One of the main questions I get when people stumble across my Baby’s First Year series and the sample schedules is, “How do I know when to transition my baby’s naps? When do I know they need to stay awake longer? Or sleep less?” The most important thing to remember is every baby is different, BUT they still generally need a lot of sleep. You can find an awesome chart with the average amount of sleep your baby needs here. That handy chart is also on display at my pediatricians office and I found it very helpful.

Often times I have heard mom’s say, their baby just doesn’t fall asleep easily so they must not need as much sleep, but question why their baby is really irritable during the day. They may not need as much sleep as some babies, but they still need at least as much sleep recommended for their age. There will be some babies who steer towards the minimum, and some who steer towards the maximum. My son always seemed to lay on the end of the spectrum needing a lot of sleep. He gets that from his mom and dad. A new mama friend of mine, her son doesn’t seem to need as much, so she adjusts the schedules to fit his needs.

So, that being said, your baby will be the one to give you the cues on when they are ready to make a nap transition. There are few transitions that happen, and there are signs for each that can help tell you when they are ready to make the change.

4 Things You’ll Notice When It’s Time for a Nap Transition

Longer wake times.

Newborns start off sleeping a lot! But as they get older, they don’t need as much sleep, so their wake times start to stretch from being an hour, to an hour and a half, and gradually getting to two hours. Some babies can even stretch to two and a half! When they begin to stretch to longer nap times, you will see the number of naps they take start to decrease. They will go from multiple smaller naps throughout the day to having three longer naps or two long naps and a short cat nap.

Decrease in need for daytime sleep.

As they start to master sleeping through the night, they don’t need as much sleep during the day. What tends to happen is that third nap will gradually get shorter and shorter until it’s ready to disappear all together. How do you know when it’s time for that? Your baby just won’t take it anymore! When you find your child playing through or fighting the nap, they most likely do not need it anymore. The same thing will happen later when your child is ready to go down to one long nap, instead of two naps. Some kids start to fight the morning nap and want to stay up longer before going to sleep. My son decided to take his morning nap, but fight and mostly refuse his afternoon nap. This left way too large of a gap before his bedtime that he would be very cranky. So we stopped offering the morning nap and just offered the afternoon one earlier and the transition went great!

Playing through or refusing naps. It’s important to remember here that sometimes kids go through phases. So if your child is refusing a certain nap for a week, I wouldn’t jump on the change just yet. It may be a phase, they could be teething, or something else. There could be weeks where Jase would fight a nap, but two weeks later would be right back to wanting it again. So don’t be too quick to change it. But if it becomes a consistent thing, test the change and see if it works. Maybe they need to stay up a little longer before napping? Or maybe they are ready to cut that nap all together? Give it a try and you’ll find out after a couple of days if it’s a good switch!

Waking Early. Sometimes your child will go to sleep fine, but they will wake a lot earlier not getting enough sleep during their nap resulting in a cranky baby later. Waking early also makes it hard to stay on the eat, play, sleep cycle. If they are consistently waking too early from naps, try putting them down a little later. Watch for their cues though because you don’t want to lay them down too late and risk them being overtired and fighting their nap. Sometimes the difference is made with only fifteen minutes!

In any transition you make, whether it be with sleeping patterns or feeding patters, your child is likely to give you a cue. I think it is really stressful to have an age in mind where you think the change is supposed to happen, because not every child is the same. There are suggested age ranges, and most fall somewhere within those, and that can be helpful. For example, the Baby Sleep Site, which is a source I highly recommend,, said the average age for a baby to transition to one nap was between 15-18 months. Jase had a week or two when he first hit 12 months where he was really refusing his naps, but I tried to stick it out to see if it was a phase, and it was. After two weeks, he went back to his two naps like a pro. Then around 16 months he was ready to make that transition for good. So, I really encourage just watching your baby’s signs and allowing them to let you know what they’re ready for. It makes it so much easier and way less stressful.

Sometimes the transitions in a baby’s schedule can be overwhelming and daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s all a part of baby growing and everyone will adjust in time. You might find that you love the new change and are able to get things done. You might get to enjoy more time playing with your baby. Either way, take the transitions as your baby is ready and you’ll notice them going much smoother than when you try to force them!