7 Month Old Nap Question

Maybe this isn't what you are looking for, but I'm all for letting the child guide the sleep schedule and the parents looking for the sleep-cues to tell us when its a good time to help baby into their nap. The schedule you described sounds ideal, but is it necessary to be so precise? Our 13 month old only started sleeping through the night about 2 months ago, and she still has some nights where she wakes up around 3am. I'm so happy to hear your baby is sleeping through the night, and think that because the night time sleep is so good, maybe the nap times can be more flexible. Have you tried just working with his cues and seeing how that schedules the day? I found that after a month or so of watching cues, our daughter had a pretty regular nap schedule she created. But, as everything, it has changed again. And so even though she is tired in the afternoon, she will not take a nap. Hang in there, and I suggest the more flexible, the less stressful.

2 moms found this helpful

This is very normal. The rule of thumb is there should never be tmore than 3 hours in between naps. It sounds like he is doing just that. Try to keep him up as close to 3 hours from the time he woke up as possible. If he gets fussy take him outside for some change of senery. If his first nap is closer to 9:00 then the other nap will just fall in to place three hours after he wakes from the 1st. Do not put him down for a 3rd unless he relly needs it. This will help to transition him. 7:00 pm bedtime is ideal. Start his bed time routine @ 6:30 and put him down by 7:00. It may take a week or so and he may be a little grummpy but he'll get there :) Also if his nap are 1 1/2 hours each this is plenty of sleep during the day.

1 mom found this helpful

The truth is that kids nap when they nap.

Messing with naptimes probably won't help you as it is in nearly constant change anyway as they grow. What seems to be under this is that it's inconvenient that your baby sleeps such odd schedules.

If you're really looking for advice, I say trust him to know what he wants. It's totally normal - completely - for a kid to sleep like this - my son did pretty much exactly the same thing and at 10 still sleeps nearly 12 hours a night. Kids need a lot of rest, their primary work is growing and learning and that takes a lot of effort and energy.

Trust your baby that he knows what he needs.

1 mom found this helpful

TB: What we found with our son (now 4 yrs) was that we needed to make sleep changes very slowly -- move nap or bedtime by 10 minutes, keep it that way for a few days, and then try to move it by 10 more minutes. You might not get the naps to exactly where you want, but you should be able to get close. Also, whenever our son has gone through a sleep/nap change, whether it was dropping the late afternoon nap, the morning nap, or naps altogether, the transitions have been trying. When he stopped napping (or when he dropped a nap, etc.) we could always tell he still needed it to some extent but not enough to actually nap. His preschool friends' parents told me they were having similar experiences. After a few cranky months though, things would even out.

BTW, totally normal for the late afternoon nap to be the first to go. Next should be the morning nap (babies need the type of sleep they get in the early afternoon from a development standpoint whereas the morning nap is more a continuation of the nightime sleeping). Our son decided to drop the early afternoon nap first. We did the ten minutes at a time thing and after several weeks had successfully moved his 9am nap to 12:30. We then moved the 12:30 nap to 1:00 when he was two. When he was 10mos, he tried to stop napping completely (aaaahhh!). We called a sleep expert both our pediatrician and friend had recommended, and she told us we were over soothing him. No more rocking and singing; just darken the room a bit, read one book, and put him down to rest. It only took one day to work! Our issue was so easy for her to fix in our one phone call that she refused to even charge me! We were so clearly first time parents!

Good luck! It is definitely possible to change your son's sleep schedule. Just take it slowly!
K.

1 mom found this helpful

My 3 kids' nap times were each different according to their needs. Perhaps if you adjusted his nap time by a smaller amount of time (15 minutes or less?) you can gradually transition him to the time you want? I would also try adjusting his whole schedule by that amount since he seems to fall asleep after a certain amount of time anyway.

I never attempted to schedule my kids nap times, I just adjusted myself to what they needed. But I also had the luxury of time. Most people do not. I wish you well with the schedule change and I hope it works out.

1 mom found this helpful

My now 10 month old son had the same story except for the sleeping all the night bit- he still wakes once to breastfeed. His 7 month nap sched was 8-9, then 12-2, then 5-6, then bed at 8. But his 3 naps a day turned into 2 around 7 months as well. He now wakes at 6:30 and goes again down at 8:30 or 9 for a 1 hour nap. Then he stays up for 3 hrs till about 1 and has a long 2-2.5 hour nap in the afternoon. Then he stays up 4 more hours and goes down around 7:30 or even 7 sometimes if he is real tired. It took us a while to figure out his new pattern, but once we got into it, it has become like clockwork again. Regarding the long pm nap, I used to think he would not sleep that long, but a friend pointed out to me that I go to get him after an hour when he seemed to wake up. She suggested ignoring his whimpers to see if he would return to sleep and BINGO! It worked for us. His one hours naps magically became 2-2.5 hour naps in this way- a life saver for me:) He still wakes a little during these naps, but we just let him get on back to sleep.
I would suggest trying not to schedule him for one whole week and write down exactly when you notice him becoming tired for all of those days. Also try to see if he will take longer naps by not going to get him right away. His new pattern will emerge for you in that way. You will most likely have to change his bed-time too, but who knows- every baby is different!
Good luck.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi. I have to say that I share your frustration with the whole "nap thing". I too was trying to mold my 19 month old into a nap schedule that would work with our schedule. The reality is that your 7 month old is going to make his own schedule and it probably will not be what you want it to be. My advice to you is get some guidence from a few baby sleep books. There are many and I have skimmed most and have taken bits and pieces from all. They really helped me on my sons schedules. Just remember that all children are different but these books are great guidence for transition. You may just try to keep him up until 9am for several days until he can naturally adjust himself. The same for the afternoon nap. He probably will not nap for 2 whole hours but may for 1 1/2 which is still a good nap.
It will take time and dedication on your part and try not to become so frustrated that you just give up.
My son was a two nap a day sleeper and sleeping soundly through the night on a regular schedule when it was time for just one nap a day. His signs were obvious that this should happen. It was a nightmare for about two months with frequent night wakings and a crabby baby throughout the day. But I stuck with it and now the one nap a day is one and half hours and is happy during waking hours.

Good luck

1 mom found this helpful

Yes...this seems normal. Be thankful that he is sleeping throught the night for now.

1 mom found this helpful

I don't think he's going to sleep for 12 hours anymore. He's going to start teething, if he hasn't already, and he's going to wake up more frequently. He'll also be up more because he's older and more aware of when you're not in the room with him, plus he can keep himself more busy playing now. He may go down to 2 shorter naps and go to bed later. It's sort of one of those "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it" things. You can put him in his crib, but it doesn't mean he'll go to sleep. If you have a certain lullaby CD or routine, Like a bath, lotion, baby massage, bottle, or something like that, then you can try to incorporate the same routine right before bed. He will start to associate those things with going to sleep. Other than that, I try to be more like a chameleon and work around his schedule than expect him to work around mine. My 13-month-old son only takes 1 nap a day now. I have less time, but actually more time since I stopped spending 2 hours a day TRYING to get him to still take the second nap.

1 mom found this helpful

This is totally normal. Babies fall in and out of nap schedules. Just when you get used to a 3 nap schedule, they transition to 2. Then you get used to the 2 nap schedule, and they transition to one. Try not to stress out about putting him on a nap/sleep schedule. Go with the flow. They fall into their own patterns. It's totally possible that he will fall into the 9-11, 1-3 schedule. Mine did. Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

My 10 month old does the same thing. she goes to bed between 8-8:30pm gets up around 6:30-7 is awake till about 8:30-9 sleeps till 10:45 (when I have to wake her up to pick up my 4 yr old from school)She then goes back down at about 12 till 2 (when I again have to wake her up to pick up my 7 yr old at school)she is then awake till 8-8:30 when I get her back to bed. I have noticed that if I can interact with her in the morning (park, play group, playing toys in the am) then I can get her to take a nap as late as 12(this happens on Sundays when we are at church till 12)then she will sleep till about 3 that is the only nap we get that day. Hope this helps. What yours is doing seems normal to me.

1 mom found this helpful

TB..

Relax...Babies make their own schedules. Unless there is a reason you need him to nap at a particular time, give him some time as it would seem that he needs a little less sleep now and is ajusting his nap time. My children, now 17 and 27, took one long mid-afternnon nap at 7 months and went to bed around 7:30pm. Hope this helps!

DS

1 mom found this helpful

Check out Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Weissbluth. He has some great suggestions on how to help your child at every stage of their development.

1 mom found this helpful

This is from my favorite sleep book Good Night Sleep Tight by Kim West. According to her sample schedule your baby is pretty right on. This is her sample schedule for 6-8 month olds.

7-7:30 wake
9-9:30 morning nap 1.5-2 hours
12:30-1 afternoon nap 1.5-2 hours
3:30-4 optional 3rd nap (if baby is a poor napper or previous naps were less than 1hr)
6-6:30 start bedtime
7-7:30 asleep

She also states that some kids wake up earlier & that's normal & fine. She says don't let kids get up before 6am. Hope this helps.

1 mom found this helpful