Napping..or not.

As you can see from the picture, Graham has always been a happy boy when he wakes up from naps! I have been very blessed from day one (OK, week 3, but close enough!) to have an excellent sleeper. Graham loves to snuggle in and take good long naps. He has always been on a really good schedule, for both eating and sleeping. He slept every two hours during the day until he was about 4 months old, then went to a really consistent 3 nap schedule. That quickly turned to a two nap schedule, which, until the last week or so, has never changed. Some may think he sleeps too much, but he really gets cranky if he misses a nap, and/or will wake at night (but only cry out a few times, then go back to sleep). I know others may think I am a bit of a nap nazi, but once visotors are done playing with him, I am left with Mr. Crankypants, alone. Not fun. So, I turned into a nap nazi for my own sanity! I rarely mess with nap time, and I honestly believe the benefits of a well rested, well scheduled little guy far outweigh the fact that I am tied to the house for a big part of the day. Graham's sleep schedule has been as follows, wake at 8 or 8:30, nap from 10-11, second nap from 1:30 to 4, bed at 7:30. See why I like it? It's been great, I have never been able to play the "I'm a new mom and not sleeping card". Anyway, the last week, our world has been turned upside down! Mr. Man has decided to change things up. A lot of factors could be the culprit, teething, a cold, growth spurt, etc. Yet, none of these have bothered him in the past, why now? So, I tend to think it's simply that my baby boy is growing up and needing less zzz's. He has been waking up around 7:30, napping fine in the morning, but resisting going down for the afternoon nap until almost 3. The problem with that...he will keep sleeping until 6 then not go down for bed! So I have been letting him sleep until 5, then wake up up for dinner and to play a little before going down at 7:30. I am not a fan of this schedule! So, I am pretty sure we are ready to drop down to one nap. Most of what I have read says that this happens somewhere between 1 and 2, with most babies doing the transition around 15 months. So today I started my transition plan! I decided that we should try to get this figured out before other major changes occur, traveling for the holidays, and stopping nursing ( a whole other issue I will probably get into later). The plan is this, morning nap still needs to happen for a while, but it's going to be shorter. Today he went down at 9:45, I woke him at 10:30 for storytime at the library. He went down for afternoon nap just after 2, and with minimal fuss...but there was still a little bit! My goal is to keep shortening the morning nap over the course of the next few weeks, and moving the afternoon nap as close to 12:30 as I can. I am pretty sure he will still sleep for a long nap say 1-4. Hopefully my plan will work, as I know my little guy, he needs his sleep, but we can get him back on a schedule that is good for both of us!