Sleeping FAQ: 6-9 Months – Lunchtime Nap

Can I move my 8.5-month-old son’s lunchtime nap onto 1pm?

My son is 8 months old and sleeps at 9.30am until 10.15am, from 12.30pm till 2.30pm and the full 12 hours at night from 7am-7pm. However, due to other commitments, I need to move his lunchtime nap to 1pm. I was thinking that I could let him sleep from about 1.15pm to about 2.45pm, giving him about 1.5 hours and maintaining the morning sleep as is. Can you please advise me if this is the right thing to do? Will he be able to go from 10.15pm till 1pm comfortably?

It is impossible to say how your son will be able to manage this change but the way to find out is to move things forward very slowly. Keep him up for 5 minutes longer every few days before settling him for his lunchtime nap. This way he should get to 1/1.15pm without being too upset.

One thing which may happen is that as he gets older he begins to cut back on his first nap in the morning and so become very tired by 1.15pm. You may need to juggle his whole day a little to accommodate this, but always try to move things slowly over a period of time and most babies adapt quite well, providing they are still having an appropriate amount of daytime sleep for their age.