2 naps a day causing 5am wake ups😴😴

Same I find the balance hard to get. I've realised if he has a very short nap anytime between 4-5pm, then I can push bedtime back to 8-8.15pm (it used to be 7) and the later bedtime seems to be really helping him sleep for longer. But it's very tricky sometimes to get him to have that last nap, if he doesn't then he wants to go to bed at 6pm and then we have so many wake ups 🙃🙃

We are going through the exact same now and I have no idea how to navigate it at all 🙃

Oh I feel ya, we were doing 3 naps but she was wanting to nap at 5-6pm or becoming incredibly overtired and struggled to go down, stay down and woke earlier - both scenarios aren't ideal.

So we just transitioned down to 2 naps, not gonna lie, it's been rough to start with. But I feel her naps are longer and more beneficial now.

First nap is roughly 2-3 hours after waking (usually between 7-9am), the nap can last up to 2 hours. I let the babe sleep as much as she wants.

Then she goes down between 3:30-4pm and woken at 5pm if she's not already woken up. I have started coining 2:45-4pm the grizzle stage as she is very tired.

5pm up for dinner, bedtime routine and in bed between 7:30-8pm.

Before I implemented this, this child was up multiple times a night, but varied on either waking early or seriously late.

If she wakes early doors, has had an unsettled night or has interrupted first nap then I let her sleep if she is showing cues, but not after 5pm as getting her to sleep can be a nightmare if I do.

I know this is going to sound crazy but the best thing we ever did was not adhere to wake windows and bed times and a specific schedule. My 2 year old boy was sleeping through the night from around 6 months (we co slept from birth, he hated the crib) with the occasional bad night due to illness. We let him nap when he wanted, be awake when he wanted and by 6 months he naturally fell into a routine that worked for us as a family. He was asleep by 9pm and didn’t wake up until 8/9am the next day. When we had our now almost 8 month old I was terrified he was going to disrupt the routine. He was sleeping through the night from around 2 months and has two naps throughout the day usually 1-2 hours each then is also fully asleep by 9pm but more often 7:30/8pm then sleeps fully through the night again until 8/9am but in his crib next to our bed because he prefers his own space. I’m so glad we never tried to force a routine or make them stick to times because I’d have gone crazy 😅

I know it doesn’t work for everyone and maybe we just got really lucky but everyone I know who has tried wake windows and nap times is on edge and stressed all the time trying to stick to them and cannot believe how well our kids sleep just left to their own devices. It’s also easier because I’m a SAHM so don’t need them to do things at certain times really but I always suggest to friends that if what they’re doing isn’t working maybe just try doing what the kid wants to do and see if they get there on their own. I’m pregnant with my 3rd and hoping he falls into the same routine as the others but if he doesn’t I’m a lot more relaxed now about letting him find his own way. And I get it’s very idealistic and a lot of peoples lives don’t work that way and need things to happen at certain times but I can’t imagine trying to function with the stress of watching the clock all the time and I think there’s way too much pressure on parents with all these recommended parenting styles