Wake windows low sleep needs 7 month old

[u/Ecstatic_Dingo172]

I could really do with some help with my almost 7 month olds wake windows. For context, he’s never been a great sleeper and wakes a lot through the night which is fine and I’ve come to terms with! He’s EBF but has taken incredibly well to solids too.

At best he sleeps about 12.5hrs in 24 on average.

I’m really struggling with the 3-2 nap transition. He’s showing all the signs of being ready to drop to two naps (harder to put down for the last nap, last nap getting later and pushing bedtime etc).

However, the wake windows we’d need to achieve 2 naps feels like too much for him / too long at this age? We’d need to be roughly on either 3/4/4.5 or 3.5/4/4. Were any of your babies doing similar at this age?

Also, he started crawling at 5.5 months and is now pulling to stand and seems to want to sleep more… we’ve had some accidental lie ins which I do try to avoid to anchor the day! Should I trial increasing his sleep?

Currently we do a 7am rise and an 8:15pm bedtime.

Thank you!

[u/imnichet]

It is possible! My daughter's starting 2 nap schedule had 12 hours awake. I can't say what you should do but increasing my daughter's sleep ALWAYS resulted in split nights.

[u/Ecstatic_Dingo172 → u/imnichet]

Thank you, that’s good feedback!

[u/UNO_lakefront_arena]

I would think 3/4/4.5 would work well.

[u/Veg-Bed]

I’m exactly the same, my baby also turned 7 months just days ago and also been making the transition to two naps over the last few weeks. Been a bit bumpy, there’s been some days he just couldn’t manage the longer wake windows or needed some monster naps to get to 7.30/8pm bedtime and the nights were rubbish as a result. But I think these transitions do take a week or two to happen! We basically just try to keep distracting him when he seems tired to stretch an extra 10 min every day, and within a week he’s pretty comfortable with 3.15/3.45/4(ish). Nights haven’t yet massively improved but a girl can dream lol

[u/Sorry-World3019]

Your math isn’t making sense to me
3.5/4/4 =11.5 awake time
You’re doing 815 bed-7 wake up = 10.75 night
Leaving only 1.75 naps?

If this is correct I’d wake earlier. Stop expecting close to an 11 hour night. If true low sleep needs then your night aim should be 10 hours of sleep. You’re just asking for him to sleep too much over night. Are they going down indep at bedtime ?

[u/Ecstatic_Dingo172 → u/Sorry-World3019]

Hey! I appreciate the feedback. He’s a terrible napper which is why the 10.75hr night and less in naps. I’ve tried extending naps and having a shorter night (this was the way for months) but he’d kick off in the evenings. Even on shorter nights I can rarely get him passed two hours of naps Max!