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Babies have very active brains. In fact, it is due to their rapid brain
development that babies require so much restorative sleep. This is where the
importance of napping comes in. As children learn and grow each day, they
build up sleep pressure in their brains more quickly than adults, and the only
way to relieve this pressure is to nap. Resting the brain therefore becomes a
biological necessity as children are not able to tolerate being awake for long
periods of time.

Naps are incredibly restorative. After a good nap, children are much happier,
calmer, and ready to learn. Sleep Science tells us that babies spend most of
their naps in REM sleep, which we know supports brain growth and also
improves emotional well-being. Napping will also reduce cortisol (the stress
hormone) levels, which is why a nap can be the cure for a cranky baby. Babies
who do not nap will have a very hard time falling asleep at night because of
the buildup of cortisol.

There are a few reasons that you might be feeling the nap time struggle. First, we
need to recognize that every baby is so different. No two babies will have the exact
same sleep needs or distribution of naps. Each baby will have sleep totals and wake
windows that look different and need to be individually considered.

Following a nap schedule based only on age-specific wake windows or the clock, is
simply setting yourself up for anxiety and frustration… and most likely a nap strike.
You wouldn’t expect every 30-year-old to have the same sleep needs, to sleep for the
same length of time each night, to go to bed at the exact same time or wake up at
the same time each day. The same is true for our children, it is just human nature
really! Babies are not robots, we cannot expect to be able to program them as such.

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You can use wake windows and age-based recommendations as a guide, but we
always suggest using those as a starting point and then adjusting for your baby once
you spend some time determining what is going to come most naturally to them.

When it comes to struggles with nap time, some of the most important things to
remember are the following:

● If you are anxious about sleep, your baby is also anxious about sleep
● If you are stressed about naptime, your baby is also stressed about nap time
● If you are experiencing negative emotions about sleep, your baby is also
experiencing negative emotions about sleep

Our babies co-regulate, so however you are feeling about naps, they are feeling it
too. We cannot force sleep during the day, just as we cannot force sleep at night. So
how do we take the struggle out of naptime?

Here are our suggestions:

● Let it go: ​Remember anything you are having a hard time with when it
comes to babies is likely only temporary. Sometimes we just need to let go of
the pressure and expectations we feel and instead focus on embracing the
snuggles while our little ones are still this small and so dependent on us.
● Focus on your own emotions around sleep:​ If we want them to feel calm
and believe that the vulnerable state of sleep is an okay place for them to be,
we need to believe that too. We need to radiate confidence and positivity for
them. The most important thing is to protect the relationship with your child.
Let go of nap battles on and focus on connecting with your child.
● Take some extra time to get to know your baby: ​To be honest, we’re sure
you already know them very well, you just need to take a moment to tune
what you already know! They will have unique cues, unique rhythms and
unique patterns. Let go of the generic strategies and age based schedules.
What works for your baby? How do they communicate with you that sleep
pressure has built up enough and they are ready to rest? Familiarizing
yourself with, and accepting, their temperament and unique personality can
go a long way in struggle free naps as well!
● Check out your baby’s sleep environment:​ Is it conducive for sleep? Try
dimming the lights or consider using white noise. Is it a space they are familiar
and comfortable with? Or is it a space they have associated with frustration
and negative emotion? You might want to add more playtime in their sleep
space to build up those positive sleep associations!
● Build and stick to a routine you both enjoy:​ This can take a lot of the
guesswork out of naps! When our babies know what is coming next, when

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 there is a strong sense of predictability, sleep transitions can take place with
much greater ease.​⠀
● Get a fresh perspective:​ Pick some positive things to focus on when it comes
to nap (for example how amazing those baby snuggles are). Don't compare to
anyone else, every baby is so different and no two babies have the same
needs⠀⠀
● Don’t be afraid to use motion naps:​ Try taking the nap on the go! A stroller
or baby-wearing can be great to combat nap time battles, plus getting fresh
air can do wonders for everyone’s mood! As long as your baby is safe, the crib
is not a requirement.
● Don’t get in a battle: ​ If you are frustrated and things are not going well, take
a break. Go play for a few minutes, read a book, get outside for a quick walk.
Do what you need to do to reset and settle into a better mindset, then try
again. It is better to reconnect and have a late nap, than spend an hour in a
dark room feeling frustrated and defeated next to your sweet babe.

Again, one of the most important pieces of taking the battle out of nap time, is how
we as parents feel about naps. Our babies tune into our emotions all the time. They
rely on us to co-regulate. Knowing this, it makes sense that if we are dreading nap
time battles or feeling anxious about our baby's sleep, the same is very likely true for
them. ⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
When it comes to naps, reflect on your emotions surrounding sleep. Be confident in
your ability to tune into your baby's cues and trust yourself to know their natural
rhythms and patterns.​⠀​⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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If your baby is under the age of 4-6 months, it is important to understand that
30 minute naps are completely appropriate from a neurological perspective.
As babies’ brains mature, they begin to develop the ability to consolidate
sleep. First nighttime sleep begins to consolidate somewhere between 6-12
weeks when the circadian rhythm comes in and melatonin production
begins. Then naps BEGIN to consolidate around 6 months. Before this nap
consolidation, 30 minute naps may be your baby’s norm, which is totally fine
as long as they’re waking up happy and look rested.

It’s also very normal for your baby to only be able to nap ON you or in contact
with you because humans are born “premature” compared to other species
and your baby is very much in the fourth trimester for their first 3 months of
life. Babies also attach through the senses in the first year of life, so your baby
will want to remain close to you to be able to touch, smell, and hear you. If
your baby is not able to sleep in their crib yet, don’t worry – most babies need
a lot of support for the first 4-6 months of life and go on to become great
independent nappers if that is a goal. You might need to use motion or a
carrier to keep them close to get those naps in at the beginning. Try not to
stress, it won’t always be like this.

Now, if your baby is 6 months of age or older, and is still taking 30 minute
naps we can look at some of the factors that can be causing this. Before we
do, it is important to note that this is truly all some babies need in order to
feel rested and continue along with their day. If your baby is happy all day
long and sleep comes easy to them – even with a bit of support – you may
have a baby that doesn’t need longer naps. If not, we’ll take a look at some of
the factors that affect naps.

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There are many factors that impact naps. If you find your baby is not getting enough
rest during the day the following are some factors to consider:⠀⠀

1. Environment: S ​ ome babies can happily nap wherever, others are much
more sensitive to their environment. If your baby happily naps on the
go we are not telling you to change a thing. If naps are a struggle
however, you might want to consider napping your baby in a very dark
room using a sound machine to drown out the daytime noise.

2. Over tired​: When babies miss their natural sleep windows, their bodies
produce a stimulant hormone called cortisol. This is the brain saying to
them, “oh you’re still awake, here let me help you to sustain this”. This
stimulant can cause babies to wake up after 30 minutes because it is
there to help keep them awake. To combat this, you want to try to pull
up naps by 10-15 minutes or so and see if that helps you to get a more
complete nap. You can also support naps for a couple of days to catch
up on sleep.

3. Under tired​: A bit the opposite from overtiredness, if your baby hasn’t
been awake for long enough since their last sleep, they might not have
enough sleep pressure to get a full nap in - they’re simply not tired
enough. This you can spot if your baby is waking up happy as can be
and just playful after a short nap, with no interest in returning to sleep.
You might want to try pushing the nap to start 10-15 minutes later and
see if that helps.

4. Baby’s Activity Level:​ W

​ hat is your baby doing while they are awake?
Are they getting enough free play? ​Depending on your individual baby,
your baby may need more or less activity time than “average”. For
example, a 10 month old who is a very active baby is unlikely to nap well
if their wakeful time was filled with driving, sitting in their high chair,
and then going for a walk in the stroller back to back to back. It’s
important to pay attention to what your baby is doing during their
wakeful time and ensure they’re getting the appropriate amount of
time to move around freely.
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7
 5. Overstimulation: ​Similarly, we want to make sure that we’re also
avoiding over stimulation, which can happen from doing too many
things during the day. An extended wind down routine can help
combat over stimulation on a day that you know you’ve been busier or
have visited with more people than usual.

6. Our Feelings About Naps: ​Lastly our feelings toward our baby’s naps
can have a huge impact on their ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Biologically, babies need to feel secure and to know that their primary
caregiver is okay. If you’re stressed, your baby is going to pick up on
this energy and the last thing they’re going to want to do is to fall
asleep and stay asleep because they need to protect that relationship
with their primary caregiver. So if you’re not okay, they can’t relax
enough to fall asleep and stay asleep, because sleep is a vulnerable
state to be in. If you find naps to be frustrating, we recommend taking a
break when you feel frustrated and coming back again when you feel
calm, or getting outside for a motion nap.

Those are some of the factors that MIGHT affect naps. We just want to
emphasize that if your baby is happy and sleeping well taking shorter naps,
that is wonderful and there is no need to make any changes. If you want to
try to address some of the shorter naps, these are some factors that might be
causing the short naps, but please do not get nap obsessed and spend all day
inside in a dark room trying to make naps happen.

If you have been dealing with short naps, or if your baby wakes up early from
a nap, you can try to go to them right away and see if you can help them back
to sleep by patting, holding, rocking, or feeding. If after five minutes they
haven’t returned to sleep, get them up and continue your day.

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Some days, a nap just won’t happen. In these cases, we want to discuss how we
recommend handling this.

1. First, don’t stress. ​ This happens to EVERYONE, you’re not doing anything
wrong, ​sometimes your baby needs you more than they need to nap.
2. Check in with how you are feeling.​ Are you feeling stressed about sleep?
Our babies and toddlers co-regulate with us, so they’re likely to feel the same
stress we’re feeling. It’s really hard to fall asleep when stressed.
3. Take a break.​ If you have been trying to get a nap in for more than 10-20
minutes, it’s time to take a break. Come out of the room and invite some quiet
play for 20 minutes or so and then you can try again for sleep at the next signs
of sleepiness.
4. Take a walk. ​ Throw your kiddo in a stroller or carrier and get outside. You
can get moving and an instant mood lift just by being outside and your little
one is likely to fall asleep with the motion.

If all else fails, put your little one to sleep earlier for their next nap, or if it was the last
nap before bedtime, we go as early as a 6pm bedtime for a one off day. Be careful
not to consistently be putting your little one to sleep at 6pm because it can lead to
some early rising if your child needs less than 12 hours of nighttime sleep. I​ nstead of
wasting an hour of your day in a dark room feeling defeated and confused and
possibly causing tension between you and your babe (we can say this because we
have been there), get outside for some fresh air or a quick walk, read some books,
play for a bit, then try again!! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀​⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Again, sometimes our babies just need us more than they need sleep, or sleep
pressure just hasn't built up enough for whatever reason. We cannot force sleep no
matter how beautifully we've set up the conditions. The last thing we want to do is
establish negative emotions for you and your little one surrounding sleep, so the nap
time battle may just not be worth it! Take a break, reconnect and try again!

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We get asked a lot, how do we know when it is time to make a nap
transition?

If your baby is falling asleep pretty easily, and staying asleep well, then
waking up happy, you don’t need to change anything about your baby’s naps.

Babies will naturally lengthen the amount of time they’re able to stay awake
for between naps as they get older. There’s nothing we have to do to make
this happen, but we do need to pay attention to their cues.

If your baby WAS previously falling asleep easily and staying asleep well, then
waking up happy, but is now either taking a long time to fall asleep, or
sleeping for a short amount of time, then it might be an indicator that you
may need to adjust your baby’s nap timing.

It’s important to keep in mind that

babies do have off days, so please
don’t make a change after one off
day. If they are consistently
struggling to fall asleep or having
short naps after previously having
nice easy naps, try to nap them
10-15 minutes later and see if that
adjustment makes a difference.
You can also try to shorten the
previous nap by 10-15 minutes (if
your baby is having longer naps) to
see if this helps to build up the
sleep pressure while using the
same wake windows you’re
currently using. That’s generally
what we do for nap adjustments.
Really pay attention to your baby’s
cues and behaviour. If they’re
sleeping easily and waking happy,
you have the right timing.

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Generally speaking, babies will fairly naturally transition from taking many
naps a day in the newborn stage to going to 4 to 3 naps at about 6 months
without much help from us.

If you have a 6 month old who is still taking 4 naps, they are likely cat
napping, which is totally fine, but if you’re struggling with naps at this age,
you can experiment with stretching them a little bit to see if they can handle
2.5 hour wake windows and make the transition to 3 naps. Sometimes just a
little push can help naps fall into place with a bit more ease.

The bigger nap transitions we want to focus on are the 3-2, 2-1, and 1-0 nap
transitions.

Let’s start off with when these tend to happen:

Babies go to 2 naps somewhere between 7-10 months

Then go to 1 nap typically between 13-18 months
Then drop the nap altogether at around 2.5-4 years

As always, these are general guidelines.

Now how do you know when to drop a nap?

Some clues your baby might be getting close to nap transition include:
● They are resisting nap time in general
● They are happy to continue playing through nap time without showing
signs of being tired⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
● They are staying awake long enough that it makes it difficult to fit in
the last nap of the day⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
● One nap is getting longer while the next is being refused⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
● They can't fall asleep for the last nap despite first nap being
capped⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
● They have started to rise much earlier in the morning ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
● They begin having a difficult time going to bed at night ⠀⠀⠀
● Their wake windows naturally lengthen as their tired cues become later
and later ⠀⠀​⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀​⠀⠀⠀⠀
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If you think they might be getting close, t​ wo of the most common signs​ your
child is ready to make the transition are either:
1. Your child WILL NOT take the number of naps you are currently on,
despite really carefully capping the naps – which you may have to do
for a while when they are on the cusp of dropping a nap
2. OR: When the amount of time they need to build up enough sleep
pressure pushes the naps out too far that bedtime is being drastically
affected.

Let’s talk about these a little a bit more.

Babies and toddlers go through phases of fighting naps, or as they get close
to dropping a nap there might be some nap resistance if one nap is too long.
For example, a common thing we hear all the time is ten month olds going
down to one nap because they stopped taking their second nap. Generally
speaking, ten month olds are not ready for one nap. If yours is on one nap
and doing great, that’s wonderful, don’t change anything, but generally
speaking they need to hold onto two for longer. What often happens at ten
months is that these little babies are napping for 2+ hours in the morning and
then can’t fall asleep in the afternoon. So in this example, we would keep
capping the morning nap by 10 mins more and more until we can get that
second nap in. You might end up with a 30 minute morning nap and then a
longer afternoon nap, which is perfectly fine! Same thing can happen on 3
naps, and then on 1 nap we often see bedtime battles or toddlers taking
forever to fall asleep at bedtime. If that’s the case, we want to g
​ radually
reduce the length of the nap and not cut it altogether right away.

The other piece of the puzzle has to do with what we first talked about.
Babies and toddlers naturally lengthen the amount of time they are able to
stay awake for as they get older. As they do so, their naps push later and later
until eventually there isn’t enough time to fit in the number of naps they are
taking and you need to make a nap transition.

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12
With any nap transition we want to remember that we are not DROPPING a
nap but rather stretching out the time between the naps that are remaining
so the extra nap goes away, and we pull up bedtime temporarily to help with
the transition. For example, if a baby is going from 3 naps at say 9am, 12:30,
and 3:30, we don’t want to keep baby napping at 9 am and 12:30 and then
stay awake until bedtime around 7pm, we would want to stretch those naps
back a little bit, slowly, so now maybe baby is napping at 9:30/10, then again
at say 1:30/2pm and then bedtime might be 6 or 6:30 for a little while baby is
adjusting to their new nap routine.

Remember this is a transition. This change does not happen overnight and it
is important to be flexible and present for your child! While working your way
through this you will likely notice that some days your baby will take the
same number of naps they had been, while other days they are okay to drop
down. This is normal and simply part of the transition. Trial and error will be
your friend when it comes to transitions!

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Is my child ready for two naps?

The 3-2 nap transition is the first real nap transition parents will have to
support their babies through. Until 3 naps, babies generally consolidate naps
pretty naturally without much effort from their parents.

This transition typically occurs between the ages 7-10 months, more
specifically at 8 or 9 months of age. As children grow, their sleep matures
meaning they are able to stay awake longer without needing to take a
restorative break.

Generally, our rule of thumb is to transition to 2 naps when ONE of the

following criteria can be met:
● Baby can comfortably handle 3 hour wake windows
● Baby can take 2 long naps (1.75-2 hours)
● Baby absolutely will not take the 3rd nap, no matter where you cap the
first 2 naps or how much support you give the third nap. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

So let's talk about these a little bit more. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

First, we generally look for babies to be able to handle 3 hours awake at a

time because unless babies are taking mega naps, they are going to need to
be awake for about 3 hours at a time on a two nap schedule, to make it
through the day.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The exception to being able to handle 3 hour wake times on two naps is a
baby who can take big mega naps during the day. A baby who is taking
closer to two 2-hour naps may be able to handle two naps before they can
handle a 3 hour wake window. This is the big exception and not the rule and
these are usually higher sleep total babies who might need 16 hours of sleep
in 24 hours.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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14
The final reason we would transition to 2 naps is if your baby just won’t take
the 3rd nap without pushing bedtime too late. Before we accept that the 3rd
nap won’t happen, we would encourage you to experiment with capping the
first two naps a little bit to allow for the build up of sleep pressure to occur.
You may need to cap the first nap at an hour and the second nap at an hour
and 15 minutes as an example, to be able to fit the 3rd nap in. If after
experimenting with capping the naps you still find your baby will not nap,
then you need to transition to a 2 nap routine to avoid a big wakeful period at
the end of the day. Feel free to experiment with capping more than our
example before giving up the third nap though!
⠀⠀⠀
Transitioning from 3 naps to 2

When making this transition, it's important to remember we need to push

both the first and second nap back in the day a little bit to evenly distribute
the naps throughout the day. We don't want to simply drop the 3rd nap
because this would cause too long of a wake time before bed, which would
likely lead to an overtired baby (and more night wakings).

1. On the first day you want to put baby on 2 naps, start by putting your
baby down about 15-30 minutes later than you do on 3 naps
2. Let them sleep for as long as they'd like
3. Extend the wakeful time before second nap a little bit too
4. Temporarily pull bedtime earlier in the day to allow your baby to adjust
to their new nap schedule.

To walk you through an example, let’s look at a sample 3 nap schedule and a
sample 2 nap schedule.

On 3 naps, your baby may be doing something like:

6:30 wake
9am-10am nap 1
12:45pm-2pm nap 2
4:45-5:15 nap 3
8:15 bedtime

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15
On 2 naps, we would ask the same baby to do something like:
6:30 wake
9:30 nap 1 (for as long as they’ll sleep, let’s say about 1.5 hours)
2pm nap 2 (for as long as they’ll sleep, let’s say about 1.5 hours)
6:30pm bedtime (this can gradually drift later as baby adjusts to a 2 nap
schedule)

Again we really want to highlight that this is just one example of how a baby
may nap and make this transition. Your baby may need more or less sleep
than this example, but we just wanted to show you that we’re stretching both
wake windows and nap lengths, then temporarily pulling up bedtime to
make the transition.

This takes a little bit of trial and error and you may have some days where
baby needs 3 naps and other days where they need 2.

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16
Is my child ready for one nap?

Next, we want to talk about the transition from 2 naps to one nap.

This transition typically happens in toddlerhood, around 13-18 months. Again

there’s a range of normal here, but it’s somewhere in that 13-18 months range.

Similar to what we see in the transition to 2 naps, you want to transition to

one nap when either:
● Your toddler can comfortably handle a 5 hour wake window
● You cannot fit 2 naps into the day without a really late bedtime
● Your toddler will not take the second nap, despite really carefully
capping the first nap

Again, let’s discuss these a little bit further.

First, being able to comfortably handle a 5 hour wake window, is the easiest
sign that your child may be ready for the transition to one nap. When
children first go to one nap, we usually ask them to stay awake for about 5
hours before the nap. If your child has no issue with this wake window, that
may be a sign that they are ready for one nap.

The next thing we see a lot as children get ready to drop to one nap is that
they need longer and longer wake windows to be able to fall asleep for their
two naps. These longer wake windows usually mean that bedtime gets
pushed later and later. As a general rule of thumb, we try to allow for a

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17
minimum of a 10 hour night. So if your toddler starts their day at around 6:30
in the morning, we would be looking to switch to one nap if their bedtime
starts drifting later than 8:30. Some toddlers need much longer nighttime
sleeps than this, so keep reading your child’s cues.

The final reason we might switch to one nap is if your toddler will not take the
second nap, no matter how short the first nap is and how late we push that
second nap (within reason of course). It’s important to remember as toddlers
get closer and closer to this transition, they’re more and more likely to need
two shorter naps to get through the day, so don’t be afraid to cap the first nap
if you think they still need the two naps. The other thing we see A LOT is
babies going to one nap around 10 months because they just won’t take the
second nap. What tends to happen here is that babies start taking a longer
and longer first nap, and then do not have the sleep totals and sleep pressure
to fit the second nap into the day. In this case, we would recommend
capping the first nap a little more and more until we see that second nap
come back. We often have a one hour first nap before their first birthday, but
feel free to cap that nap up to 30 minutes to see if you can fit the second nap
in, if they don’t seem ready for just one nap yet. If you cap the first nap at 30
minutes and they still won’t take the second nap, then we want to switch to
one to avoid them getting overtired.

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18
Transitioning from 2 naps to 1

When you have decided that you need to make the switch to one nap, we
need to approach this differently than just dropping the second nap. As we
discussed with 3-2 nap transition, we want to shift the whole day so nap is
happening in between when the two naps typically were.​ We don't want a
toddler napping from 9-11 and then having 6-8 hours before bedtime because
they will quickly get overtired.

1. First start by capping the first nap. See if this helps to get the second
nap in before deciding to remove it all together. This will help to make
sure you are not making this transition too soon.
2. Move back the morning nap to shift it towards the middle of the day,
try doing this in increments starting at 11, 11:15, 11:30, 11:45 ect. for
example so that you can stretch out the morning wake time. Ideally, we
want 4.5-5 hours of wake time before going down for their nap on day
one. Then we can stretch it to 5-6 hours so nap would likely be around
12-1pm.
3. Only if needed, add in a quick cat nap in the afternoon until the nap
can be moved to the middle of the day, this way you won't be left with a
huge wake window between nap time and bedtime
4. Temporarily move up bedtime to help avoid an overtired toddler, you
will eventually move this back as your child adjusts.

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19
Is my child ready to drop the nap?

Around age 2 a lot of kids will reject their nap. This is normal but don't give up just
yet. Just because your child skips a few naps does not mean that they are
completely ready to give it up. Generally speaking, most children do not give up
napping entirely until between the ages of 3-4. In the meantime, it is a good idea to
offer a rest or quiet time. The nap will likely return itself and it is most important to
protect the connection with your child rather than slip into a nap time power
struggle.

Signs that your child IS ready to switch from nap to rest time might consist of:

● Bedtime is getting later and bedtime battles may arise

● They are having a hard time falling asleep for nap
● They can tolerate staying awake through longer wake windows

Transitioning to quiet time (no naps)

If this is true for you, what's a parent to do?

1. First make sure you have done some trial and error with capping the nap. As
with other transitions we want to make sure we protect bedtime and avoid
cycles of overtiredness by first limiting the amount of time your child is
sleeping during the day. For some they may just need to drop down to only
30-45 minutes in the afternoon rather than an hour or two.
2. If capping the nap doesn't help you can also try moving the nap as early as
possible.. you can try 11:30 or 12 even (speaking from experience this strategy
can sometimes be enough to do the trick!)

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 3. If neither of these strategies work, it is likely time to move to quiet time

During this transition we would like to note that if you are in the car or walking with
the stroller your child likely will fall asleep. Sometimes it is best to avoid these
activities during the period of time in which they used to sleep.

Be prepared for periods of exhaustion and big emotions as children move away from
having any restorative breaks! As we have mentioned, nap transitions do not happen
overnight. Be sure to offer your child support as well as time to rest! It can time to
settle into new routines and patterns, be patient and flexible!

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What’s the best way to stretch a child beyond their typical nap time when we’re
working on a nap transition?

We highly recommend getting outside during their would-be nap time. Aim to get
out about 20-30 minutes before they typically nap on the old nap schedule. This will
allow you to be outside for when they typically get tired and then have time to come
in a bit before the new nap time to allow them to wind down before asking them to
sleep. Getting outside will help their bodies to reset their circadian rhythms and
when they expect to sleep.

How do I know for sure? What happens if we make the change too soon?

It’s totally okay to test the waters so to speak if you think your child is ready for a nap
transition. Sometimes we get it right the first try, others we need to add the extra
nap back in. The signs that your child may not be ready for a nap transition include:
false starts, early rising, more frequent night wakings, crabby/irritable behaviour as a
result of being over tired. It’s normal for there to be a few hiccups during a nap
transition but if your little one seems really out of sorts, it’s likely they just need a
little more time before they make the change.

Some days my child needs 2 naps and other days just one, is it okay to go back and
forth?

These transitions also are often not a line drawn in the sand. They’re dynamic and
fluid transitions. Some days your child may need an extra nap than other days. This
is okay! Remember to be flexible in your approach to your child’s naps. The
transition may take a couple weeks, or a couple months (especially if it’s dropping
the nap altogether).

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I’ve heard the later you make these transitions, the easier they are, is this true?

With any of these nap transitions, we have outlined the criteria we usually look for to
determine if a child is ready to transition. In NONE of these lists was there an age
that your child should be before they can make the transition, because we feel that
babies and toddlers are all unique in their sleep needs. It does not make any sense
to hold on to a nap for longer than your baby needs it under the rouse of a possibly
easier transition. The only reason it would make it an “easier” transition is because
your baby was likely ready to transition long before and you will likely drive yourself a
little bonkers trying to hold onto the extra nap beyond when your child needed it.

I think my child is ready for a nap transition but they fall asleep in the car a bit
before their normal nap time, does this mean they aren’t?

We read this a lot on sleep blogs. Many suggest that if your child is in the car a bit
before their typical nap timing they shouldn’t fall asleep, but generally speaking, that
is exactly what is going to happen to a child who gets in the car near nap time. You
definitely want to be aware of this fact and aim to avoid the car a bit before nap time
when making any nap transition so that your child has the opportunity to adjust
their body clock to expect a nap later in the day than usual.

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