My name is Mica. I am a certified sleep consultant and founder of Rested Mama, Happy Baby. I help families on their journey to establish healthy sleep habits and get the whole family sleeping again! Naps are such a crucial part of your little one’s day.  They are born sleeping in utero, and they come into this world taking naps, whether they are 20 mins or 2 hours long. However, as soon as naps start to be consistent, they change so suddenly, especially in the first 6 months of life.

   There are some things you may notice, like your good napper all of a sudden refusing naps.  Or perhaps your consistent napper, after sleeping so well at night, starts to wake frequently… Why is this?  Could it be a regression?  Could this be teething?  Well, depending on the signs you are seeing, it could be, or it could be that your child is ready to drop a nap. As a newborn, it is typical for a child to take 4-5 naps in one day.  However, it doesn’t stay that way forever.  Many babies will start seeing transition and readiness for naps every couple of months. 

 4 Signs Your Child is Ready to Transition Naps

1. Developmentally Ready:

   The first sign of readiness to drop a nap is if your child is developmentally ready or is of age.  So when do naps typically drop?  Check out our chart below:

    Remember, however, these are just guidelines, and your child still needs to show other signs that they are ready to transition.  Some children can transition earlier, and if they do transition earlier, they will likely transition to dropping the rest of the naps earlier.

2. Refusing the last nap of the day:

   The next sign is that your child has started to refuse the last nap of the day, or the nap gets shorter and shorter while the other naps get longer and longer.  At some point, your child might fight the nap entirely, and you will see this nap skipped a couple of days in a row.  Some children show these signs suddenly, while some might show some gradual changes.

3. Naps start to lengthen:

   The third sign is your naps start to lengthen, and your wake times start bleeding into each other, or bedtime starts to get pushed later and later when trying to apply the next nap. But, again, once you notice this, it is a sign that your child has already started to drop that next nap.

4. Early mornings:

   And the last sign, in combination with the others, is your child’s total sleep for the day starts to increase and begin to impact your early mornings.  In many cases, you begin to see your child waking earlier in the morning simply because they’ve had enough sleep.

    If these sound familiar to you, take a look at their sleep for the last 2-3 days and identify a pattern.  It might just be time to say goodbye to that nap!

  Learn more about how we work with families to help their babies sleep 10+ hours at night without Cry-it-out or Ferber.  Join our free webinar!

Sleep is around the corner, 

Rested Mama, Happy Baby Founder