When does a baby change from two naps to one?

Question of the week

Today our question comes from Susan and she’s wondering, “when does a baby change from two naps to one?” First of all, I’ll tell you around the age when this tends to occur. I find that a good average age for this, is somewhere around the 13th month.

Now, I have seen babies go as early as nine months, and I’ve also seen babies hang on to two naps a day, until, well into the 17th or 18th month. But if you are looking for an average, I would say 13 months. I’m going to share with you three signs to watch for.

Sign one : Longer morning naps

Your baby will happily continue to take her morning nap. 9 times out 10, there is nothing wrong with morning nap. In fact, most people find that it gets even longer than it’s ever been.

Sign two: Starting to dislike afternoon nap

The trouble arrives when you put her down for that afternoon nap, and she just won’t take it. Either she plays all the way through it or she alternates between playing and some crying or she just flat out starts to cry from out of nowhere. Those are some things that you’ll start to see. Now, the tricky part about all of this is that those signs won’t show up every single day.

Sign three: No longer needs afternoon nap

You’ll find that you’ll have three or four times in a row where she doesn’t take her afternoon nap, you’ll start to think to yourself, “OK, it must be time to drop that nap,” and then for three days in a row, she takes both naps beautifully. That can really throw people off.

A good rule of thumb around that is if you notice this happening, at least five days a week, then that is a good sign that it’s probably time to make the switch. Also, this needs to be going on for, I would say, at least two to three weeks, because it can just be a developmental milestone, if she’s learning a new skill, it can throw nap time off for a week or two.

Advice to help with transitioning

I would say, four or five times a week, at least two to three weeks of length that this has been happening, then you can go ahead and make the switch. Now, a little bit of caution of making the switch. You can’t just jump from a 10 o’clock nap to, all over sudden, a one o’clock nap.

That would be too hard on her body clock and she will get so overtired that by the time you try for that nap, it’s going to be trouble. My advice is that, you slowly start to move morning nap down. My advice

1. You move 30 minutes every three days.
2. If it’s 10 o’clock, you move it to 10:30 for three days
3. Then you move it to 11:00 for three days, 11:30 and so on, until it hits about 12:30.

I find 12:30 is the perfect time for a one nap day. She can have her lunch and go straight into her nap.

Is this information useful to you and your family? I would love to hear your feedback regarding your sleep routine. 

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