When did your baby drop the afternoon nap?

[MemmaJ]

My little boy was 9 months old yesterday.

Up until yesterday, his naps have been kind-of back to front and he'd tend to have a long one in the morning, a shorter one at lunch time and another shorter one late afternoon, and then go to bed between 6.30 and 7.30 (depending on when he woke up from afternoon nap).

But yesterday he started doing what all the books say he 'should', haha! He had a shorter one in the morning and a longer one at lunchtime, and has done the same again today.
Both days I've put him up for his usual afternoon nap and have ended up giving up after half an hour of him screaming, and bringing him back down again.

He seems tired late afternoon (rubbing his eyes, yawning) but just point blank refuses to go to sleep.

Is he showing that he doesn't want that third nap anymore, now that his other naps have swapped around..? I don't want to confuse him by keep putting him up in bed and then bringing him back down again, and I also don't want to distress him unecessarily - so if he doesn't need/want that nap any more then I just won't do it!

He was taken up for his bath at 6pm lastnight and had his bottle around 6.20 but made a fuss going to bed for about 20 mins, which he doesn't normally do (he usually goes straight to sleep with his dummy) - so I am worried he was overtired and does still need that nap?!

 

[Iren_iren]

My girl will be 9 month in a week and she started dropping her 3rd nap now

If she wakes up around 7-7:30 then its 2 naps (second being longer), but if she wakes up earlier like 6:30, then she needs 3rd short nap.
The same was with my first (although he was a very early riser), he dropped his 3rd nap at 9 month

 

[jessmke]

Isla dropped her third nap at about 7 months. She typically has a 45 min nap in the morning and 1.5 hr nap in the afternoon (although this has been reversed for the last two days for some reason). If her 1.5 hr nap gets shortened for whatever reason then she will take a short third nap, but that is rare. Ideally she should have two 1.5 hr naps, but that rarely occurs either.

 

[MemmaJ]

Thank you, and what time do your LO's then go to bed?
My boy went to bed about 6.20pm lastnight after no afternoon nap again.. He first woke at 3.45, managed to get him back to sleep then he woke again for the day at 5.15...!

 

[MindUtopia]

I'm not sure, but it would have definitely been before about 8 or 9 months, as my daughter started at nursery when she was 9 months and she definitely was only having 2 naps by then. Maybe around 6 months. But the afternoon one was usually pretty long, 1-1.5 hours.

 

[Twag]

My daughter has a nap in the morning about 30mins max (power nap) then she will nap at lunchtime for about 2hrs and then she needs to still have her nap in the late afternoon which is only about 30mins

She dropped this on Monday and she was awful in the evening overtired and full of beans and didn't go to sleep until 10pm!! and then was bad all night (but tbh she still wakes every 3 hours anyway at night )

She had her afternoon power nap yesterday and then went to sleep her usual time at 8pm (she was still bad at night as she had a tummy ache but that isn't down to naps)

She is 9 months tomorrow

 

[jessmke]

Thank you, and what time do your LO's then go to bed?
My boy went to bed about 6.20pm lastnight after no afternoon nap again.. He first woke at 3.45, managed to get him back to sleep then he woke again for the day at 5.15...!

Isla gets up for the day around 8 am and usually goes to bed at 7 pm so long as her afternoon nap is at least 1.5 hrs long. One days when she has a short afternoon nap she will be in bed earlier, around 6:30 pm. She has pretty much put herself on a 2-3-3.5/4 schedule. Her morning nap is 2 hrs after she wakes for the day, afternoon nap is 3 hrs after she wakes from morning nap, and bedtime is 3.5-4 hrs after she wakes from afternoon nap. But I don't strictly enforce this, if she seems sleepy an hour before she usually naps then I put her down for a nap early and she either will then go to bed a bit early or she will have a short third nap if I can coerce her into it. Today she will have three naps because she had a 20 min catnap on the way home from swimming this afternoon, so she will need a third nap in a few hours.

 

[Bevziibubble]

My daughter dropped the afternoon nap at around 12-13 months old.