https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 29 Apr 2026 19:33:23 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354967 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:55:36 +0000 NerdBee 354967@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@sammyfab: thank you for your words of encouragement! </p> <p>I am so grateful for hellobee where I can ask for advice when I'm so tired and my brain is so frazzled that I can't decide what to do next. </p> <p>You ladies are all so kind and supportive! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354878 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:13:42 +0000 Sammyfab 354878@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Oh, and your LO successfully put himself to sleep THREE times tonight! I know it was not the ideal bedtime situation but the goal in the end is for him to learn how to fall asleep independently...and he's doing that! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354872 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:11:46 +0000 Sammyfab 354872@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Sorry your day was rough :(. The good thing is that tomorrow is a brand new day!! That was always my motto when it was a horrible day of napping and I was making bad decisions about waketimes and what-not. I would countdown the minutes until bedtime so that we could just start fresh the next day. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354851 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:59:39 +0000 Mrs. Bee 354851@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@NerdBee: good luck! i know it's tough, but sleep training was so worth it for us, and i hope it will be for you too. </p> <p>a well rested baby and well rested mama will make for a happier family. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354845 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:55:55 +0000 NerdBee 354845@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Bee: he would not take a fourth nap, so after calming him down, we went straight to bath, nursing and bedtime. He actually fell asleep during nursing but woke up when I transferred him to the crib. </p> <p>It was rough today. He cried for one hour before falling asleep. So far he's woken up twice and cried for 6 minutes and 30 minutes respectively before falling asleep again. Hopefully he's down until morning. </p> <p>I'm going to try a 2.5 hour awake time between naps tomorrow. Hopefully he will take better naps so he won't be so tired at bedtime. </p> <p>Thank you all for your advice! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354834 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:46:16 +0000 Mrs. Bee 354834@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@NerdBee: how did it go? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354828 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:42:41 +0000 Mrs. Yoyo 354828@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@NerdBee: Don't know if you've seen this, but I've always found it helpful:</p> <p><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/11GHo4keUb2TVJUlSL1kD6HQcEgaNFBmzoQoOzcpcyas/edit?hl=en&#038;authkey=CPXE1bsO&#038;pli=1#" rel="nofollow">https://docs.google.com/document/d/11GHo4keUb2TVJUlSL1kD6HQcEgaNFBmzoQoOzcpcyas/edit?hl=en&#038;authkey=CPXE1bsO&#038;pli=1#</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354451 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:42:50 +0000 NerdBee 354451@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Bee: thank you for taking the time to look up Charlie's schedule at this age. </p> <p>@sammyfab: thanks for your thoughtful advice! I wonder if lo's wonky sleep lately is because he needs a longer wake time. He's been going down within 5-10 minutes for naps but they have been shorter than usual. Then he started started having a lot of trouble going down for bed time and would keep waking up even though he would normally sleep until morning, I thought it might be the 6 month regression but it hasn't gotten better. </p> <p>I will try longer wake times tomorrow. Just have to get through today! I hate hearing him cry :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354347 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:57:37 +0000 Sammyfab 354347@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>First, Mrs. Bee and Mrs. Yoyo have given you great advice so far. I just wanted to chime in and relay some of our experiences. My LO is almost 8 months and we transitioned to 2 naps at 6.5 months.</p> <p>At 6 months our waketimes looked something like 2.25-2.5hrs/2/2/2 when he was on 3 naps. I needed a longer waketime in the morning to get a longer nap and then the next 2 naps were usually only 45 minutes. My LO is a pretty good sleeper and can usually fall asleep whenever I put him down regardless of the waketime though (unless I'm way off). We were having issues with long nightwakings in the middle of the night and early wake ups before 6am so I was advised that I should transition to 2 naps. So the next day I changed the waketimes to 2.75/3/3 and we were on 2 naps going forward.</p> <p>So, some signs of transitioning to 3 naps are:<br /> 1) your LO is taking awesomely long naps and there just isn't enough time in the day to squeeze in a 3rd<br /> 2) your LO can handle 2.75+hr wake times<br /> 3) you have weird stuff happening at night like I did<br /> 4) your LO is constantly refusing the 3rd nap regardless of when it starts (my LO only refused naps after 4pm)</p> <p>I also wanted to add that I'm a huge fan of the early bedtime but we've never gone earlier than 5:30. My LO often sleeps 12+ hrs straight with an early BT! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354338 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:53:47 +0000 Mrs. Bee 354338@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@NerdBee: i just looked back at charlie's schedule and he was awake 2 1/2 hours around 6.5 months. olive was always a sleepier baby.</p> <p>sometime in his 8th month, he was able to stay awake 3-4 hours almost overnight instead of 2 1/2, so we dropped the 3rd nap. </p> <p>i think you'd be safe to try 2.5 hours awake time, but your lo will be more tired during sleep training.</p> <p>i knew when it took charlie too long to fall asleep that he wasn't tired, but that was because he was sleeping well and i knew he wasn't overtired. if it takes them too long to fall asleep, they could be tired or overtired. but 2 hours awake time is not that long for 6.5 months, so maybe your lo could be not tired enough. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354327 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:46:09 +0000 NerdBee 354327@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Bee, @Mrs. Yoyo: that's interesting that your lo's transitioned to 2 naps at different times. How did you know when they were ready to drop the third nap? Also, how do you know when Lo can handle a longer wake time? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354312 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:41:48 +0000 NerdBee 354312@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Yoyo: that's an interesting point. Maybe he's not tired enough and that's why his naps are so short? </p> <p>&lt;sigh&gt; this baby sleep thing is such a guessing game. I'll try longer wake times tomorrow to see if it helps. Thank you! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354293 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:36:25 +0000 Mrs. Bee 354293@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@NerdBee: 2 hours was a good awake time for Charlie at that age. both he and olive didn't transition to 2 naps until 9 months, Charlie was nap trained at 4.5 months, and Olive at 8 months. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354276 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:31:42 +0000 Mrs. Yoyo 354276@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@NerdBee: I think it's usually closer to 3 hours at that age, but he may be OT, so it's hard to say.</p> <p>I remember when my LO was that age, and he was transitioning from 3 naps to 2, but he often still needed a catnap in the late afternoon. He would almost always fight it and I would have to drive him around for about 40 minutes many nights for a couple weeks. I wasted a lot of gas, but it worked. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354244 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:21:03 +0000 NerdBee 354244@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Bee: thank you! I'll try your suggestion. Many thanks! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354234 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:17:41 +0000 NerdBee 354234@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Yoyo: thank you! I wasn't sure if I should try for the 4th nap because he normally take only 3 naps. </p> <p>Do you think 2 hours is an appropriate wake time for his age? When he is well rested, he can stay awake longer than 2 hours but I figured that since he must be tired from the short naps. I shortened his wake time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354231 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:17:08 +0000 Mrs. Bee 354231@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If it were me, I'd probably skip solids and go for the bath if he ends up not taking the 4th nap so he'd be down by 5:30ish.</p> <p>for me personally, the cut off time was 20 minutes, especially with a 4th nap that's hard for them to take anyway because their bodies are not used to taking 4 naps a day. doesn't feel fair to try to force them to! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354208 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:10:49 +0000 NerdBee 354208@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Bee: thank you for such a quick response! If he does go down for another 30 min nap at 4:30pm, should I then put him down for bed time at 7pm like usual? </p> <p>I've always read that you should have an early bedtime when your baby is overtired from sleep training which is what I assume is causing his short naps. </p> <p>Usually I have some play time, feed him solids for dinner, nurse and give him a bath before bedtime. So if he ends up not going down for a 4th nap, should I go straight to feeding him solids, then bath and bed? or should I just skip the solids and try to get him to bed as early as possible? </p> <p>How long do I let him cry before pulling the plug on the 4th nap? </p> <p>Sorry for all the questions. It's just the logistics of it all have me a little befuddled. It could be my sleep deprivation from a week of bad sleep. Thank you for your help!!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354186 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:06:48 +0000 Mrs. Yoyo 354186@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would definitely try for catnap No. 4. I'd be afraid to do a bedtime any earlier than 6. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354131 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:49:27 +0000 Mrs. Bee 354131@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>you can try for nap #4 and if it fails, go for an early bedtime. we'v done bedtimes as early as 4:30!! rare, but 5:30 was definitely not uncommon. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-nap-or-early-bedtime-next#post-354116 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:46:02 +0000 NerdBee 354116@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DS is almost 6.5 months and last night we decided to let him cry it out because over the past week it has been taking over an hour to get him down and he would wake up within 45 minutes to an hour and we would have to start over again. Rocking did not work anymore as it seemed to stimulate him more. So we decided to let him cry. He cried for 40 minutes and slept for about 20 minutes, woke up and cried for about 30 minutes and then slept for the rest of the night until 6:30am this morning. </p> <p>However, he has been taking really short naps today. Normally he sleeps for about an hour per nap but he has had two 30 minute naps and one 20 minute nap that just ended at 2:20pm. Should I put him down for another nap in 2 hours or should I stretch his wake time a bit and put him down for an early bedtime at 5pm? </p> <p>Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! </p>