The Process of Dropping a Nap

I think it is safe to say that Lilah has officially dropped her 3rd nap. Over the past several weeks, it became increasingly more difficult to get her to go down for her later afternoon nap and on many occasions it didn't happen at all. On the days that she refused to nap, she would be exhausted by the time bedtime rolled around because she had been awake since the early afternoon. Keeping her up until bedtime and getting her to go to sleep at night was becoming very challenging because she was so overtired by that time (FYI - 7:00pm is our bedtime and has been for several months). At this point, we realized we needed to step in and 'manipulate' the situation in order to shorten the long afternoon period.

Let's rewind...For several months, Lilah consistently took 3 naps each day. Her first nap would be 1 1/2 -2 hours after she woke in the morning for about an hour and then she would take 2 more hour long naps after being awake for about 2 hours in between each. When the process of dropping a nap started (yes, it very much was a process because it didn't just happen one day), Lilah was still taking her first 2 naps early in the day which meant there was a very long stretch between waking from the 2nd nap and bedtime.

I started to slowly try to keep her up a little later in the morning and between her naps. At first I was only able to keep her up for about 2 1/2 hours in the morning and between naps, but now we have worked our way up to about 2 1/2 - 3 hours of awake time. Three hours seems to be her limit which makes sense because it is actually common for children of her age (8 months) to be able to stay awake for only 2 1/2 - 3 hours at a time. Her naps are now becoming slightly longer which means she is still sleeping for the same amount of time as she was before, but in 2 spurts instead of 3 (Generally speaking, it does not matter how many naps your child takes, but that they are getting about 14 hours of sleep each day on average. There are, however, huge variations when it comes to amount of sleep).

Our new schedule is working out much better. The longer awake periods between naps means she is now napping well into the afternoon and there is a shorter period of awake time between the last nap and bedtime. Bedtime has become easier and we don't have to work to keep her awake until 7:00pm.

An added bonus is that our nursing and eating schedule has also become a little more predictable as there is more time to fit in a nursing and breakfast and/or nursing and lunch (and sometimes even a snack) before it is time to go back to sleep. Prior to the change, it was often very challenging to get her to nurse and eat breakfast/lunch in the span of 1 1/2 - 2 hours during which she was awake. Getting out of the house is now a little easier too!

I am not looking forward to the day when Lilah decides to drop her morning nap. It is inevitable and will happen sooner than later. I guess I will just have to fully enjoy the time I now have in the morning for as long as I have it!

Happy napping!