Pop-Up: Sleep Support Live Q&A

My eight month old is not on a regular napping schedule yet. She typically wakes up at 630 AM and goes to bed at 6 PM with one wake up around 3 AM. She takes her first nap of the day at 8 a.m. usually but after that she takes one to two more naps during the day but at various times. I or her nanny put her to sleep when she seems tired. She typically goes down for her nap very easily. She always sleeps 2 to 3 hours during the day but I'm wondering if we should get her on a more consistent schedule. This "schedule" seems to be working for her but it would be nice to know exactly when her naps will be throughout the day.

Hello! My son Charlie is 6 months old. He sleeps great at night but is having trouble napping at daycare. He will sleep for a half hour in his crib around 9am and then be up again. Then another half hour later in the day. When I pick him up around 4, he will fall asleep in his car seat on the way home. When it’s time for his final bottle and bed, he is so tired that I end up putting him down asleep which I never did before (he was always awake). They put him down asleep at school. Any advice for what to do? Thank you!

Hi Arielle-
Thanks for the follow up questions to my post yesterday. My 8mo generally* wakes up between 6-7a and is put down to bed between 6-7p.
With a 7a wake up I have her down for nap 1 at 9:15a (wake time 2.25h), and then (try to!) follow a wake time pattern of 2.75/2.75/2.5hrs. She's always napped 30min max and I've had very limited success with crib hour/crib 75m for extending naps. Note I transitioned from 4 to 3 naps roughly 3 weeks ago, and LO still wakes after 1 (30m) or 2 (60ish m) sleep cycles after being put to bed.
LO falls asleep awake independently in crib for most naps and at bedtime. She wakes 1-3x in the night. If night wakings are close-ish to bedtime (before 10pm) I try to shush/pat back to sleep. Generally after 10pm I'll feed her. I am nursing her back to sleep during these night feedings. I will pick up/put down/nurse depending on level of hysteria but try to do this as a last ditch effort.
We use white noise, a sleep sack, and a pacifier and have a consistent bedtime routine. I'd like to wean her from the nighttime feedings but she's small for her age (not quite 15lbs) and it's hard to tell when she's actually hungry. Extinction for the MOTN wakings is not currently an option due to our living situation.
I've read that babies need to get enough to eat during the day (I'm exclusively breastfeeding so not sure how much! With some solids) and that I should address night wakings with my preferred sleep learning method. I've also read that better day sleep helps better night sleep and vice versa and I'm at a loss for what to do about extending naps.
Aaaaand I don't know how to handle early wake times, for instance she woke up today at 5:45a, napped 7:42-8:08a, napped 11-11:29a, and is currently down since 2:30a (I'm expecting her to wake any minute). I don't know when I should put her to bed (6p?).
Would love your thoughts on naps and general approaches to night wakings.
Thanks!

Hi Arielle,
My 5.5 months old is quite a bad sleeper. Sometimes he wakes up at 5-5.30am and wouldn't go back to sleep until 7am no matter what I do.
During the day he naps for about 30-50 min max.
He needs to nurse in order to sleep 98% of the cases. The rest , he either sleeps in the baby carrier because we are outside or in the stroller.
On very rare occasions my husband manages to put him to sleep in a combination of rocking and using a pacifier which he normally refuses.
During the night he wakes up every 2 hours or sometimes even more. He nurses and falls back to sleep but when I put him in his bed he wakes up and takes me about an hour to make him go back to sleep again.
And nothing seems to comfort him once he is awake.
Any advice?

Hi!

My 8month old that used to sleep through the night, 7-6/7, has all of a sudden started to wake up 2-3 times a night. One night he was up every 2hrs, usually I find him on all fours rocking, sitting up or standing in crib - these are all new skills. It's almost as if he gets into those positions in his sleep and then wakes up and cries, like he doesn't know to lay back down himself. I think he has nightmares too as he can wake up screaming/crying and be like he's still asleep but so upset. I usually have to hold him to go back to sleep. Will this phase go away as he's mastered these skills more? It's been 1 wk so far. Same usually for falling asleep for naps, he'll be super tired but then gets on all fours/sitting/standing and then can't fall asleep unless I go back in and start over. How do I best support him in this phase without creating bad habits? He usually falls asleep on his own in crib unless he's teething or now in what seems like the beginning of a sleep regression when I have to hold him a lot. I try to lay him down before completely asleep but not always possible.
Thanks!

Ok, nap question 🙂. Nap 1 success, put down at 1.5 and sleep 1.5 hours after like 2 min of fussing and wake up happy. Nap 2 tried to put down at 1.75, my boy cried 15 min then fell asleep for 45min then woke up and started crying and right before the hour mark when I was going to get him he fell asleep again. WOO HOO. Do I keep the 1.75 or should I try moving it up to the 1.5 or the opposite? This nap stuff is exhausting, I am actually looking forward to the 2 naps a day because 3 or 4 is killing me!

Babies are 4.5 months adjusted, 5.5 actually. Just started sleep training as well. Boy sleeps through the night girl wakes up a couple times and usually goes back on own, accept for 4am! Today she cried 45 min and I caved and got her (I know I was not consistent!).

Hi Arielle,
Just wanted to check if we are on track. About how many hours a night and per nap should I be clocking with my toddler? Our bedtime is at 730pm and our naptime is around 1230pm. Does this seem reasonable? Thanks!

My son just turned one years old, a little over two weeks ago. I'm looking for advice on when to transition to one nap, signs for readiness, and how to transition. Right now, he sleeps 11-11.5 hours a night usually 7:30 to 6:30/7:00. He naps at 10 & 2. First nap is 50 mins to an hour, and second nap is usually an hour and 20 mins. He goes down for naps pretty easily, and goes to bed 4 hours after his last wake up. He's with a nanny during the day and we want to make sure the transition is easy on us all. We are going on a vacation in the next month, and being at one nap would be great. But again, we're trying to make sure the transition is easy.

He just went through a little rough sleep due to learning to walk. So, we're trying to choose the right timing.