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When 16-month-old Jonah started fighting his afternoon nap, his mom, Kim Stein,* knew what was going on: He was ready to switch from two naps a day to one. ?It?s the same thing that happened with my older kid,? says Stein. ?He?d happily go down for his morning nap at 9:30?a.m., but then he?d refuse to fall asleep for his second one.?
When?s the right time"

Most kids drop the second nap when they?re 14 to 18 months old. You?ll know yours is ready when you find her consistently resisting her afternoon snooze.
Just be sure any nap resistance isn?t a hiccup. ?You want to give your child a week to 10 days to be sure it?s not related to a milestone,? says Amanda Hudye, founder of child sleep consultancy SleepWell Baby. Learning to walk or run and making a big leap in speech development can all disrupt sleep. Making the change

Hudye recommends starting by pushing the first nap of the day forward in half-hour increments. So the 9:30 a.m. nap moves to 10, then to 10:30, and so on, with the goal of moving the nap to 12:30 p.m. You may want to wait a few days between each 30-minute shift so your toddler can adjust.
During the transition, don?t give up the afternoon nap until you get the morning one to 11 a.m., at which point there will more than likely not be time for afternoon nap. ?This is where an early bedtime will be needed,? says Hudye. The afternoon nap will get more inconsistent, but Hudye recommends still putting your kid down at about 2:30; h...