Liam’s 2 Nap Schedule

Liam’s schedule has shifted since I shared this post back in January, so I thought I would update you! The biggest thing that has changed is making the transition to two naps a day. I have to say, two naps is so much better than three. Obviously, we were happy and willing to do whatever was best for Liam, but dropping that last catnap of the day has been a game changer. It is so nice to have longer wake times for him, as well as longer naps. I love that we have more time to get out and do things, instead of feeling like we only have an hour to an activity before we need to be back home to wind down for a nap.

At nine months and one day (yes, I’m 100% one of those moms that remembers specific dates for things like this!), Liam started sleeping through the night completely and self-soothing. He would wake up sometimes, but he could put himself back to sleep within minutes. We put in a long nine months of disrupted, choppy sleep, so you can imagine how happy we were when he finally figured it out! If you missed it in this post, we opted not to sleep train. While I would’ve loved to have been getting solid sleep since 4 months old, I feel completely at peace with our journey with him. We made the decisions that we felt most comfortable with, which is all you can do as a parent!

He did three big things all around the same time: dropping his third nap, sleeping through the night, and sleeping in later. If you’re in a season of disrupted sleep, I hope you find comfort in knowing that you’re not alone and that it will get better!

Our current routine/schedule (10 months):

6:15-6:45a – Liam wakes up and I get up with him. I give him a bottle, we play for awhile, eat breakfast, play a bit more, then it’s time for his first nap.

9:30/9:45a (3 hours after waking) – 1st nap (typically 1.5-2 hours)

11/11:30a – Awake/eat/play and activity. As he’s getting older, we’re finding that he does really well when we go do something during his awake time. Since he plays at home for the first wake window of the day, he’s usually ready for a change of scenery for this one. We’ll take him to the park to crawl around, run errands, or do something like that.

2:30p (~3-3.5 hours after waking) – 2nd nap (typically 1-1.5 hours – we don’t let him sleep past 4p)

3:30p – Awake from his nap until bedtime. We try to fill this time, as it’s his last wake window of the day. Running an errand, going over to my sister’s, or playing outside usually happen.

5:30p – Dinner. This varies from night to night, but last night it was rotisserie chicken, pickles, cheese, and veggie crisps.

6:00p – Bath time. He’s been getting a bath almost every night for the majority of his life – he loves it! He has fun splashing around and playing. It’s a good activity to wind him down for bed.

6:15p – Dressed for bed and last bottle of the day. Mike usually puts him down (I feed him dinner and give him a bath).

6:45p – Lights out! Since he wakes between 6:15-6:45, we like to give him about 12 hours to sleep.

On a typical day, he’s getting 2.5-3 hours of daytime sleep, plus 11-12 hours of sleep at night. Now that he’s much more mobile, he expels all his energy during the day, which has helped him sleep longer at night!

This is what’s working for us now! It’s nice to have a more reliable schedule, as well as more free time during the day. The rate at which time seems to be passing, I’m sure I’ll be sharing an updated schedule before I know it!