The 3-2 Nap Transition

- Laura Thompson | 4th February 2021 -

In the first few years of your child’s life their sleep needs are going to change multiple times as they grow and develop. These changes can be a little overwhelming to navigate so I’ll be breaking each nap transition down for you over the next few weeks!

3-2 Naps

The first nap transition your baby will go through is the 3-2 transition. This means they will be dropping their last nap of the day which is often  referred to as a cat nap or power nap because it’s usually shorter than the first  two naps of the day at around 30 mins in duration.

When will it happen?

I hate to say it but there is no exact age babies will drop this third nap. Babies are not robots and so they all reach this transition at slightly different stages. As general rule, a child will be ready to drop their third nap between 7-10 months of age as their wakeful window begins to increase to around 2-4 hours.

So how will I know when they are ready?

There are a couple of key signs to look out for in determining if your little one is ready to start dropping nap 3;

 1. You can’t fit a 3rd nap into the day!

 If your baby has started to consistently take longer naps for the first two naps of the day then you may simply not have time to squeeze in a third without having to push bedtime much later. If this is the case I’d rather you skip the 3rd nap and bring bedtime earlier (more on that in a minute!)

2. Night sleep has decreased and is now less than 11 hours overall.

If your baby was sleeping well over night and getting a good 11 hours but now they are going to bed too late, waking in the night and/or waking for the day much earlier then it’s probably time to drop the 3rd nap.

But what about …

The following things can often be confused as signs its time to drop a nap … but they are NOT.

Let me tell you why;

1.   It’s really hard to get baby down for the 3rd nap.

 The 3rd nap can be notoriously difficult to achieve but this is not a reason to drop it. The reason baby may struggle more is because they are more tired this time of day so I would encourage you to persevere and pull out all the stops to get that afternoon power nap in. A walk in the buggy, a ride in the car … go for it! If these things STILL aren’t working for you consistently then maybe it’s time!

2.  Sleep is off BUT your child is learning a new skill such as sitting, crawling or pulling to standing.

A developmental leap like this can cause a sleep ‘regression’ so wait until they have mastered the skill before assuming they are ready to drop a nap.

3. The past few days there’s been a couple of days you’ve not been able to fit the 3rd nap in and there’s been a few off nights too.

Hang on … what!? Yes these are the signs I said to look out for BUT we need to be seeing them consistently so a good rule is if in a 2 week period this has been the case for at least 10 days you’re good to go!

Ok, I think it’s time … how do we do this?

1. Ensure the first 2 naps of the day are long enough!

For a 2 nap schedule I suggest either 1.5 hours long each or 30-45 minutes in the morning followed by 2-2.5 hours after lunch.

2. Use an early bedtime!

 We want to avoid creating over tiredness because of a sleep deficit. (See my blog on over tiredness!) so we need to replace the missing day time sleep with night sleep until your little one adjusts and can handle longer wakeful windows. This will be a temporary measure and you can start pushing bedtime gradually back to their regular time as they adjust to their new routine.

3. Don’t rush!

All the nap transitions take time! Some days your baby will still need an afternoon power nap and that’s OK! It’s never a good idea to remove a nap one day never to be seen again as your baby will almost certainly get over tired! Watch your babies cues, be flexible and soon you will find yourself in a new routine again … for a few months anyway! ;)

Need more help?

I have a comprehensive PDF guide to making this transition in my resource shop, including step by step how to approach the change, sample schedules and all your ‘what if’ questions answered! Take a look here