When did your bubba start having only 2 naps a day?

One of the women from my mothers group saw a sleep specialist and she told her that babies of 4 or 5 months 'should' (I hate that word!) only be having 2 naps a day... Apparently they 'should' get up at 7am, go down for a nap at 10am and sleep till 12pm, then have another nap between 2pm and 4pm, then go down for the night at 7pm.

At the moment my DS is having 3 or 4 naps a day and sleeps from anywhere between 30mins and 2 hours. He usually stays awake for a couple of hours before he gets grizzly and I put him to bed. But I am finding he is getting more and more difficult to settle and there have been a couple of times when we've been out and he's had a lot of stimulation and he's happily stayed up for as long as four hours. This makes me wonder if he is just getting grizzly because he's bored rather than tired...

So I am thinking this 2 naps a day sounds good in theory, but I'm not sure if it would work for us... We've always done the feed, play, sleep thing which I don't think would work (he wouldn't get enough feeds in a day)... But then I guess at some stage he will go down to two naps, so I'm interested in hearing about when your bubba went down to 2 naps a day and how it worked with for you with feeds etc.

I dont think they 'should' do anything! Dont worry about that.

In my case DD did go to having 2 sleeps around 5 months but if she was having 3 sleeps still I would be very happy with that!!!

Just keep doing whats working for you and DS :)

At 4-5 months DD was only staying up for 2 hrs max. She went to 2 sleeps at around 7 months.
With the feeds now they just happen whenever, no feed play sleep routine. She often has a feed when she wakes up and also one before a nap.

I'm with Ali, what ever works. My little guy still sometimes has 3 naps a day and he's 9 months. I don't throw too much credence at someone who puts a blanket theory over creatures who can't read their books yet lol.

Thanks ladies, I guess I was just wondering if it was worth trying... His bed time is getting later and later these days (usually not going down till 8.30 or 9.00pm) which isn't ideal. If I could I would like him to be in bed by 7.30pm at the latest. The thing is that he typically feeds every 3 hours and is so used to feed, play, sleep, that I'm worried it could all go to **** if we try. But I guess you don't know until you give it a go do you...

I also hate these 'babies should be doing this' type people, but I had always thought that generally bubs didn't go down to 2 naps a day till they were much older so was a bit suprised that she was saying this.

Hi! My little one is 8 months and has three sleeps but that's because she wakes up at 5 am! Our 'routine' is wake up at 5am, feed, brekky, sleep about 6, awake at 7, play, feed 9.30-10, sleep 10am usually til 11.30-12, lunch, play, feed at about 2pm then sleep til about 3, arvo tea and play then feed and bed at about 6.30. I find she wont stay up past this because she's so tired. I started this structured sleep routine at 6 months because I found that she was getting grizzly all day and having about 5 catnaps a day. Not fun trying to keep a toddler quiet every hour or so! So for my sanity and so I knew what to expect I decided to give it a try. It's worked for two months. I'm not totally rigid about the times but it does help me to know that she's crying cos she's bored not tired. If you think it's worth giving it a go then go for it! If it doesn't work, then at least youve tried and you can always try again when bubs is older. They do seemto have a bit more awake time once they hit six months though so it's a bit easier :-)

Hmmm I wouldn't listen to that advice at all! How does a sleep specialist know what is right for every baby anyway?

My DD dropped to 2 day sleeps around 6-7mths.... that's pretty common but again, every baby is different.

We put too much pressure on ourselves and our babies when the word "should" is involved :D

DS has just recently fallen into a pattern of two longer sleeps a day (anything from 45 mins to 2 hours long) and its really only been him changing his pattern himself, we haven't done anything differently. He goes to bed when he's tired, feeds when he's hungry, we've never tried to impose a routine if you like, I just take his lead. Up until now he was having 4 sleeps a day, usually only half an hour to an hour at a time.

DS usually won't go to bed before 8pm - any earlier and he fights it big time, so we've just accepted that this is how it is. There is no point in me struggling to get him to sleep if he's just not interested.

From about 5 months DD has slept 4hrs during daylight hours -- that could be 2x 2hr naps or 2x 1hr naps and a 2hr nap or 4x 1hr naps! I focus on the amount of time, rather than amount of naps. She goes to bed at 7pm and wakes for the day at 7am but still wakes every 4hrs overnight (so 2 night feeds at around 11pm and 3am).

Sam didn't go to two day sleeps until somewhere between 9-10 months. He tended to be a catnapper, so needed three shorter sleeps, and it was only around that age that he started to have longer day sleeps and be able to manage with only two.

He also doesn't go down for the night until somewhere between 8 or 9 (works for us, DH doesn't get home until after 6) and gets up around 7am (sometimes 6am) so seems to need to have a bit extra day sleep to make up for the shorter night.

I know Sam was quite late in going from three to two, but he was in a nice routine that worked for him and worked for us and everyone was happy. The thing about all these people who talk about what babies "should" do - they forget that nobody gave the babies the rule books!

BW

In my experience, babies usually drop to two sleeps from about 6ish months.

DS is 4 months and is still doing three, anything from 1-2.5 hours usually but generally he'll do 2x 1.5 hours and 1x 2 hours. You'll probably find that gradually he will have more awake time and so the drop to two will be a natural progression rather than something you have to do iykwim?

We do feed, play, sleep too but from about 4-5 months some recommend feed, play, sleep, play. It's always worked pretty well for us. When you introduce solids later, the feeds will stretch out a bit any way (in most cases).

At the moment DS generally has 1.5 hours awake time between sleeps but can quite happily manage 2 if I need to stretch him out for whatever reason (school drop off/pick up usually). He has at times been awake for as long as 3.5 hours if we've been out etc and has handled that fine as a one off too, but I wouldn't make a habit of it.

I'd just go with whatever works for your baby. Sounds like he's doing pretty well atm.

Thanks for your responses ladies... Just by coincidence today he has only had two naps. He was up for a couple of hours this morning, then slept for an hour and a half. He got up and after about 2.5hours he was grizzling and appeared to be tired so I put him down. I had to go to the shops and when I got back DH had gotten him up because he was wide awake and rolling around in bed. So he ended up staying up 4 hours, that was how long it took for us to get tired signs and to put him to bed. But he only slept for 45 mins. We just put him to bed for the night now after he'd been up for a couple of hours.... Oh well, guess we'll see how tomorrow goes...

My DS (7 months) has just started to have longer naps (he used to only sleep for 45 mins so was having 3-4 sleeps per day) but now naps up to 3 hours so tends to have two sleeps - one about 9-930ish, another after lunch, and then bed about 6-630ish, but its not set in concrete, I just go by the tired signs. Someone told me babies tend to get more active around this time (6-7 months) and therefore tend to start to sleep longer - not sure if this is the case or just a random coincidence :) I think every baby is different - some use more energy and will be more tired, others are chilled out and 'relax' more so need sleep - so try to go by your baby's cues if you can, this will suit them best