Sleep update

I wanted to jot down a few thoughts about James dropping a nap (going from three to two)...

- He was quite fussy the week we returned from our week-long vacation to Arkansas.  He did not sleep well at all on vacation (to be expected), though at the time we had NO IDEA why he was so sad all the time.  Teething?  Ear infection? Gas?

- For all three naps, he was only sleeping about 45 minutes during this very fussy week (instead of 1.5 hours).

- He was waking very early during this fussy week (5:30am or so).

- I happened to read that some babies drop a nap around 8 months.  James was 7.5 months, but the short naps, fussiness and early morning wakings fit the picture of him possibly wanting to drop a nap.

- We did it cold turkey!  One day, I only put him down for two naps and it went GREAT!  It was the first day all week that he didn't cry all day long.

- I opted for the 2-3-4 schedule, where he goes down for his first nap 2 hours after waking in the morning.  He goes down for his second nap 3 hours after waking from his first nap.  He goes down for bedtime (roughly) 4 hours after waking from his second nap.  So, this is what his day looks like now on a two nap schedule (in terms of sleep):

6:30-7am wake
8:30am lay down for 1st nap
9:30-10am wake from 1st nap
12:30-1pm 2nd lay down for 2nd nap
2-2:30pm wake from 2nd nap
6:15-6:45pm bedtime routine (bath if needed, lotion, read, bottle)
6:45-7pm lay down for the night

He is doing great on two naps!  He hasn't really had a terribly fussy day since dropping the evening nap (he used to also take a nap from around 3:30-5pm, with a 2-hour wake time in between each nap).