Can a 5 month old drop a 3rd late afternoon nap? My duaghter seems to have a lot of trouble settling down for a late afternoon nap. About 2 hours after she gets up from her afternoon nap, she is put down and it can take up to 45 minutes for her to goto sleep. I'm trying to keep a pretty solid bedtime between 7 - 7:30 so if she goes to bed too late it interupts that. She will also take about 1 hour to goto sleep for the night. She's prmarily just fussing a little, babbling, being silent, etc. There is no long crying jags in this time togoto sleep. She can sleep by herself. I go into her and check on her and pat and stroke her back for a few minutes every 5 - 10 minutes or so( I don't really time it) so she's not just alone figuring it out the whole time. It just seems to take a long time for her to settle down. Right now, I have put her down and it's been about 30 minutes and no sleep. I really need the schedule to work as best as a scheduled bedtime can work because of my own schedule and having another 6 year old duaghter as well.
I guess I'm asking for how to help her to get to settle herself. Breast feeding doesn't always work and sometimes wakes her up. We use some music, but that is just more like a routine for "time to go to bed" than anything else. Thanks for any help in advance.
A.
My son at that age usually took 2 naps a day, one at around 0900 and one around 1300. Sometimes on the way home from work he would fall asleep for an hour or so, which was fine because dinner would wake him up a bit and he'd get tired again. I just tried to not let him nap after 4:30pm to avoid him being hyper towards bedtime.
yeah, 5 mos is right around when most babies start to do another sleep transition. usually at that age, they're either taking 3 naps but still not going to bed for the night until closer to 9pm, or they're down to two naps, but down for the night by like 6:30. if you want to drop the nap, go for it, but anticipate needing to put her down earlier than 7 or 7:30; she'll be a disaster by then, and you'll start having to deal with sleep issues stemming from being over-tired. or, you can continue the third nap, but anticipate bedtime being pushed back. if she can do either, then you're in the lucky position of being able to choose what works for you, for now, but soon she will start really needing to drop the nap and adopt the earlier bed time.
good luck! the first year is a crazy ride in terms of sleep....
My 5.5 month old hasn't been taking three naps since she was about 2 months old. Part of this is because I have a toddler as well, and we're mostly on his schedule (poor girl!), so she takes a morning, afternoon nap, both of which are usually short, and is in bed most days by 6:30 or a bit after. She's fantastic at falling asleep unassisted, no crying, within 5-10 minutes, but I've noticed the more tired she is, the longer it takes her to fall asleep. Try putting your baby to bed earlier at night if possible so that she gets more sleep. That may help her fall asleep sooner!
First of all, I would do away with the 3 naps. No wonder she wont sleep at night! She has been asleep for a good portion of the day already. I just watched what the habits of my kids were, one would go all day if allowed to, and the other would sleep thru the night, If I was tired at 8pm he would sleep until 8am. No problem. Just try and figure out what their hours are for a day or two without a nap schedule. See if they fall asleep on thier own, or if they stay awake most of the day. Then go from there.
