Consequences of holding onto more naps for longer
Holding on to naps usually means waking Baby from most or all of his naps. This allows him to fit in enough awake time throughout the day, and it’s extremely important to fit in enough awake time and enough sleep. If Baby doesn’t get enough awake time during the day, he’s likely to wake in the middle of the night, ready to play.
More naps means shorter naps (but does not mean SHORT naps — we still want naps to be 60+ minutes each, other than the last nap, which can be 30-45 minutes).
While holding onto more naps, Baby will naturally get a bit less night sleep. We want 11-12 hours of night sleep, and babies who hold onto more naps for longer will usually drop down into the 11-hour range for night sleep, which is perfectly fine. Once the nap is dropped, the nightsleep will typically increase again, closer to 12 hours.
At first glance, these may look like negative consequences, causing you to ask, “Then why hold onto more naps for longer?” The answer is to make things easier on Baby, which can also make things easier on Mom and Dad.
While parents tend to enjoy longer naps and nights more than shorter naps and nights, parents also tend to enjoy Baby more when he is content and pleasant. Having shorter lengths of time awake allows Baby to be more pleasant. If we stretch the time he spends awake too quickly, we’ll have a cranky baby on our hands!
Is it time to make the transition?
There are a few things you can look for to figure out when to make this transition.
Baby is 6-9 months old. Before 6 months is definitely too early, and after 9 months Baby should definitely be down to two naps. But as I’ve already said, the longer you can keep more naps within this range, the better!
The third nap is starting to fail, despite having shortened the first two naps to ~90 minutes. The first two naps are the most restorative naps, so we don’t want to cut back on them a ton. If we’re having to cut back further than 90 minutes in order to keep the third nap, it’s better to drop it!
Night sleep is dropping below 11 hours. Night sleep is the most restorative sleep of all, so we want at least 11 hours of it! If we’re not getting that, it’s time to reconfigure total sleep to allow for more night sleep.
Common Pitfalls
Transition too early and you’ll encounter these negative issues.
Cranky baby! It’s typical for babies to be a little cranky during times of transition, but if the crankiness lasts longer than a week, it usually means the transition was made too early. Go back to more naps for a little longer!
Overtiredness in the evening. A lot of babies seem to do great making this transition on the early end, taking two longer naps . . . except then there isn’t time to fit the third nap, but the gap before bedtime ends up being too big so Baby gets overtired.
Poor naps due to overtiredness. Overtired babies don’t sleep as well, so if Baby is awake for too long between naps, he’s more likely to take short naps, thus getting him into an overtired cycle.
How to make the Transition
Since I recommend clock naps, this transition really isn’t too tricky.
Nap start times remain the same.
You may need to continue waking Baby in the morning and/or after nap 1 in order to preserve the rest of the schedule.
Instead of cutting off nap 2 to fit a third nap, simply allow the second nap to go as long as Baby wants, up to two hours.
Increase the waketime between nap 2 and bedtime. Make sure it is long enough to accommodate total sleep and wakeful needs, likely around 3.25-3.75 hours at the time of transition.
Bedtime will likely be earlier than it previously was, and it may be especially early on any days Baby takes a short second nap (use that final waketime [3.25-3.75 hours] to determine bedtime!). We have to accommodate for lost nap sleep with increased night sleep.
Take it Slow
I just went through this transition with my 9-month-old, Holly, and as I’ve said above, my best advice to you if you want an easier transition is to take your time. Don’t rush Baby to fewer naps too soon!
Even when she was 6 months old, I was sometimes waking her from naps, and for basically all of her 7th and 8th months, I woke her from every single sleep. Waking her all day every day wasn’t my favorite thing, but it helped us hold onto three naps for quite a while, and it also helped her sleep to be extremely consistent.
When we finally transitioned to 2 naps (between 8&9 months), it was an extremely easy transition because she was fully ready for the longer waketime that was necessary at the end of the day to fit in sufficient awake time overall.
See below for Holly’s real-life schedules at the start of each month.
Keep in mind that the times below varied by a few minutes from day to day. Therefore, the totals at the bottom are approximations, and they don’t quite add up to 24 hours.
