Handling Changes in Kids' Sleep Schedules

Getting your kids on a sleeping schedule is not always simple, sometimes it takes a lot of work, and when you get them on one schedule, often times they change it up on you! So how do you keep yourself sane when your kids decide to make a switch from napping to no naps?

I sleep trained both my kids, so being on a schedule was particularly important in the beginning. But both my kids were so different schedule wise that I couldn’t compare them or do similar things because they needed different amounts of sleep at different times which was more difficult when it came to the different nap transitions.

Evie was a particularly difficult case when it came to sleeping. She just didn’t want to do it and when I finally broke down and decided to sleep train, it was a miracle. From 5 to 10 months she took two two-hours naps a day and slept 10-12 hours a night. Then around 10 months her morning naps got much shorter very quickly. We went from two hours to 45 minutes within a matter of weeks and I wasn’t sure what to do because without that nap she was VERY cranky, crazy temper tantrums, screaming, easy to set off, she was driving us nuts! So I had to play around.

I tried putting her down earlier for one nap, but that made her really cranky early in the evening. I tried letting her take a short nap in the morning, and a long one in the afternoon but then she was staying up super late. Finally after several different attempts, I found keeping her up until her afternoon nap was easiest because she took a nice long nap in the afternoon but was still ready for bed at a decent hour. She would get cranky before her nap but generally we were at home at that point having lunch so it was usually ok, although sometimes if we were out around that time I learned we just had to get home because NOTHING but sleep would make her happy.

Now she’s at the age where she doesn’t want to nap at all even if she really needs it. And although I’m ok with letting her cry a bit, she really cries hard and wakes her brother from his nap, so I don’t really want to do that. Again we tried a few different things. I used to drive her around for 10 minutes or so to let her fall asleep and then transfer her. I used to let her lay in our bed to watch a show and usually she fell asleep. Then she went through a phase where she just didn’t nap at all which was fine because she wasn’t cranky in the evenings.

However, recently, she started getting to be a crank before bedtime so I decided enough is enough, she’s napping! And for some reason it worked ... don’t ask me how I did it because I have no clue. Most days she takes a nice little hour and a half nap. Some days she doesn’t nap but she hangs out in her room and reads. All in all it’s pretty great!

Milo is still little and still taking a nice long nap in the afternoon. We did have to transition him out of a morning nap, but that was so easy. I just stopped putting him down in the morning one day and kept him up until his afternoon nap and it just worked. He was a whole different breed of easy kinda baby!


Nap transitions are hard, but as long as you’re patient and you don’t totally stress yourself out, it can be done! That doesn’t mean you don’t want to pull your hair out while you’re going through it, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

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How did you handle your kids’ nap transitions? We’d love to hear from you all! Please share with us in the comments below.