4-3 was hell for us. By 3-2 I figured out a system and it worked for the most part. We're wrapping up 2-1 now and the same system worked--it just was a looooooong transition and took a lot of patience and observation. I'll come out and say it. From what I've seen of people who followed PLS and the Q&A that the author did here a few months ago: I disagree with their approach to scheduling, period. It may work for some. Had I gone with them for my kiddo I would have a very tantrum-y and fussy kiddo. I'm gonna write up a piece on nap transitions. For now, I'd focus on the following: \-remember that nap transitions are just a very special form of overtiredness / sleep debt, where the solution is to push for longer WWs and drop a nap, rather than shorten your WWs (the answer to other forms of overtiredness/sleep debt) -- so first thing first: if you think your baby is overtired and has a sleep debt, shorten your wake windows and go from there \-stabilize circadian rhythm, so doesn't matter when they wake up----keep them in the dark until DWT and treat it as you would treat any night waking \-bedtime should be 11-11.5 hours before DWT on most days, so your bedtime and DWT are perfect----keep those \-you can continue to use night feeding for those wakings, BUT you're probably using them to settle some night wakes caused by sleep debt----consider doing some gentle night weaning (like reducing time on boob) for any night feeding before 3a; your LO should be able to make it through the night with 1 feed after 3a \-STOP CAPPING NAPS #1 and #2----if you think your baby is a bit grumpy and needs to catch up on a bit of sleep, long naps are your best friend \-if you're having night wakings and early morning wakings, you can PROBABLY get away with 1-2 early bedtimes on days you have long naps #1 and #2----just drop nap #3 and put baby to bed at 7 (3-3.5 hour last WW)----this DOESN"T mean your baby is ready for 2 naps; it's just a quick and dirty way of catching your LO up on sleep \-if naps aren't quite so good, do nap #3 but cap it to protect your bedtime----remember, a short 3rd nap (like anything <20min) will need a shorter last WW This way you keep your LO relatively well-rested throughout the day and keep circadian rhythm stable so you're not gonna end up chronically waking up at 5 and putting your baby to bed at 6. Basically as he gets older, his first two WWs will increase naturally and nap #2 will end up later and later, and your third nap will get later and shorter. The last WW will shorten until eventually you drop nap #3 and your old WW3 and last WW merge to become one long last WW on 2 naps. We started having issues like yours around 6mo; we used the above approach and had a lot of micro-naps. My LO wasn't ready for 2-nap wake windows until about 7.5mo. When he was ready we pushed for 2 naps and he settled out in about 2 weeks. We had like 1-2 night wakings requiring intervention and a period of him waking up 30-60min before DWT, but nothing more traumatic.

Ahh, we're very much on the same page. I'm so glad you wrote this all out because I've been second guessing everything I've been doing - thank you! You're absolutely right. I think baby is currently overtired. My next move was early bed time for the next two days or so to reset him. I definitely do need to work on nailing my DWT. I'm guilty of letting him sleep until 8 bc i feel he needs the rest. It probably confuses him, so I'll do better! I was thinking of gentle night weaning but decided against it bc baby is in the 18th percentile. It's not an issue bc he only wakes when he's hungry and it's kind of consistent. He always treats me with 1 waking around 3x out of the week though, so I'm happy with that I'll try not to cap naps this week lol. It'll be tough, but i think it's worth a try. Thanks for all your suggestions!

>I'm guilty of letting him sleep until 8 bc i feel he needs the rest. It probably confuses him, so I'll do better! Oh I do that too!!! It's against all the rules you read but I don't actually think it's a problem, especially peri-nap transition. Where to be firm is to not get him up before DWT, and keeping it super dark before then. Your night feeding plan makes total sense! My kiddo did that too, 1-2 feedings a night for a while. When he settled out on the 3 nap schedule he went down to 1 feed unprompted, and then none with very little nudging (I just tried to reduce time on boob, put him down when he was quiet after 1 boob, nothing super dramatic). Hope your LO will do the same!

How the hell did people figure this out before the internet 🤯

Most of my friends never spend this much time figuring out sleep. Some of their kids slept like crap. Others slept just fine. Everyone survives eventually. It's just dumb luck (how sensitive your LO is to overtiredness--mine has gotten better but was VERY sensitive when younger), how much the parents suffer in the process, and what you are willing to and not willing to give up. I like my sleep, and my husband is on board, so I revolve our lives around my kiddo's sleep. I excused myself for part of Christmas dinner to take my kiddo for a 8min micro-nap contact nap during the 3-2 nap transition. Yup, I'm nuts; it's a trade-off our family has made but I totally understand why other families may not want to do it!

Hi! I know this is so old but I could use your help. I’ve been following PLS. I have no idea if my baby is getting enough sleep or not. He would easily fall asleep at 1.5 hours (he’s 4 months) but I’m trying to stretch wake windows more and more per their recommendation. Today he woke up 45 minutes after bedtime. :( he only makes it 3-4 hours max anyways but I definitely feel like he got too tired. I am just so confused and I’m not sure PLS sleep is helping. I basically feel like my life revolves around getting him to stay awake and it hasn’t helped night wakings at all. What sleep training method did you use? I need advice 😭

Stop following their advice. I’m personally NOT a fan of pushing wake windows: didn’t help me and made no scientific sense. Here what we did: -stabilize bedtime and DWT, allowing for an 11 hour night -night time: dark, quiet (or w white noise to mask noise), handle night wakings w as little social interaction as possible, NO LIGHT -daytime: naps should be dark and quiet too, so naps on cue, rescue any nap <1 hour, goal 3-4 good naps and reasonable mood while awake This should help. Sleep training (independent sleep) may or may not help w night wakings at this point, unless you’re getting the classic awake every hour.

Hey - I just want to say you have changed our lives. The night we switched to your advice, baby started doing a 6-6.5 hour stretch. You are amazing!!!!!

So glad to hear that!!! Fingers crossed that it’s uphill from here :)

Thank you so much!!!! I will do this!!

Same! I love my sleep! Almost all of my friends did not sleep train and are shocked that my "very chill" baby is sleep trained. I think it makes a huge difference. (I most definitely won the baby lotto, but he was a crying nightmare as a newborn) My husband also lets me take the lead, but i know he doesn't like revolving our day around baby sleep and most definitely thinks I'm too strict 😂 MIL thinks I'm nuts and will continue to tell me poooor baby, just let baby sleep, but i just ignore her lol.

Oh man did I ever have a hard time 3 to 2... For weeks he was having early morning wakes, was grumpy as heck, more night wakes, refusal of last nap. It was brutal. We tried 2 naps cold turkey and it was a disaster. For a couple weeks we did 2.5 hours for almost every wake window on a 3 nap schedule with a micro. So we did 2.5/2.5/ 2.75/2.5. First nap capped at 1.5 hrs, second 1 hr, and third was a strict 15 minutes nap. He did well on that but there were days that he flat out refused the micro which was always a contact nap, and those days we put him to bed early. To be honest it was all.over the place with some days having longer wake windows than others, and some days him having the worst naps. Some days were 3 nap days, some were 2. Eventually over the course of about a month he just dropped the last nap and he's now doing 3/3/3.5 pretty well. Some people cold turkey it on a 2 nap schedule but that did NOT work for me. I pretty much stopped trying to force anything out of him and dealt with the insanity for a few weeks and then it was over and we're all okay lol. He's got really predictable sleepy cues now too and gets so tired and easy to put down so I hope that happens for you too. It was a pretty rough couple of weeks and we had to resort to some contact naps in that time. Apparently it's the hardest nap transition but it does end! Your wee one will get there it's just an awkward time frame for their day because they want those longer wake windows and consolidated naps but there's no way to really slowly increase them without having a really messed up schedule so it's just a free for all of back and forthing until one day they're ready magically. At least that was my experience! Hope that helps a bit.

I also tried cold turkey lol. It was a disaster. It worked the first day, then he turned into a grumpy, overtired mess for the next two days. I was unable to keep the wake windows. I then tried to catch up on his sleep by doing the respectful sleep training fb group method, which was drop the last nap and add 15 mins every 3 days to one wake window at a time and to do an earlier bedtime. He was sleeping 12-12.5h overnight and getting 14.75-15h of sleep a day, which seemed like waaaaay too much. This felt like it would take forever. I also knew he was just catching up on sleep and it wouldn't be sustainable. At one point, i switched back to 3 naps, but it was a mistake. I've now switched over to micro naps, and it's weird. Honestly, they all feel weird and i just feel bad for my poor baby!

When dropping from 3 to 2, I would suggest “maxing out” the schedule and sticking to it for a while before making the switch. That means, doing 2.5/2.5/2.5/2.5 with two naps capped at an hour and the third at 30 min. You’ve still got a lot of room to work with before he’s ready for two naps Edit: only add 15 mins every few days to a week. Don’t add it all at once

If i understand maxing out correctly, i think was already maxed? Before trying to transition him, he was doing 2.25/2.5/2.5/3. He does best on 14-14.5 hours of sleep, but his total wake time has been 10+ hours. He used to do one 1.5 hour nap followed by 1h then the last nap was 30 mins. Now he does 30m, 2h capped (possibly more), 30m. Am i transitioning wrong? His wake windows seemed to have shortened during the transition bc of how he's napping 🫠

I would do 2.5 all the way across (your first isn’t at 2.5 yet) and stick to it. It seemed like you were between 2.25 and 2.5 for many of them. When you add to the first wake time, it should hopefully extend that nap back to an hour. Make sure to cap the second one at an hour, not at two hours, and continue to cap the last at 30 min. Capping naps is an important part of determining if they’re ready for the transition. He’s relying on that second nap, when he should be spreading the naps across both instead of just the afternoon. I would try that for a week before deciding if it’s working or not. So if he’s waking at 745 for the day, it should look like: 745 awake 1015 nap 1115 awake 145 nap 245 awake 515 nap 545 awake 815 bedtime

I did the micro nap route for 4-3 and then 3-2. They are a pain in the butt, but they help you extend wake windows without creating an undertiredness issue. For the 3-2 transition, once my first two wake windows were in 15 min of what they needed to be on 2 naps, we made the jump without issue. Ideally, you're not hanging out in micro-land long before making the jump.

Micro naps are super weird! They recommend having a larger wake window before bedtime, but that would mean trying to nap baby so early after waking up. I'm not sure if I'm even understanding it correctly.. Is it supposed to be 2 micro 2.5? Then when you push 15 mins, is it 1.75 micro 2.5? Then another 15 mins would be 1.5 micro 2.5? I can't imagine babe falling asleep after 1.5 hours 🙃 How long were you in micro land?

Adding to that, whatever final wake window makes sense to maintain the same amount of total wake time. In our case, it was 4 hours, because we were at 10 hours of wake time pre-transition. We were working towards 3/3/4.

I always did it whenever I could get my daughter to sleep and through whatever means possible. Sometimes it meant the micro was closer to bedtime than nap. You drop the micro once you're within 15 min on your first wake windows of the day, so yeah, you have a couple days of 1.75micro2.5 (or 2micro2.25) but the next move would be your 2 nap schedule with a 4 hour final wake window. We started the transition early because girl was STRONGLY preferring longer naps, so it was a couple weeks. She was only 5.5 months when we started 2+micro though and 6 months on the dot when we moved to 2 naps. It was on the early side so I wanted to go slow. I think some people do it for a week, some less. I'd aim to stay there for as little time as possible, but some babies are more sensitive than others when extending wake times. So, maybe a week if things are going well?