When did your LO go from 3 to 2 naps? Did nap numbers affect nighttime sleep?

[gracemamma]

DD is 5 1/2 months and I've been giving her 3 naps in the ergo for sometime. It works out well but as she's been sleeping poorly the past few nights, I'm wondering about everything (is the dairy I inadvertantly had in some hummus 2 days go? Developmental changes? Teething? 3 naps?)
NCSS solutions says babies go to 2 naps at 6 months and some of the other books I've just been looking at say she should already be at 2 naps. It sems like if she isn't tired, she wouldn't be sleeping, but thought I'd ask you BTDT mamas how these naps transitions worked for you & whether they affected nighttime sleep- Thanks so much!

[gracemamma]

Would love some input

So I tried 2 naps yesterday as she woke up from her 2nd nap at 4:15 (I was so exhausted by lack of night sleep that I kept trying to get her to take this nap in bed but no luck-it just postponed the start).
She fell asleep at 8:30 and then an hour later cried herself awake but then was fine-it doesn't seem to be teething pain like some weeks earlier just the annoyance of waking up out of deep sleep. She rolls back and forth alot in her sleep and this seems to wake her up (ALOT) and then wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 3 or 4 and it usually takes an hour to get her to sleep again then she's exhausted in the morning from all the wake ups and is sleeping later than her usual 6:30/7 wake-up. So...
1- Do you think this is just normal developmental stuff or is there anything I can do?(DH has moved to nother room because with baby wake ups + his snoring my sleep was getting too little to be very functional- we would like to have him back!)
2- Still interestd in the naps- is 5.5 months around when you transitioned from 3 to 2? Did you just see this naturally occur or did you encourage it in any way? I walk her and nurse her to sleep for her naps when 1.5-2 hours have gone by. I could just watch her sleepy signals and walk her then but am curious how you mamas did this transition.
3-Did this daytime sleep transition affect night sleep?
Many thanks from this bleary-eyed mama!

[YayJennie]

My son went from 3 to 2 somewhere around 6.5 months. Pay attention to your baby, not the books! I'm sure she's fine, and like you said, she wouldn't be sleeping if she wasn't tired. I believe Wyatt took about a week to readjust his schedule and his bedtime moved WAY earlier (he was going to sleep around 5pm for awhile, and then day light savings didn't help either), but it gradually got later and he now sleeps from 6:30-6:30 and naps from 9-10:30 and 1:30-3 pretty consistently. I didn't do anything to encourage his schedule change, just paid attention to his sleepy signs and tried to stay home more so we weren't out and about when he was getting tired and needed to go down for a nap.

[odoole]

My 5 mo does not have any kind of regular sleep schedule and I feel like he needs one now! He's been a very unhappy chappy this last week with all the holiday travel and whatnot. I don't even know how many naps he takes per day, but I think it must be 4 or 5 little catnaps. He does sleep a good 12 hours straight at night, though (not counting the quick night feedings).

[major_mama11]

DS (8 mos) went from 3 to 2 naps around 5-6 mos. Often now, he only naps once per day. And his nighttime sleep is worse too (shorter stretches, sleeps lighter), although I think for most babies they tend to sleep longer stretches at night after they reduce their number of daily naps... my little guy just didn't get that memo.

[gracemamma]

Thanks!

Thanks for sharing your experiences with this. DD has had 2 naps for a few days now-it's happened naturally but we'll see if it sticks. Night sleep was a little better last night. She is rolling back and forth & getting into all kinds of interesting positions in her sleep! I think longingly of only waking up every 2 hours like before!

[ATruck]

Some of the nap changes take a while. It took DD1 a long time to switch from 3 to 2 naps (months, it seemed, of going back and forth, and she didn't finally settle on 2 until about 9 months), but then switch from 2 to 1 was abrupt at 13 months or so.

DD2 is switching now to 2 naps, at 7 months.

It really can be a struggle to figure out what they need, and what they need each day is not always the same.