How Do I Know When My Daughter Is Ready for 2 Naps Versus 3? - Naperville,IL

Don't worry you will know. She will do it on her own believe it or not. She will start taking her first morning nap later & her afternoon nap will get pushed back and then next thing you know she will be alert and crawling/running around not needing that last "late" nap. Sounds like she still needs three naps, so don't do anything right now. It will probably stay this way until 9-12 months. It's weird, but it happens almost overnight that they don't need the 3rd nap. Enjoy it for now. :)

Summer is comeing, get out with her a little at a time she will let u know when she has had enough play and it will help her stretch her sleep out more. Gradual increase on the time ten fifteen minutes longer, not to much at once but its about time that she will change on her own but u can help with this stretching if this continues her tiredness seek medical advice, they sleep more when they go thru growing spells, extra advice: highlands earache drops and hurricane jel for teething ask pharmacy for them hurricane is not on shelves good luck and have fun summer

She will let you know. It will gradually phase out by getting shorter, and then she may not sleep at all at that nap time. When this happens, move her bed time up just a little.

If you want to know if she ready just give it a try for a few days and see how it works with her. If she is taking three naps I'd skip the middle nap for like two days...... Keep her first and third naps. Put her down like 30 minutes later for her first nap and maybe 30 minutes earlier for the third nap. I have a soon to be 2 year old and he takes maybe an hour nap a day and it works for him but every child is different. When he was 7 months old he was taking to naps for a total of about 2 1/2 hours. He wakes up at 7:00 takes an hour maybe a hour and a half nap at about 12:00-12:30 gets up about 1:30 or 2:00 and he stays up and at 7:30 we do bath time and he usually sound asleep by 8:15 the latest. She will be fine all you can do is try. Space the naps out. The worst that can happen with your lil girl is that she still needs the naps. But if nothing else she'll might even sleep a lil longer in the morning. Hope this helps

Kimmie

you will know when your baby lets you know, and she will do that all by her self, your baby as you know is growing and the 3 best things your baby needs are, enough to eat, freshair, and plenty of sleep, if your baby is getting that, well all is going well, and you should leave well enough alone, all the best to you and baby.

By no means change her nap schedule if she seems well rested during the day. My daughter didn't switch to two naps until about 8 months of age. And then she still might've taken a short 3rd nap. She let me know when she was ready. She just seemed to want to stay up for longer periods. Also, you shouldn't need to wake your daughter up from a nap. I think sleeping until 6 or 6:30 at night is entirely too close to bedtime. On second thought, maybe you could space out her naps differently and then it could be down to 2 naps....

Good luck with everything!

She will in effect tell you herself. She will just start not going to sleep for one of those naps and then you move them slightly to more evenly space them out. They just drop a nap at a time. Let her sleep as much as she needs and she will lead when she is ready.

Follow her lead. She will show you when she is not tired enough for 3 naps.

when she is not doing it anymore - when you lay her down for it and she doesn't sleep

Some sleep experts advise that at her age she should be down for the night by 630/730. Healthy sleep habits, happy child (Weisbluth) has some good advice. The book really worked for us. Try starting her naps earlier (sooner after she wakes up) and then try not to keep her up for more than 3 hrs between naps. our son took his morning nap about 2 hrs after waking up from the night. We could tell our son was transitioning because he would play in his crib for an hour or so before falling asleep. At that point we kept him up later in the morning & eventually went to two naps with a 6pm bath & in bed by 630. Buy the book!

You are sooo lucky! My son was a horrid sleeper and I finally got him on a schedule (he's 9 months) using "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". I would also definitely say leave it as is for now. If she starts resisting the third nap then drop it and move bedtime a little earlier to make up for the difference -- in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" it says that most babies/toddlers need a bedtime between 6 and 8 anyways.

You will know she is ready to drop a nap when it is a struggle to get her to take the nap. My kids took 2 naps until they were about 1 1/2, then they dropped the afternoon nap. It seemed like they both still got tired in the late morning and needed the nap instead of the afternoon, which made for some very long afternoons!! =) SHE will let YOU know when it is time.

The Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book says that at 9 months the baby shouldn't need a 3rd nap.
It also says that babies should go down between 6 and 8pm (and when they don't have their 3rd nap it will likely be closer to the 6pm hour.)

My 7 month old usually has 2 decent naps in the day, sometimes he'll have a 3rd short nap depending how he has napped earlier, and then his bedtime is around 7pm. He typically has one night feeding, but I'm going to start phasing this out soonish. Trouble is, I am the one who really likes it. :) It's a pain to get up, but because he gets so distracted in the day, our night-time nursing feels so cuddlesome and I love it!

How cool that your baby has always been a fabulous sleeper!

Yep, I would say leave it alone; she will change it on her own. I have a great sleeper too; my son would take 3 hour naps during the day. I was expecting to get no sleep and for him to be awake all the time so that was a nice surprise! He is 11 now and will still sleep 12 hours if he can. Yaay good sleepers!