Your baby's naps may be one to three hours in duration. Again, please remember that “typical” is not the same as “normal,” and if your baby's pattern is different from what's typical, that does not indicate a problem. Somewhere around the age of fifteen to twenty-four months, most babies give up their morning nap. The afternoon nap usually persists until at least between four and six.

Let your baby choose when to give up her morning nap. Don't be the one to decide for her. If you find that you're putting her to bed for her morning nap but she's not going to sleep or that she isn't exhibiting her usual signs of sleepiness beforehand, it may be time to stop offering her the opportunity for a morning nap. A baby's nap needs vary from individual to individual and an evolving thing. Don't change your schedule until you see a definite pattern emerging. A newborn needs three naps a day, and a one-year-old will be down to one or two naps, usually midmorning and early afternoon. By one to two years, most kids need a single nap in the early afternoon.

It may not happen all at once. She may need that nap some days and not other days, and this is fine. Watch her for signs and signals. If on one day she seems to want or need a nap, put her to bed for one. If on other days she seems fine without it, let her stay up. If she skips the morning nap but seems sleepy, fussy, or cranky earlier than the hour at which she had been taking her afternoon nap or you have to give an earlier or much longer afternoon nap, then that would be a good sign that the morning nap was given up too soon.

As she grows older, slowly she will work her way toward getting all her sleep at night, but this happens slowly and in stages, not all at once.