3 to 2

[alex and danny]

How do you know when you should drop the afternoon catnap?  Jacob has 3 naps at 9 (1.5h) at 1 (45 to 1:15 depends on day) and a 30-45 min catnap at 4:30-5pm.  Should he drop this catnap when he's close to 6 months? How do I help him drop it?

[Duckie]

From what I remember, Andrew dropped it on his own - and around that time his bedtime went from 8ish to 7ish....I think he was closer to 6 months old.  I just watched to see how tired/cranky he got and gradually I noticed he no longer needed it.

They will continue to surprise you, though.  Andrew dropped his only nap a while ago, but today went into his room all on his own and napped for 90 minutes!

Good luck!

[Aarismom]

Yep, mine dropped it on her own too. For a few weeks though we occasionally had to give her that third nap if she had a poor second nap. They start to drop the third nap on their own when they start to approach 2.5-3 hours of "A" time, usually somewhere around 6 months. It comes to a point where you just can't fit another nap in before bedtime (because it would move bedtime back another hour or 2), and you end up keeping them up longer than normal between the second nap and bedtime. I ended up keeping mine up for 3-4 hours between the second nap and bedtime at a time when she could only stay up 2.5 hours, only so I could get her to bed at her normal bedtime at 6. With a third nap it would've moved bedtime back to 7-8 pm, and she gets up at 6 am no matter what we do. It was rough for a few weeks; she would be overtired by bedtime, but she went down to sleep without too much of a fuss. I think the older they get, the more able they are to handle being somewhat overtired.

Just my thoughts on it, I just went through the transition

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[julieb]

Mine dropped about 5 months.  He started refusing the catnap either by not falling asleep or crying.  It wasn't every day though.  So I started working on lengthening the A time and some days I'd just have to put him to bed REALLY early (because there wasn't enough time for the 3rd nap).  We just adjusted depending on how he was doing.  It was a weird couple of weeks, but then we got there.

[alex and danny]

Thanks for sharing!  I will watch for cues... or just let him drop it!

[Colesmom]

Hi there,

Great responses so far.  I just wanted to add that my DS is near nine months old and I tried to drop the catnap around 7.5 months.  I ended up with a very tired baby which caused poor night sleep, waking several times, sometimes every hour.  I reintroduced it for a couple of weeks to improve night sleep and now we're back to phasing it out.

Like Aarismom said, some days you will need it, other days not.  It often depends on how long their first two naps are and when the second one ends.  If my DS sleeps past 2:30 for his second nap then I can stretch him to bed of 6-6:30, otherwise he gets a short nap around 4:30-5:00 and his bedtime is closer to 7:30. I find now he sleeps best at night with the no catnap day...but it has been a very rough time sorting this out.

take it day by day...good luck!

[*Natasha*]

My daughter is 5 months old and i am in the process of extending her awake time to 2.5 hours and cutting out her late afternoon cat nap. The reason i am doing this is firstly she was waking up earlier from her morning nap and was restless at her second nap and secondly her late afternoon cat nap was interferring with her going to bed at night she would take to long to settle. We are doing it slowly extending her awake time 15 mins for a week then another 15 mins in a week or so. We have tried it over the last few days and she has been alot better going down at night and during the day (touch wood). I think it is trail an error see how you go if you find it doesn't work go back to the 3 naps and try again in a few weeks :-)

[alex and danny]

Thanks for your replies.... He has succesfully dropped the catnap.  He kind of did it on his own in a couple of days...we followed his cues, but of course had to put him to bed a little earlier the days he did not catnap... His 2 day naps are a little longer 1 to 1:45 min.  What I found really helped was extending his A time... he went from about 2h15 min to 3 h in a week    Now, when we get to the 3 hour mark, he's so ready for bed that he falls asleep as soon as he hits the crib!     Good luck to all of you who will tackle this too!