When I took my initial deep dive into the infant sleep world, I quickly stumbled upon the term, wake windows.  Wake windows are everywhere.  Perhaps you’ve already heard of them yourself.  If you haven’t, wake windows refer to the amount of awake time your little one has in between sleep periods.  So, everything in between like diaper changes, feedings, tummy time, walks, and nap and bedtime routine counts as awake time.   But what isn’t commonly talked about is that wake windows have an expiration date.  

Congratulations on welcoming the newest member of your family!   Your little one is an absolute bundle of joy who is absolutely perfect….but what the heck! They’re sleeping like an angel during the day and partying all night when you’re desperate for everyone to get some sleep.  If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone! 

While the 2-1 nap transition is not the first nap transition your little one will go through, it can be one of the most challenging.  My daughter also just went through this transition, so it hits close to home. For us, it was most certainly not a walk in the park.  But with patience and consistency and some “what the heck” and “ugh she’s so tired” along the way, we successfully made it through!

I welcomed my daughter in November 2021.  Leading up to her arrival, I felt pretty confident that my experience as a pediatric Nurse and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner would make for a smooth transition to parenthood, so I never really felt a need to read the “what to expect” books.  I did after all spend two years in grad school endlessly studying infants and children and was at the time practicing in Developmental Pediatrics.  Wasn’t that enough preparation?  No, unfortunately, it was not.