Valerie Plowman from Chronicles of a Babywise Mom is guest posting here today about common ages for dropping naps. This post was very timely for me as I have a baby currently taking 3 naps! This post is excellent for the new mom just starting out on Babywise or for someone who needs to remember what to expect at certain ages. I am over at My Devising talking about how to do Babywise when you can’t start as you mean to go on.

by Valerie Plowman

Dropping a nap is always a little bitter sweet (along with a bit scary--are you doing the right thing?!!?). On one hand, it was nice to have that quiet time to get various other things done without the "help" of the child at that moment. On the other, every napped dropped is an opening to more flexibility and freedom for the family. 

Babies on a typical 3 hour routine have 4 naps by my estimation. I consider going to sleep around 7 PM or later to be "bedtime" and not naptime, so between waking up in the morning and going to bed at night, there are four naps initially. I will walk you through the ages for dropping all 4 naps.

The 4th Nap

The fourth nap is typically dropped around 4 months old. 4th nap at 4 months. Pretty easy to remember, right? This is the most consistent age for nap-dropping. Across the board, most babies do this close to 4 months old. No other nap is this similar for babies. The range is 3-5 months. 

The 3rd Nap

The next nap is to drop is the 3rd. This nap might be a short nap for a while before you actually stop having it altogether. The average age for this nap being dropped is 8 months. The range is typically 6-10 months. Some will be older. You might have a 5 month old every so often who is ready for 2 naps. 

The 1st Nap

The next nap you drop is the first nap. The age for this is probably average close to 18 months. The age of dropping this nap has a huge variance. Some are 14 months and some are closer to 2 years.  Some people even find their baby does best dropping this nap younger than 14 months. 

The Nap

By the time you get to dropping your one and only nap, it is just "the" nap. One nap a day goes on for years. The dropping of the one nap goes very slowly. It is more of a weaning process, and ideally you will move from it being a "nap" and turn it into a "rest time." Usually, a 2 year old will sometimes just play through the nap instead of sleep. This might not start until closer to 3 years old. This starts a long process of dropping the nap slowly. I still put my child down for a nap every day during this transition unless we have something going on, like a family party or a day out. I make these exceptions to nap knowing that a nap can be missed without the child losing it completely. 

As your child gets older, this nap becomes more often a rest time than a nap. Sometime between 4 and 5, you will most likely find most days are a rest and not a nap. You then officially consider this time rest time. 

Rest Time

Then the question becomes, when do you drop rest time for good? The answer is completely up to you and what your days end up looking like. I hold on to rest time until sometime during Kindergarten. We have half-day Kindergarten here. Come Spring, my children have thus far pretty much stopped having rest time be a normal part of every day. 

We still have rest time every Sunday for our children on up to the oldest who is currently 9. I will have rest time on days I think a child could use a nap. I say we will have rest time that day and the child will usually fall asleep. I sometimes re-institute rest time during summer break, also. With older children, I often just do Sustained Silent Reading and let that count as rest time and SSR time. Let rest time be something that aides your child and you in having a good day. It does not need to become a source of guilt. Rest time is a great thing to have in your day if it makes sense for your family. 

For more help on dropping naps, see these posts:

• Dropping Naps: A Quick Reference
• Dropping a Nap: A Weaning Process
• Dropping the Morning Nap (from 2 to 1 naps): Transition Time
• Dropping Naps: Moving To Rest Time

Valerie has four children (ages ranging 2-9) and blogs at babywisemom.com.

- Elaine