Confused by your little one's sleeping patterns? You're certainly not alone. Join the conversation for an inside look at infant sleep.
What can I do if my baby refuses and resusts to fall asleep?
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Vanessa V.
Hi Maria, |
Hi,
I have been trying to put my 8.5 months old on a schedule for a few months now, and quite unsuccessfully.
I am trying to respect the pattern of 2 hours... so if he wakes up at 6am his nap is at 8am.
Most times he naps for 30-45 min but he has days when he does take a 2 hour nap ( not many though).
So , my question is, if one day he wakes from his nap at 3pm , and his normal bedtime is between 8-8.30, on that day what do I do: put him for a 3rd nap for 30 min at 5.40 and then put him to sleep at 9-9.30 or skip that and put him to sleep at 7-7.30 pm.
Thanks
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Vanessa V.
Hi Cristina, |
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Vanessa V.
http://www.mybabysleepguide.com/2013/02/average-sleep-charts-by-age.html |
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Vanessa V.
If you keep a morning waking up time the same everyday, even weekends. It helps the naps be more predictable. Predictable naps mean a predictable bedtime. What time does your LO wake up daily? |
My 5.5 month old had been a champion sleeper until last week. She had been taking 2-3 naps (~1 hour each) with no problem, and sleeping 7:30pm-7am with no wakeups in her own room. She had a cold early last week and even though she's now totally healthy it's like she forgot how to sleep! Falling asleep hasn't been much problem - but then she has woken up every night around 2 or 3 am and been up for 2-3 hours at a time, fussing the whole time. It's like she startles herself awake and she's forgotten how to settle herself down. We give her at least 10 minutes to try to self-soothe before checking on her. Changing her diaper, nursing, rubbing her belly - they all comfort her for a minute but as soon as we leave the room she fusses again. We have no issue letting her cry it out after we make sure her needs are met but even so, it has taken her hours to finally settle. She's perfectly content when she's awake and doesn't seem to be in pain. Any advice on a sleep training method??
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Vanessa V.
Hi! It sounds like you have a great foundation for healthy sleep. Something just got off track. Can you send me a detailed schedule of the day: morning wake up time, nap times on the clock, nap lengths, bedtime. Night wake ups and how you handle them (food vs soothing). |
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Lauren Morning wakeup time is at around 7am. First nap starts around 9:30am and lasts about an hour, sometimes longer. Second nap starts about 2 hours after the first nap ends and also tends to be about an hour to an hour and a half. There's usually a third nap too that's usually a little shorter than the first two and ends by 5pm or so. She's at daycare during the day so there is some variation in the exact timing and duration of naps, but her total sleep in a 24 hour period has been in the 15 hour range pretty consistently for a number of months now. The nap routine at daycare for naps is that she gets a bottle, then is put into a crib in a darkened room with white noise going. |
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Vanessa V.
Hi Lauren, |
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Lauren That's right, we didn't have to do formal sleep training when she started sleeping through |
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Vanessa V.
Hey Lauren, |
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Vanessa V.
Hey Lauren, |
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Lauren Thanks, that’s a useful tip - makes sense to move nursing earlier in the routine. |
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Lauren And, hope everyone is feeling better! |
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Vanessa V.
For night awakenings, the key is to stretch you timed intervals so they change. If they stay the same, then the timed check becomes a parent driven sleep association. a sleep association the child can recreate is an independent sleep association (dark room, white noise, hand to mouth). Parent driven sleep associations provided at bedtime routine are the strongest. Then the child requests that sleep association as they have a partial arousal--moves towards fully awake. Likely, the change of moving nursing earlier and putting down more awake will be enough. |
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Vanessa V.
Example |