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mummymonster 
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 Topic: Late afternoon nap
Posted: 25 March 2010 at 5:45pm |
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DS is almost 8mths. He's not a great day sleeper - nap length is an issue and he wakes up tired but won't sleep longer. Night sleep is about 7:30pm to 6:30am with waking only for dummy replacement (an issue for another day)
His morning nap is usually 45min. His middle nap is either 45min or 1.5hr. Then's there's the issue of late afternoon.
For the first two naps, he goes in the cot, get his dummy and goes to sleep. With few exceptions, it's simple, quiet and easy.
Then by about 4.30/5pm I've got a tired baby who needs a third nap. This time however it's all tears and tantrums. If I can't get him to sleep he doesn't really eat dinner or drink his last bottle and he's GRUMPY. On the other hand, oh my the crying and the stress.
What do I do? Let him CIO? (I doubt this work for him) Forget the 3rd nap and just have a grumpy evening baby?
How much day sleep are the other 8mth babies out there getting?
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sadie
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Posted: 25 March 2010 at 6:24pm |
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Could you try to stretch out his morning nap so he is having 1 1/2 hours then, and then another 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon?
Say, if he wakes at 7am, put him down for a nap at 9.30 or so, then up at 11am, down again at 2.30 to 4pm, and then through to bedtime.
How is he at resettling after the 45 minutes?
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pekay
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Posted: 25 March 2010 at 6:24pm |
My DD is 8 months tomorrow, and her bed time is at 6. So she has her solids at 4:30/5ish, bath and bottle at 5:30, then bed at 6pm. Maybe try an earlier bed time?
She sleeps 13-14 hours at night and she has 2 naps during the day (anywhere between 45minutes to 90minutes.
She is teething at the moment and is basically horriable (I love her darely though) so for the last 2 days when she has woken after 45minutes I have just left her to cry and she has extended her nap ( I sound heartless, but she really needs it right now). I also cant get her down for 3 naps anymore, hence why I need those quick naps to be longer or she is not nice 
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mummymonster
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Posted: 25 March 2010 at 7:29pm |
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I can't seem to make DS sleep any longer than 45min. I've tried the std suggestions (waiting for the break and re-settling him straight away, rocking him, ssshhhing him, making sure the dummy is still in at 45min) none of it works. DS calls the shots.
He sleeps 45min when he feels like it.
He sleeps 90min when he feels like it.
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WestiesGirl
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Posted: 25 March 2010 at 7:46pm |
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Gosh I reckon our babies are so alike. Some of the things you post a could have said myself, including this one lol. Anyways, I digress.
Jackson is also the same with day sleeping. He usually sleeps up to 1.5 hours in the AM and anything from 40 minutes - 1.5 hours for his PM nap. If he sleeps 1.5 hours I can sometimes stretch him to 7pm bed time but if he only sleeps 40 minutes I can struggle to get him to have a 3rd nap as well.
So, if he needs a 3rd nap, which is 70% of the time, I generally feed him to sleep. Yep possibly a bad habit but it works for us for now and its easier than tantrums and tears. I do CC but I dont feel its worth it so late in the avo so thats why I feed to sleep. Its the only time except for night sleeps that I feed to sleep so cant be too bad.
Could you make bed time 7pm instead of 7.30pm?
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jano1
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Posted: 25 March 2010 at 9:18pm |
Have you tried taking him for a walk or wearing him for the 3rd sleep?
Otherwise he might be ready to extend the amount of time he is awake (usually they start resisting sleeps when this happens). Can you try and stretch him out a bit longer in the morning- say 5-10mins at a time so that the afternoon sleep is a little later and then an early bedtime? That's what we did with DD when she dropped the 3rd nap which from memory was about 8 months.
HTH 
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CarrieMum
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Posted: 25 March 2010 at 10:26pm |
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My 10 month old still has a late afternoon nap and has done since he was 8 weeks old. He's always slept 1.5-2 hours in the morning, the same in the afternoon and then about 20-30 mins around 4:30pm just to get him through dinner, bath and bottle before bed for the night.
He has never had this late afternoon sleep in the cot though. He would just cry if we tried but when he was really tiny he'd have that sleep in the bouncer or rocker, now he'll always fall asleep in the pram on a walk or in the car so I just go with that and either go for a walk each day at that time or try to make sure Im driving back from somewhere at that time. This works really well for us.
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HoneybunsMa
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Posted: 25 March 2010 at 11:32pm |
I would do meals etc earlier and try putting him to bed earlier.
Maybe its time to ditch the dummy? DD used to only have short naps then we ditched the dummy and she has almost consistently done hour long naps since. This btw was only in the last couple of weeks, but I was over waking every hour or two at night to give her her dummy!
Another thing I have done is if she does have a short nap and she is still tired I can't put her down or she stands at my feet crying at me and trying to climb up me anyway so won't play so I sit her on my lap with a cracker or some cheese some little snack and she eats that. It's enough to distract her and calm her down and give her a rest rather then a sleep. DD is always on the go and needs to rest otherwise she gets cranky
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millymollymandy
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Posted: 26 March 2010 at 9:48am |
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I think Issac and my DD must have some mental link or something as yes I could write the same thing! (Not such a good night has him though). We do a morning nap of 45mins- 2hrs (very random, but average 1hr, has been asleep for nearly 2 hrs today). A similiar lunch time nap and a 30 min (ish) catnap in late afteroon.
Third nap is a struggle, but she is really grumpy without it. I either walk her in the stroller or rock her till she is just about asleep and then put her into bed. Long term not sustainable, (and is one advantage of a small bubba) but she'll drop the nap eventually anyway. I have had some success with rockin back to sleep too. But will have to start scaling back rocking. Stroller is a bit hit and miss, sometimes won't sleep.
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wellygirl
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Posted: 26 March 2010 at 10:07am |
Sounds like what my DD was doing. I used to put her in the stroller at 4pm and take her for a half hour walk, and she'd usually have a little catnap which would see her through till bedtime at 6.30.
Nowadays I still take her for a walk, but she stays awake as she doesn't need a third nap anymore. I figure it's fresh air, scenery and a little time out for both of us
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MistyMolly
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Posted: 26 March 2010 at 10:47am |
Yep, same going on here, though we ditched the afternoon nap quite a while ago now and just have a 6.30-6.45 bedtime.
Sam has never been a baby that either needed or wanted to sleep much in the day and I always thought that it would get better but here we are at over 8 months and he still sleeps for only 30 mins in the morning and about 1 hour early afternoon.
Then randomly one day he will sleep 2 hours in the afternoon and I sit and try and work out what on earth was different about that day and come up with a theory (e.g. longer awake time) which I try the next day and, guess what??? no repeat performance!! And then today he point blank refused to have a morning nap. No idea why (though think he is teething).
I no longer fight with him to extend naps as it was stressing me out too much. He is a great night sleeper thankfully so there are days when 6.30pm doesn't come soon enough!!
So in answer to one of your questions Isaacsmum - Sam gets a total of about 13.5 hours sleep which seems to do him. I however, get nothing done in the house!! 
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gmunster
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Posted: 26 March 2010 at 4:23pm |
DD has been on 2 day sleeps onyl from about 6.5 months. Wakes around 730am goes back down at 10ish for 45-90 minutes, then again at 3ish for 45-90 minutes and bed again at 730pm. the morning one is the hardest to stretch out the wake time but a walk in the buggy or change of scenery does the trick.
I agree with others to try and stretch out the morning one and have only a 2 sleep day.
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kiwikid
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Posted: 28 March 2010 at 3:33am |
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I agree at that age DS wouldnt go down in his cot for a third sleep, actually I think from aobut 3mths he fussed at the third sleep so I'd put him in the front pack or the buggy when he was older and we'd go for a stroll around the block. It was easier to control the length of nap then too as 9/10 he would wake when we got indoors again.
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anon
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Posted: 28 March 2010 at 2:23pm |
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That 4pm-7pm time is always a killer, being the witching hour. Everyone is tired, hungry and had enough.
By that age a 3rd sleep isn't common (speaking from my nannying experience of babies this age). However, it's still common for them to be having a 1.5hr morning sleep and a 2hr afternoon sleep (though the morning sleep might decrease gradually). The waking up after 45mins is just after a sleep cycle. If you can get your baby back to sleep and into that next sleep cycle every time, then he'll cope better in the evening. Pop the dummy back in around that time, turn on whatever music/noise he's used to going to sleep with. Ideally do it before he wakes up so that he just drifts into the next sleep cycle. Two 1.5hr naps would be great, because by the time 4/5pm rolls around, sounds like he is overtired. He needs longer daytime sleeps.
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Late afternoon nap
