5 Signs Your Baby Is Ready For A Nap Transition
Baby’s Schedules are constantly changing, and just when you get in the groove on one thing, it seems to change. So how do you know when your baby is ready to drop a nap?
These are some signs that can indicate your baby is ready to drop a nap:
You baby is at the right age for a nap transition.
Your baby is taking a while to fall asleep for a nap or refusing a nap:
If your baby would normally fall asleep within 10 minutes and is now taking 30 minutes or just not falling asleep at all, this might mean they are ready for longer wake windows. This usually happens with the last nap of the day, which can push the nap too close to bedtime.
Having a hard time falling asleep at night:
Is your baby having a hard time falling asleep, or fighting to go down for bed? If your baby was on a good routine, and falling asleep under 15 minutes on their own and is now struggling to fall asleep it may be that they need more awake time before bedtime. If the last nap of the day is interfering with bedtime, or they are taking longer to fall asleep, make sure you are not letting them sleep longer which would cause a shorter wake window before bedtime. If bedtime is becoming a battle, make that wake window longer. Doing a nap transition can also help with this.
Early morning wake ups:
If all of a sudden your baby is consistently starting to wake up early (before 6 am) then it might mean they are getting too much daytime sleep and may be ready for a nap transition. As your baby gets older the amount of daytime sleep required decreases, so first try and cut back on the daytime sleep and if that does not help then it may be time for a nap transition. If your baby is getting too much daytime sleep it cuts into their night sleep. So if your baby only needs 13-14 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period and they nap about 3.5 hours in the day, they won’t be getting the 11-12 hours of sleep at night that they need. This will cause these early morning wake ups. There are many reason for early morning wake ups, read my blog about Early Morning Wake ups and daytime schedules before dropping a nap.
Having short naps:
If your baby was having longer naps and is now waking up early, it may mean that the wake window before that nap was too short. Like I said before, as your baby gets older, the amount of sleep they need in a day changes but so does their wake windows. You can read my blog about daytime schedules to help find out age appropriate wake windows and nap lengths. As you lengthen wake windows, it starts to cut into bedtime or how much sleep they are getting at night which means you may need to drop a nap to make the schedule work.
Things to remember:
Not all nap, bedtime battles or early morning wake ups are a sign of needing a nap transition
Wait at least two weeks to make sure your baby is not going through a regression before doing a nap transition
Be patient, a nap transition can take 1-2 weeks before the new schedule starts to be more consistent.