A question I get from nearly every client I work with is how to transition from 3 naps to 2 naps (or from 2 naps to 1 nap, but that’s for another post). Assuming your child is falling asleep unassisted and is taking three naps a day, it’s likely those naps are occurring sometime around 8:30 am, 11:30 am, and 3:00 pm. If they were trained through the Baby Sleep Trainer method, they are likely eating when they wake in the morning, after each nap, and 30 minutes before bedtime. This schedule works very well for babies until about their 7th month when you may start to notice they aren’t quite ready for their second nap around 11:30 am, or they can’t seem to fall asleep for nap three at 3 pm. If this occurs for several days in a row and your child is around 7 months old (give or take a month), your little one is ready to transition to 2 naps a day.
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You’ll want their current schedule to shift to the following:
Wake in the morning, milk
8 am – breakfast solids (if applicable)
9:00 am nap
Wake from nap, milk
12:00 pm – lunch solids (if applicable) + milk (optional)
1:30 pm – nap
Wake from nap, milk
5:00 pm – dinner solids (if applicable)
6:30 pm – final milk feeding, bedtime prep
7:00 pm – bedtime
- Naps can start as early as 9 am and as late as 10 am for the morning nap, and as early as 1:30 pm and as late as 2:30 pm for the afternoon nap. For example, if your child takes an uncharacteristically long morning nap of two hours, they may need to go down closer to 2:30 pm, but if your child only sleeps 40 minutes for their first nap, they may prefer to nap closer to 1:30 pm for their second nap. Also, as children grow older you may find that one or both naps need to start a bit later, so you can move naps to start as late as about 10:00 am and 2:30 pm.
- No single nap should exceed 2 hours and generally speaking TOTAL daytime sleep should not exceed 3.5 hours.
- Do not go back and forth from 3 naps to 2 naps. Once you are ready to make the transition, stick to it even if naps are short.
- Wake time in the morning is typically around 6:30 am or 7:00 am, but even if it’s earlier than this time, feed your baby milk when they wake.
- Generally around the time your child is ready for two naps, they are also taking solids. Feel free to follow the solids feeding schedule as well.
- If your child is not yet taking solids in, or if you just want them to have an additional milk feeding, noon is a good time to do that. Make certain that if your child is taking in milk at this time that they remain fully awake during the feeding. A milk feeding in addition to solids is also a good idea.
- If your child is not eating dinner solids, you’ll want to give them another small milk feeding around 5:00 pm, again making sure they stay fully awake.
- Do not worry about nap lengths. Your baby will sleep however long they need and want to sleep, and with time, their naps will lengthen.
If your child is not on a 7-7 daily schedule, adjust the times accordingly to whatever times your child wakes and goes to bed each night. And if you would like to learn more about getting your baby’s naps on a healthy schedule, sign up for my newsletter!
Hi there – found this post via a Google search, it’s immensely helpful, thank you. We are in the stage of transitioning to 2 naps and this seems like a great model for us. Question — in your model here, there is a rather big gap between bottle #2 and bottle #3. Our baby is used to drinking milk every 4 hours — this version extends it up to around 5 hours-ish. Would it make sense to give our bottle #3 BEFORE the 2nd nap? Or is there a detriment to doing this?
Thank you!
Hi!! Yep, here is a quote from the blog post on how to address this issue:
“If your child is not yet taking solids in, or if you just want them to have an additional milk feeding, noon is a good time to do that. Make certain that if your child is taking in milk at this time that they remain fully awake during the feeding. A milk feeding in addition to solids is also a good idea.”
Hi Natalie,
If my 7 month sleeps from 7pm-5:30am, how will it be possible to go down to 2 naps a day? He falls asleep unassisted with no sleep props, takes naps around 8am, 11am and 3pm and doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night. I can’t seem to get him to sleep in later! I normally don’t go into his room until 6/6:15 to get him because he just lays there talking.
Thank you!!
Shelby, I have the exact same scenario with my little one and I am trying to figure out how to get her down to 2 naps (she is almost 9 months already). I am wondering if trying to stretch her daytime waking and then giving her an early bedtime will be the answer? I am a bit nervous to push her too much right now because we are just two weeks in to no night wakings. I don’t want to make her overtired and disrupt this heavenly sleep we have all been getting!
Hi there! You don’t have to go down to 2 naps if your child’s sleep is still great on 3. Like mentioned in the blog, it’s when they start fighting a nap consistently or waking earlier in the morning that you should look at dropping a nap. Also, you don’t need to be sacred about “stretching” them, kiddos usually adjust well within a week or two as long as the parent is consistent, and sleep typically improves with just two naps.
What do I do if baby keeps napping only 30 min long and can’t hold off til 6:30-7? My baby definitely doesn’t want to nap 3 times a day anymore but her naps are just ridiculous shorter! She’s turning 8 months in a few days.
As long as your little one isn’t physically falling asleep in your arms, I’d simply keep her awake (even if she’s fussy). Give her about 2 weeks and her body will adjust to being awake longer periods of time.
Hi there, my 8 month old has been waking up at 5am for the last week and a half instead of 6 or 6:30. I’ve noticed he can stay awake longer and I think he’s probably ready to drop from 3 to 2 naps. My question is….should the first nap happen 2-2.5 hours after his 5am wake up and shift the whole schedule up? I don’t want to solidify this early morning wake time as our new routine!!! Should I keep him up longer (and risk him being overtired) before nap 1? That way his nap time will be consistent for when he hopefully goes back to waking up at 6/6:30?
Hi Stefanie! I think you would really enjoy my Baby Sleep Trainer Program + Support (https://www.babysleeptrainer.com/purchase/)! In it I talk about how to handle these early morning wakings and the how and why of my schedules! He definitely sounds like he’s ready for the 3 to 2 transition though, which should help the early morning waking! <3
Hi Natalie! Thanks for this post! My daughter is just 7 months and she has been on an off taking short second/third naps the past couple weeks – sometimes just 30 minutes long. I always give her another 15-20 minutes to resettle but she rarely does. Also, her first nap seldom goes past an hour. Does she need to transition to 2 naps? I am dreaming of having longer naps so I can get something done!
It’s your call! If she falls asleep quickly for all three naps, even if they’re short, there’s no reason to stop them. She is also ready to go to 2, but, it may be a bit of a bumpy transition if she still happily takes (3) shorter naps.
Hi Natalie, we followed he baby sleep trainer plan so we’ve been getting our son up at 4 pm from his last nap. As we transition to two naps and if we put him down at 2:30 do we let him sleep for 2 hours (until 4:30) or continue to get him up at 4pm?
Hi Lisa! Continue to get him up at 4pm so it doesn’t effect his nighttime sleep! <3
Hi Natalie! Our daughter is 9 months, still taking 3 naps and in the past few days her naps have taken a turn for the worst so I feel pretty confident she is ready to move to two naps. She’s fighting falling asleep for naps and fighting her 3rd nap completely. Her nighttime sleep has been pretty great though lately! Do you have a guide for how to actually transition from 3 to 2 or is that something you need to work one on one with parents? I worry about how to figure out the timing of the naps and not make her too overtired, and how to adjust her bedtime in order to work with the transition? Because I figure you adjust it all gradually….Thank you for your help!
As a matter of fact, I do have a guide <3 https://www.babysleeptrainer.com/nap-transitioning-made-easy-part-one-3-naps-to-2/
Hi Natalie, this is a great resource! Thank you so much. What do you suggest for a baby who does 7-5? (I know, way too early wake up but I tried everything and nothing seems to work) my 8mo totally wants to do 2 naps now but how do I work that in for such an early riser?
I would simply start your day at 6:30 am and get them out of bed then (as long as they’re safe in your crib prior to that) and still do just two naps.
The early morning waking should hopefully resolve after a few weeks of only allowing two naps.
Thanks for the advice! My baby cries if nobody comes to get her after 30-40min though. So do I let her cry for an hour potentially to 6;30?
Most babies doe <3 If you feel comfortable with that approach you can implement it.
What are your thoughts on a 630 bedtime and 6 am wake up?
So….nap 1 at 830 and nap 2 at 1:00?
Sure, that’s just fine.
That works!
Hi Nathalie,
I stumbled upon your website on google. My husband and I has been considering sleep training our LO for a while now. He’s a week away from being 7 months old and he was never a good sleeper. Still wakes up 3-4 times at night and needs to be breast fed, held and rocked for his naps. I’m wondering if there’s an effective sleep training method besides. IO. Thank you
Hi Natalie! This is one of the most helpful 3-2 transition posts I have found! But I have a quick follow up question on how *not* to go back and forth between 3 and 2 naps. Our almost 8-month old is deep into the 3-2 transition and has been sleeping better all around, but bedtime has been all over the place (anywhere from 545 to 8pm!) because we have been using wake times to determine whether she needs a third nap or not to make it to a reasonable bedtime (after 5:45). In your schedule above would you keep a set 7pm bedtime even if both naps are short? What would be the longest amount of awake time between nap 2 and bedtime you would recommend? I think the bedtime issue is the missing piece to finally being on a good schedule, as we seem to keep messing her up even after an awesome nap day. Thanks!
This is why BST doesn’t use wake times 😉 Just do two naps, last one starting between 1:30 and 2:30, lasting no later than about 3:30/4 pm, then bedtime no earlier than 7/7:30 pm.