We all know that feeling when sleep is going well and the BAM! You have to a drop a nap. How do you know it's time? How do you do it? How do you avoid the anxiety that comes with nap transitions?

During this episode we will commiserate and share some nap transition tips so that you feel a little more prepared and a little less alone next time you hit a nap transition.

Comprehensive Nap Transition Guide

How to Drop a Nap brief overview

30 minute coaching call to talk through a nap transition

Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc.

Episode 4: Nap Transition Tips

Nap Transition Tips
We all know that feeling when sleep is going well and the BAM! You have to a drop a nap. How do you know it's time? How do you do it? How do you avoid the anxiety that comes with nap transitions? Welcome to episode four of the sleep talking moms podcast and today we are going to talk through map transitions, we're going to talk through some general points, general things to know about it, because, I mean, nap transitions suck, let's just be really hard. They're not fun. Yeah, if we could just keep our babies frozen in the same net schedule for years, I think we would all choose to do that. Am I right, yeah. Yes, 1,000%, and the anxiety that comes from getting ready for those nap transitions, who yes and Kayla you recently just went through a transition that with your youngest, we want to share just a little bit about that. Yes, okay so little Imani bless his little heart. He just transitioned he is 20 Almost 20 months, he just transition from two naps to one nap, and carry on or you will remember that his four to three nap transition was rough. Yeah, and his three to two transition was rough, and I had many many questions. Luckily, the two to one, for Irie was great, but disclaimer for my first child, Ellis, his two to one nap transition was awful. Nap Transition Tips
We all know that feeling when sleep is going well and the BAM! You have to a drop a nap. How do you know it's time? How do you do it? How do you avoid the anxiety that comes with nap transitions? So that's either going to be extremely uplifting for you if you're listening to this, or it's gonna be like, Oh no, but I will say that the hardest part of nap transitions for me, there's two things. One is the anxiety that I put on myself, of like kind of like bracing myself and getting myself pepped up enough to be like, okay, yes we're doing this, we're doing this we're going to be consistent with it. That's probably the hardest thing. The second hardest thing for me is being afraid of that early bedtime. If the last nap or the naps, get kind of wonky. Huh, I remember that being kind of a sticking point for you when we talk and I'd be like, Okay, I think you need to do a six or a 630 bedtime and you'd be like, like was kid's gonna wake up in an hour. Yes but, but he either did, and we had our sleep training plan in place, or he slept. And it was great. We got that extra hour or so of sleep, right, that he had missed throughout the day, for having those short little naps. So, yes, and we're going to talk about early bedtimes. In a little bit because that is a big piece of nap, transitions, Kayla I was gonna ask you because I often tell parents, especially with that two to one transition that it's probably going to be two to four weeks before things kind of settle in, what, what did you feel like your timeframe was with eimeria I don't know if you remember with Alice I know that was a while back. Yeah, I actually remember with ls because LS took quite a while to get used to it. And I think that in hindsight, that with my first kid I was so caught up with like timeframes and shoulds, that I may have moved him a little bit more quickly than I should have. And so his two to one that transition, took a good three ish, I would say, weeks, I'm right on the other hand he has, he is my sleeper. He has always been a great sleeper. He is my child. It went so smoothly but guys I waited, I was at, you know, Karianna gives kind of like a good general age range for when these nap transitions happen normally, and he was at either the very tail end, he was about 18 months, I think close to 19 months before I moved him to transition him, and that transition. I think I may have just lucked out too, but it was flawless. It happened within. I'd say a week or less. That's awesome. Nap Transition Tips
We all know that feeling when sleep is going well and the BAM! You have to a drop a nap. How do you know it's time? How do you do it? How do you avoid the anxiety that comes with nap transitions? Yeah. And just to give you some general guidelines. These are always general but, you know, with the two to one transition, usually we're looking at 15 to 18 months is that range when they're going to do it and I will tell you from experience that if a child is able to wait until they're older, you know, some cases that's just not going to happen because they kind of decide for you that they're done with the second half. But if your child's able to wait longer it goes a lot smoother if you kind of let them wait longer with the three to two nap transition, we're looking at seven to nine months when they're usually ready to do it. And with the four to three transition really anytime between, I would say three and a half to five months. Usually I don't like to get too much into five months before we are definitely making that transition. So those are some general guidelines, I will tell you guys before I jump into any more. I don't remember anything about my kids and nap transitions my boys are five years and seven years and I just, my brain does not have that information in it anymore. Yes, your brain is protecting you from, I don't know what but it is protecting you from remembering hard times. No, you know what though, Kayla, I think that they, they had relatively easy transitions, I think, of course, I don't remember, but I don't know. So yeah, but I mean I guess this is also to say, if you're struggling with nap transitions. You wait until they're five or seven or however, and you, you don't even remember anymore, you forget all of that anxiety. Okay so let's kind of jump into some quick tips for any nap transition, you know, the first thing I want to say it's okay to flip flop. So say we're transitioning from three naps to two naps. It's okay to flip flop between three nap days and two nap days for a while, that's actually kind of a normal part of the transition. But if you find yourself kind of stuck in between for, you know, I would say a week plus that you're like, go for it. Yes, you go for it, you got to bite the bullet and just do it right so flip flopping is okay, we don't want to be flip flopping forever, you may just need to take a little bit of a heavier hand, push them to fewer naps. The other thing that I would say is, it's totally okay to micromanage their naps, if you know they're not ready for the transition. So if I'm using that three to two nap transition as an example, they may be six six and a half months, they may be trying to drop the third nap or you may be having trouble fitting the third nap in, but you know, okay, if they're going to be on two naps, they need to be awake for around three hours, and my baby cannot hang for three hours. It's okay to wake them from some naps and kale, I know this was like a hard part for you. Yeah I would say it's a hard part for every single nap transition that I'm read went through, but obviously I remember them. The most recent transition the best. And I had gotten to the point where his second nap out of two, was 30 minutes long, and I stayed there for a very long time and it was very, it brought about a lot of anxiety in me because it was like okay well what if he doesn't go to sleep right away and what if, what if what if, what if, but I also knew that he would not be able to hang, especially that two to one nap transition like that's a huge amount of time difference that they have to be awake and so I just kind of trusted my gut, I knew my kid. And so, like I said we waited until, you know, 1819 months before we switched him, and you know your kid. So, trust your mom got on that for sure. And a question I get a lot with having to micromanage the schedule and maybe just to clear up what I mean by that I mean that you may have to start their day for them you may have to start their day at, you know, 7am or 6:30am or, you know, wherever that falls, you may not be able to let them have a random sleeping Jay, when you're micromanaging, and then you may have to wake them from each of their naps so that you can fit everything in with a bedtime still around eight and not not tipping later than that if we can avoid it. So a lot of times parents will ask me, Well if I am constantly waking them from these naps during this period, am I going to inhibit their ability to connect nap cycles later on. My answer to that is no, and that the benefits of waking them and micromanaging that schedule, definitely outweigh transitioning them to a few one fewer nap sooner than they're ready so micromanaging is huge, frustrating in the moment but it's temporary. And then the other thing is that early bedtime that we talked about a little bit so when you do transition to fewer naps, you're going to see that bedtime, shoot up earlier right so again I'm liking to use that transition of three to two just for continuity sake but if we're on three naps, that time is probably going to have crept later and later it might be close to eight, which is okay, but once we transition to two, we've got to expect that bedtime, to move earlier and it can be as early as 6pm, which I know is hard for some families, and it's scary. Right, absolutely. Yeah, I just remember, you know, being like, Okay, well, Wait, okay so I guess we're eating dinner for. But I don't know, I know people say this all the time, but it, I don't know I just feel like it, it all comes out in the wash it all turns out fine. So, If you have to completely, kind of, if you are able to kind of like reroute your day. In order to make these happen. It's 1,000% worth it. Yeah, and I think probably the common. The most common worry that parents have with the early bedtime is how early are they going to wake up the next morning then, and, you know, while that may happen here and there, what we know, overall with the overall picture is keeping them awake too long before bed, repeatedly, kind of guarantees that you're going to have early waking so we want to minimize stretching that last window too long, or we're going to have early wakings anyway. And it's not going to be early wakings because they got enough night sleep, it's going to be early wakings because they're overtired and there's absolutely a difference. Right. And remember guys like if you, you have them go to bed at six, and like me I was afraid of like, okay, in an hour and a half, this kid's gonna be up, and sometimes that kid was up, but that is what the sleep training plan is there for so you know whatever you have decided or you know you and Karianna if you use her, whatever you've decided is okay this is our plan of action, if my kid does wake up in the night, you know like whatever that is going on check on them, make sure they're fine and then go in every five minutes or 10 minutes or whatever it is that you have decided is good for your family. That's where this comes into play. Yes and that you bring up another good point Kayla that night wakings probably are going to creep up here and there. During this transition that's really really normal it's part of the process of them, adjusting, because if we're being honest, we can't avoid over tiredness, all together, when we're doing an app transition over tiredness is just going to happen and with that comes some disrupted sleep, but like Kayla mentioned having, you know, whatever your method is that you feel comfortable with and maybe you used it before, maybe you've never had to use one before but having a way that you're going to consistently respond to that disrupted sleep is really important, through the transition. And I think the last thing I would say is just to be patient, you know, just as much as you are struggling with adjusting and with the transition, your child is too. And so we just need to be patient and give them the time that their body needs to adjust to the new schedule. Yes, hugs and love to you guys, anyone who's in the middle of this nap transition are getting ready for one hugs and love to you 1,000% So and I'm also going to link in the show notes, I have a blog about each individual transition with some tips that can be helpful so if you are heading to one and you want to be prepared. That will give you kind of some step by step guidelines. And I also want you guys to know, I offer 30 Minute Calls, if you have an independent sleeper already, who can fall asleep on their own. I offer 30 Minute Calls just so we can talk through a plan of action for the nap transition phase, or maybe you're in the midst of it and you're like, Oh no, I've been doing this all wrong. Now what do I do, we can talk through and get you back on track so I will also link that in the show notes as well. Thank you so much for listening to sleep talking moms, we hope you are walking away from this episode with practical sleep advice to get the whole family sleeping better. If you enjoyed the episode, please take a second to rate and review each review helps more tired and overwhelmed moms by simple and practical sleep advice. See you back here soon. Nap Transition Tips
We all know that feeling when sleep is going well and the BAM! You have to a drop a nap. How do you know it's time? How do you do it? How do you avoid the anxiety that comes with nap transitions?