when is your LO's last nap of the day?

[Ldogg]

Boy, are we struggling with this! DD is 5 months old, and I feel like we have never been more out of sync with sleep than we are right now. What we have been doing for the past month or so is bed around 6:30-7pm and awake around 6:30-7am, with every imaginable scenario happening in between (sometimes she'll wake up just a few times during the night, sometimes every hour). She's a fairly lousy napper for me - I only get those 45 minute naps on and off throughout the day, with a nice long 2.5 hour nap every two weeks. But apparently she's a decent napper at daycare, and she's there 3 days a week.

Here's the issue: I pick her up from daycare (those 3 days) between 4:30 and 5, and we go right home to nurse. She invariably gets tired around 5:30 or 6, but I *really* don't want her to go to bed then! Because she'll wake up right as I'm going to sleep around 10:30 and then we're up more frequently since that first stretch is her longest.

But is 5:30 or 6 (or even 6:30) too late for that last nap? Most experts say yes. And even if I don't believe the experts (which I often don't), one time I put her to bed then thinking she would nap, but ended up going down for the night!

I'm totally confused. And frustrated, because I basically worry about this every evening. You would think I would just try something and stick with it, but that is remarkably hard to do for some reason!!

[SunRise]

7pm for about half an hour - then she goes to bed around 9:30pm
(we discovered this during spring baseball season - she always nodded off in my arms at this time and woke up a half hour later, while we watched my son play ball. )

[akind1]

DS often takes a short nap in the early evening - 6:30 or 7 for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Granted, he doesn't go down for the night until at least 9. but he seems to nurse only once or twice a night and gets up for the day between 7 and 8 a.m.

He is older than your L.O. but this has been true for us for a few months, I think. Generally I don't really have him nap on a schedule or anything, just lay him down if he's tired, and let him play if not (or sometimes he is tired, but fighting it) I just find it easier to let him play until he is willing to nap, than fight him to nap when I think he *should* ditto for trying to keep him awake when he wants to sleep. It is easier to follow his lead.

[Asiago]

Approximately 7pm my son (9.5 mos of age) takes a one hour nap (third nap of the day). We bed share, so then he goes to bed with us at 9-10pm or so.

[octobermom]

My LO is the same age mine takes 2 full naps a day and one mini and while we dont schedule there pretty predictable..
awake 6:30am
morning naps 8:30-10am
afternoon nap 1-2:10ish ( she'd likely sleep a bit more but I have to get her up to go get my oldest from school at 2:30)
small cat nap around 4pm or just some "quiet" time she gets fussy and all the cues of needing sleep but she wont go down for the night or often sleep sleep. I've recently figured out to lay her in the PackNplay bassinett we hav set up int the living room and turn on the music feature. She'll coo and kick and seems to kinda like the quiet time (and gives me a chance to make dinner) sometiems she'll sleep a bit.

Bedtime is typically around 7-8pm...
shes sleeps basically through the night. She goes to sleep in her crib but if shes wakes I 99% of the time just bring her over to my bed and we cosleep the rest of the night.. Sometimes its like almost morning other times its most of the night.. Like last night she coslept from around 3:30am on...


Deanna

[P.J.]

I, too, wondered about this. Our DS goes to bed for the night usually at 9:00, so he definitely needs that last nap in the evening. If he didn't get it, he would fall asleep earlier, and then get up way too early in the morning~ this happens some days because he just won't go down for the last nap. I follow his cues, but the last nap is usually around 6 or 7:00, but no later. Today it was 6:45 for about 40 minutes (his naps are never much longer), and he's about to go to bed at 9:00. I'm hoping as he gets a little older (he's 3 m.o.) he'll naturally shift to a slightly earlier bedtime, and in that case the evening nap will drop.