At some point in time your little one will get their schedule down to three naps a day. A morning nap, an afternoon nap, and an evening nap. That evening nap is usually a short one just to power them through the last stretch of the day. Eventually that third nap has to go so that you can move your little one up to an earlier bed time. With Jase, that nap gradually got shorter and shorter until it completely disappeared. He just hit the point where he no longer needed that nap, he could make it a longer stretch in the evening, and was then ready for bed at an earlier time.

Elyse on the other hand, didn’t seem like she would ever give up that nap. We hit the ten month mark and she was still wanting that nap. I was starting to reach the point where I felt like it would be much easier to move her to an earlier bed time, and to have her awake in the evenings with the family. I was waiting for her to gradually fade out of that nap like Jase did, but it occurred to me that it may not happen. I might need to guide her into dropping that nap.

The first night is always the trial night and it’s usually quite scary. I hate trying something new with the schedule, especially if it might mess up their sleep. I don’t want to have a wake up call in the middle of the night…or at 5AM for that matter. But sometimes a trial night is needed.

So I made sure Elyse got her morning and afternoon nap in and then did my best to distract her through the evening one. We played, we sang songs, and we bounced around. Anything we could do to keep her happy and distracted. When we made it to 8PM I nursed her and laid her down for bed. To my surprise she slept perfectly! She woke up at 7AM which was about an hour earlier than she had been, but it wasn’t too bad. I knew that would be part of the change and hopefully she would stretch a little later.

It took about a good week to get this new schedule set in stone. Elyse was pretty fussy in the evenings pushing past that evening nap. But because she was going to bed earlier, she was getting a longer stretch of collective sleep that once she got used to it, I knew would help her make those longer evening stretches just fine.

8-10 months is really a great age to start guiding your little one to an earlier bedtime if you chose the later bedtime in the beginning. Some babies seem to let you know when they’re ready by dropping that nap on their own, others might need a little guiding. Granted, if you already were doing an earlier bedtime you may have dropped the evening nap a lot earlier. This is also a good first step in the weaning process, because you end up dropping a feeding, your dream feed, when going this route. It will helps set you up for weaning when that time comes.

Two Nap Transition:

5 Month – 10 Month Schedule 
8AM – Wake & Nurse
8:30AM – Breakfast
10AM – Nap
12 Noon – Wake & Nurse
12:30 – Lunch
2PM – Nap
4PM – Wake & Nurser
5PM – Dinner
6PM – Cat Nap
8PM – Wake her if she hadn’t already woken, Nurse
10PM – Nurse (Dream Feed) and bed for the night

When we made the transition to two naps this is what her schedule changed to:

10 Month+ Schedule 
8AM – Wake & Nurse
8:30AM – Breakfast
10AM – Nap
12 Noon – Wake & Nurse
12:30 – Lunch
2PM – Nap
4PM – Wake & Nurse
4:30PM – Snack
6PM – Dinner
8PM – Nurse and bed for the night

It was bittersweet to lose those evening hours with just Elyse, but I am also thankful to have them to spend with just my husband. This starts shifting the kids onto very similar schedules which makes a difference in how much free time I have.

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