Nap schedule not going according to plan? Team Tinyhood to the rescue! Troubleshoot your little one's current routine and get on the right foot for a restful 2018. Led by Tinyhood Sleep Consultant, Vanessa Vance.
I have a two month old baby girl. She is sleeping all the time. She does not sleep more than 3-4 straight at night Ever. She just wakes up, eats, and back to sleep. Im breastfeeding. The only hours she is awake for more than an hour is at 10 pm till like 12 or 2 am... what should I do?
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Vanessa V.
Johana, they do sleep a lot in the beginning. The longest she should be awake is one hour at her age. When she is awake for 2 hours, she should be offered a nap earlier, at the one hour mark. |
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Johana Ramos Ohh okeii.... when dies she start to sleep fewer time? |
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Vanessa V.
The only predictable sleep should be expected at the beginning of bedtime for around 4 hours at this age. |
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Vanessa V.
Aim for bedtime to be early around 7 or 8 at night |
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Vanessa V.
Here is a great guide to help you anticipate any sleep changes http://www.mybabysleepguide.com/2013/02/average-sleep-charts-by-age.html?m=1: |
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Johana Ramos Thanks for the info? Another question if I may... is it bad for her to nap a en chair? Its not a swing or anything. For some reason she hates the crib and hates to be laying down facing up. She would give in easier sleeping belly..... why is this!? |
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Vanessa V.
Johana Ramos - which country do you live in? I am in the USA. I am taught to follow the AAP guidelines. |
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Vanessa V.
The belly sleeping is not recommended at this age. I increases the risk for SIDS bc they are in a deeper sleep, they are more likely to have a SIDS event. Scary, right? Stick with placing her on her back at this age. Let's keep her alive! |
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Johana Ramos I live in Arkansas! 🙂 if she starts crying I rock her on me and try again? |
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Johana Ramos Very scary!!!! |
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Vanessa V.
Yes. Try to let her fall asleep on her own, from a quiet awake state. If it doesn't work, after 5-10 mins, follow a parent driven soothing to sleep methd - patting rocking shhhh etc. Dr karp's DVD happiest baby on the block is awesome for the parent driven soothing tips and teaching how to swaddle |
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Johana Ramos Ohh okeiii 😉 |
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Johana Ramos Thanks for all the info. Also, guideline really helps |
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Johana Ramos Heii! So i put her without rocking her like two hours ago and she sleep like almost and hour and a half by her self on her back she woke up like half an hour ago feed her she fussed a little offered to sleep again and her back while being awake and she stayed there!!!! Yeeeeiiiiii she soothed herselff!!!!!! Soooo happy for her! Hopefully she will sleep more hours..... |
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Vanessa V.
Amazing! Congratulations mama! Way to go!! |
How do I stop rocking my baby to sleep every time? She is 4 and a half months and I rock her for every nap and at night, then I put her on her crib super sleepy and she’ll fall asleep by herself (sometimes). If I don’t rock her she can’t fall asleep and I just can’t let her CIO. It breaks my heart. What else can I do?
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Cristina And I don’t mind rocking her... but she’s getting heavier! |
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Vanessa V.
Hi Cristina, |
I have a 2 month old who wakes up during the night to feed but come morning she doesn’t want to wake up to eat. She seems so peaceful sleeping and once I wake her up she is very inconsistent with her eating habits she eats different amounts all the time. Should I wake her up at certain time each morning even if she wants to stay asleep?
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Vanessa V.
Hi Yarly, Check in with our feeding experts and your pediatrican about milk (formula, bottle - pumped milk or formula, or breastfeeding. |
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Vanessa V.
"?Should I wake her up at certain time each morning even if she wants to stay asleep?" |
Now that we are back from the holidays and my daughter is back in school M-Th, she so tired that by 4:30pm she has started falling asleep. I have tried to keep her awake but she’s just exhausted. If she naps then she is up late and it starts a bad cycle. Do you have any recommendations on how to handle this situation? Do you think it will just take a few weeks to get her back on the old routine?
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Vanessa V.
Hey Paula, you are in a tricky spot. Nap Purgatory. It is normal for the naps to cause bedtime to push back. Any amount of napping can do this, if your child is sensitive. |
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Paula Hi Vanessa, the last couple of days have seemed to settle back into the normal routine. Up at 7am, no nap and in bed by 8:30pm. We traveled heavily during the holidays so her schedule was a complete free for all. I think that after the second week of being back in the normal routine that she may be back on track. We were very careful to keep her busy at the 4:30pm time that she was starting to nap. It really helped. Thank you! |
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Vanessa V.
This is so wonderful!! My son will fall asleep in the car after 5 pm. Perform errands early in the day to avoid this |
Hi Vanessa, my 7month old daughter is generally a pretty good sleeper -sleeps through the night and takes regular naps in her crib. We have white noise going, blackout shades, cool temps, etc.
Except for the newborn stage, she’s never napped too long. Usually naps are 45 min and occasionally she’ll nap for an hour or an hour and a half, but not consistently or often. She’s also recently been staying up for much longer periods, and seems to really be fighting her 3rd nap, so Ive tried dropping it this last week and a half. On regular days when both naps are only 40ish min, she’s barely making it to an early bedtime and I’m having to stretch that wake time to get her second nap late enough.
Any tips for lengthening naps at this point? Should I try forcing that 3rd nap back in? I have tried allowing her to wake up and waiting before going in, but I’ve yet to see her fall back asleep after a significant wait.
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Christi Do you recommend she be on a clock schedule for naps at this age? I’m a stay at home mom, so it’s definitely possible (once I figure out the naps) but wondering what you think. So far, she has a routine and I’m noticing patterns but still go off sleepy cues and wake windows more often than anything else. |
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Christi One more quick question... For the last couple weeks, she always wakes from naps crying or cranky, whereas in the past she would wake quietly, then proceed to giggle or “talk” while playing in her crib until I came to her. She did have a cold around the time when this change started, so I figured she just wasn’t feeling well but now that it’s pretty much cleared up, I’m wondering if she’s still tired or if the change is completely normal for this age. Any thoughts? |
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Vanessa V.
Hi Christi, |
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Christi Hi, great info. We did some mild sleep training for night, but when naps were short we left her in the crib an extra few minutes as she played to make up for any shorter naps. 9 and noon nap times plus that 3rd cat nap is exactly what she had been doing (just with slight variation based on an occasional earlier/ later wake up and no actual attention to exact timing so 9:15, 8:50, 12:15 etc) but I track her sleep on an app and that’s where the naps fell. Bedtime is currently 645 (asleep) but she’s often nursing by 615, so I’ll push a little earlier. |
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Christi The big nap push back came upon our return from Christmas vacation where her “schedule” was thrown off some and though naps were taken, I wasn’t able to stay as consistent with our routines. Thank you! |
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Vanessa V.
Which app are you using to track sleep? I am always on the lookout for ones parents like |
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Vanessa V.
Go outside after and or before the naps., When you change time zones (you may not have flown). The sun does the hard work of helping you reset to the normal routine. And, you being consistent again with routines when you return from travel. |
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Christi I use Baby Nursing. I do like it but more so because it’s all-in-one rather than a super great sleep tracker in itself. I’ve tracked nursing, sleep, and doctor height/weight/ notes since birth but you can also track pumping, diapers etc. It’s mostly a bunch of timers and room for notes. You’ve probably heard of it! |
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Christi I’m in Boston, so we are outside as much as we can but with little sun and an early sunset, it’s tough. I do turn the lights up in our apartment though. I appreciate all your tips! |
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Vanessa V.
I am in TX. See my crazy advice! Thanks for the location update!! It is 67 in the afternoon here (me shaking my head at myself). When you run errands in the car --- will get her some sun, it walking to the T. |
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Christi I’m from Houston! |
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Vanessa V.
Hi Christi, |
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Christi Better, I think! Since starting the first nap earlier, she is going down quickly and napping 50min-1.5hours or so (asleep time, not including a few min of settling), but doing great with the hour in the crib rule. She’s also back to not waking up crying anymore- yay! So I often have to pay attention to my monitor to see if she’s “up”, since she’s usually in there stretching and rolling around, tapping on the crib bars. |
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Vanessa V.
Hey Christi, |
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Christi Thank you!! |