All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

[amayzie]

   What is it?

The 3-2 transition can be a tricky time and is one of the first big nap transitions many parents trip over.  The transition is usually around 6 months- but some babies can start this process at 5 months, while others won’t be ready to drop the cat nap until closer to 7/8 months.

As it’s a ‘transition’ you will need to work over a period of time to drop the cat nap. Just because they are showing the signs that they need to move to 2 naps doesn’t mean that it will happen over night.

Some signs that your LO is ready to start increasing their A time and drop the cat nap:

- Early waking
- Waking in the early hours of the morning for a ‘cot party’. Usually your LO is happy and ready to play!
- Fighting bed time: Your LO can become a nightmare to get to sleep- lots of crying and fussing- sometimes leading to missing the window and an OT baby!
- Fighting the cat nap: The last nap of the day is getting later and later- and your LO is harder and harder to get to sleep for this final nap

As well as these signs you’ll also see the classic signs that your LO is ready to increase his/her A time that you’ve probably seen a few times already:
- Fighting naps
- Cutting naps short to less than 1.5 hours- often the 40/45 min nap will rear it’s ugly head again

How do I do it?

Your LO needs to increase their A time to around 3 hours. This needs to be done slowly at 10/15 minutes every couple of days to allow your LO to get used to the increase in A time- otherwise they will get over tired. Once your LO’s A time is around 3 hours across the day you will be able to drop the cat nap and move to 2 naps. Some LOs may be able to drop the nap on less than 3 hours A time if their naps are longer, or they are doing a longer night. This is the perfect world example of the sort of thing you are looking at:

A: 7am-10am
S: 10:00-11:30
A: 11:30-2:30
S: 2:30-4pm
A: 4pm-7pm

During the transition period you will get to the point where there isn’t time for the CN- but the time to bed is too long- leading to an OT baby!! During all transitions there is going to be some over tiredness but some tools you can use are:

- Early Bed time: Sometimes dropping the cat nap and bringing bed time forward by as much as an hour can help to fend off OT;
-Capping the CN rather than dropping it altogether: Sometimes if there isn’t time for a full cat nap a short catch up nap in the car of 15/20 minutes can help get them through to bed time without making them UT.

Once the transition is done you’ll be rewarded with one less nap to worry about and the freedom of more time to get out and about with your LO without worrying about the naps!!

If you want to chat to other mums going through the same thing as you please check out the 3-2 chat and support thread in the Naps board!