll sleep longer in the morning - does that make sense?

[notenoughshelfspace]

It does make sense, in fact when I had my nightnurse here she told me that a catnap should not be any longer than half an hour otherwise it interfers with the night time sleep.  Do what works for you though.