Transitioning from 3 naps to 2 or 2 naps ro 1

Hi Tracy,

At some point you will notice some changes in your babys sleep patterns. A few things may happen: They may stuggle to fall asleep at nap or bed time, they make wake up early from their nap or morning time or they just may sleep more restlessly. The transition from 3 naps to 2 naps usually happens somewhere between 8 and 12 months. The transition from 2 naps to 1 naps may happen between 12-18 months. If you start to notice that your baby consistantly struggles with falling asleep or making it through their nap or bedtime and they are within this age range, they probably need to be on the next schedule. This is not something that will just happen once. It is something that will happen every day or most days for a week.

If you feel that your baby does definatley need to reduce the amount of naps, the best way to do this is to start by reducing the length of the nap you are eliminating. Reduce it by half an hour each day so that it is completely gone by the 3rd or 4th day.
Good luck!
Debbie

Hi Debbie,

I have a question:

-          How do you decide that your baby is ready to make a change from 3 naps to 2 naps or 2 naps to 1 nap?  I know that skipping one of the naps once doesn’t seem like enough . . . Do most babies start to do this more and more often leading up to the time that they are ready?

-          Once you have decided that they are ready, do you just move straight to the new schedule or is there some type on transition schedule to ease them into it? 

Thanks for your time,
Tracy