The transition from three naps to two naps. So this transition usually happens
around eight to ten months before that your child really is gonna need three
naps even if that third one is shorter one or a power nap but once they get
to eight to ten months they're gonna start to feel ready to drop down to two naps a
day so what kind of signs are going to show that that's coming well that third
nap was probably gonna either become harder to make happen so you know the
child just resists and resists and you just can't get them to take third nap or
they will settle for it but it becomes very very short and barely worth having
so those are signs that that shift is on the horizon or
perhaps they struggle to settle to sleep somewhere else a little bit and it's
because the timings mean to shift slightly so perhaps their second nap
they just really have a hard time settling for it that's because they're
not actually ready and instead of having three they're ready for that second one
to be a bit later leaving a slightly larger wake for window between their
first and second nap so that could be another sign that this this
transition is coming it's not too tough a transition it's not like the two to
one transition that one can be a bit slower to take shape this one usually
does occur quite naturally so it should be reasonably obvious the signs will be
quite clear in that that's third now does just drop away so what are you
aiming for once you get into that realm you are looking for three hours of sleep
roughly per day spread over two naps so once they can comfortably reach that
quota of three hours total over two naps then you know that they're quite
comfortably on two naps if they're each now and a half brilliant they're nicely
equally balanced they don't have to be it might be that you have a two hour in
a one hour but ideally they'll be closer to you know
to half-and-half and the other thing to bear in mind is around this age they
can do about three hours roughly awake in any one stretch so just be mindful
that they're not spending you know three four hours five hours awake in one go
regularly because that will cause over tiredness so for instance if they're
waking quite early in the morning that first nap might need to be a little
earlier than it otherwise would be and the second one and then again factor
in where bed time needs to sit to accommodate that in an ideal world a
child that sleeping somewhere in the parameters of a 7 to 7 night they're
going to do really well with naps in the day falling around 9:30 in the morning
and around 1:00 1:30 in the afternoon approximately they're really good
windows for those two naps for a two nap schedule doesn't always work that way I
know and lots of little ones do you wake earlier than that if they wake any time
from 6:00 then fair enough it's good its morning time and I would
still aim for a roughly a 9:00 o'clock first nap so see what they do when
you're going through that transition just bear in mind that things might not
be crystal clear they're not we're just going to slot into a beautiful rhythm
where they sleep for exactly this length of time exactly that time of day it
doesn't usually work that way the chances are you'll find that it's it
slightly moves and shifts and then it starts to settle into a a pretty good
pattern but there'll be days where they're disturbed early from a nap or or
they sleep longer because they're having a bit of a catch-up and that's okay
that's absolutely fine if they're doing that it's probably because they need to
but my last tip for you on this is to have a back-up plan if naps don't go so
well so if you don't get that three hours in the day let's say you get an
hour in the morning and then an hour and a half in the afternoon and you think
we're just a little bit short today on sleep just bring bed time forward a
little bit put them down to bed a little bit
earlier half an hour earlier might be enough up to an hour earlier
fine I wouldn't move bedtime more than an hour earlier because then you're
moving the whole night effectively but if it's inside of an hour bringing it
earlier slightly will be a good move there's no point keeping that child up
to meet a consistent bedtime at the cost of them being overtired and exhausted by
then one of two things will probably happen they'll either get a second wind
and be quite ramped up and then resist bedtime or they'll be so tired that
there'd just be zonking out to sleep without much awareness and before you
know it they've lost the practice of settling themselves to sleep so that
transition as I say it's quite clear usually that it's coming that third nap
starts to drift away but it's really important recognising how much sleep your
child needs and balancing that over two naps one last tip for you is if you have
got a child who's waking up particularly early for the day or having really
disturbed night sleep then the three hours over two naps quota might not be
enough for them, a baby sleeping a 12 hour night would do well to have
three hours in the day over two naps so if you imagine that child is not getting
twelve hours in the night they're having made me very disturbed sleep wakeful
patches in the night or very early starts they're actually going to almost
need a bit of sleep to top that up as well as having their two naps and it
might be that developmentally they're not really able to fit three naps in any
more so you could do the try extending that nighttime sleep if they're an early
early riser so working on a resettle to try and get them to finish off the night
sleep and then go ahead with your two naps in the day or it might be that you
have to shift the naps a little earlier and bring bedtime a little bit earlier
as well not permanently it could just be for a few days while they replenish some
of that lost sleep okay so that's your transition from three naps down to two
around the 8-10 months mark