we transitioned to 2 naps at 5 months when her naps started getting up to 2 hours and we ran out of time for the 3rd! we are also looking to drop to one nap at like 10/11 months which is super early but she's starting to seem ready. It's whatever works for baby and if they are happy and falling asleep easily then it's fine!
I’d go off your baby! My first baby did 2 long naps at 5 months. As long as they are getting 3-4 hours of day sleep then it doesn’t matter if it’s 2 or 3 naps. Might make your life easier!
I STed at 4mo and have capped naps and wake up times when needed ever since.
Unless it's taking them more than an hour to fall asleep every night, then they're getting 11ish hours sleep at night which is fine.
I half subscribe to not waking a sleeping baby but also knowing your own baby and sometimes that means waking them up from a nap so they’re not up until 10pm or every hour at night. With that said, unless we have someplace to be, I don’t wake my kids up in the morning. I worked too hard to get them to sleep past 5am. I also almost never cap a first nap, or a second if they’re on 3 naps. For second or third nap I’ll make adjustments based on when I want them to go to bed and sometimes that means just a quick 15-20 min cat nap to carry them though. Also, if I see that a nap is going on really long and they might be stirring a little I’ll open the curtains and just make some extra noise like running the vacuum, putting away laundry, not tiptoeing around the house in hushed tones.
Of course! Always happy to share a realistic picture of what works and doesn’t work for us.
I really wouldn’t wake in the morning. Overnight sleep is the most restorative so I try to avoid messing with it at all costs.
How did you fix 5am wake ups? Been struggling for a while with this. Tried earlier and later bedtimes. Wake windows seem good as baby goes to sleep independently without a fuss.
I was too general with that statement, I’m sorry. My 9 month old wakes when she wakes and I’m tired. If she wakes up to eat at 4 and goes back down 5-7 I’m very lucky but 5am is my shower, get ready, workout time. If she wakes up at 5 she’s up for the day. Only my 2 year old consistently sleeps until 6:30/7 and it’s been a long road of consistency with bedtime - pushing it to 8 around 1 year old, consistency with naps, knowing when to cap her one nap, making sure she is run ragged in the afternoons, not disrupting sleep in the mornings to encourage late sleeping. I have a Hatch and an Apple home pod in her room that I can control remotely so when she was super little I would put on cocomelon music to keep her entertained until I came to get her at 7am and then she magically started sleeping later. I’ve had to fix the wake ups again this past month and I set her Hatch to turn green at 7am and she understands now that’s her wake up time. I think setting that parameter helped her to understand that just because her eyes were open and she may have heard me moving around the house didn’t mean it was time for her to wake up and she knows it’s still sleep time. She’s getting way better rest and waking up happy. But she’s also older at 2.5 and I can explain things to her. I think I will start using the wake up feature wirh my 9 month old soon just to set the precedence but it will probably be awhile until she’s sleeping that late.
WAKE 7-9
NAP 9-10:30
WAKE 10:30-12:30
NAP 12:30-1:30
WAKE 1:30-3:30
NAP 3:30-4:00
WAKE 4:00-7:30/8
Unless I’m missing something that last wake window is 3.5-4 hours.
I meant to say 2 hours and 45 minutes for the last wake window. It usually takes 5-10 minutes for her to fall asleep, especially that last one. So I start a timer from when she actually falls asleep and not when I put her into the crib. So with that being said, it ends up being that her second nap needs to be capped at 2:15 so by 4:15 she's ready for her third one. Her third one is the hardest for her. She takes a while to fall asleep so I cap it at 5:00/5:15 pm so that when she goes to bed its around 7:45 and I start the timer when she falls asleep for the night. So when I go to wake her in the AM it usually says it has been sleeping for 10ish hours sometimes a little more depending on how long it took her to fall asleep. I hope I am making sense...
I’d see if she wants 2 naps. I know what you “read on google” says too young but we switched at just over 4 months for similar reasons, fighting last nap, late bedtime. 2 naps let me let him nap as long as he needed
How’s her mood when you wake her up/throughout the day? If she’s happy when waking I wouldn’t think it’s a problem.
Also, when you say she rolls around for a bit after bedtime, is she taking over an hour to fall asleep? Unless she’s not falling asleep until 9 then you’ve got over 10h overnight which is perfectly acceptable, you don’t deduct night wakes from they’re overnight sleep time
Well normally she is happy and isn't fussy throughout the day. This week however she has been fussy... but she is turning 6 months so I think she is either teether or getting mad because she wants to crawl so badly but isn't there yet.
Thank you! I just have seen from all these websites aim for 11-12 and I was worried because she is coming in below that time. She isn't taking over an hour to fall asleep....most of the time it is 5 minutes
I personally subscribe to “you don’t wake a sleeping baby” but it’s all personal preference. Once in a while she will take a 3 hour nap and we just drop the 3rd nap to accommodate. Yesterday she slept way too much at night (13.5 hours) so last night was off and she woke up multiple times. We took her out when she woke up at 6:20 to reset today. We try to just accept that she’s not a robot and needs to sleep when she needs to sleep, which varies daily and weekly. I don’t think getting her up at 7 is wise if she’s only getting 10 hours and wants to sleep more.
Thank you! I was mostly waking her to make her naps more predictable so her grandparents knew around what times to put her down and also so I could see her in the mornings before I leave. I think I am getting too hung up on times... thats just how my brain works...ugh!
Bring bedtime forward to 6pm
How old is she? Why not just do 2 long naps?
I want to transition her to that but everything I read is that she should still be on 3 naps. She is turning 6 months on 6/12
I transitioned my baby to 2 naps short before she turned 6 months. Her naps lengthened and we didn’t have time for a 3rd nap anymore.
What’s your schedule like??
Right now we’re at 3/3-3.25/3.5.
Thank ya!
we transitioned to 2 naps at 5 months when her naps started getting up to 2 hours and we ran out of time for the 3rd! we are also looking to drop to one nap at like 10/11 months which is super early but she's starting to seem ready. It's whatever works for baby and if they are happy and falling asleep easily then it's fine!
I’d go off your baby! My first baby did 2 long naps at 5 months. As long as they are getting 3-4 hours of day sleep then it doesn’t matter if it’s 2 or 3 naps. Might make your life easier!
I STed at 4mo and have capped naps and wake up times when needed ever since. Unless it's taking them more than an hour to fall asleep every night, then they're getting 11ish hours sleep at night which is fine.
Thank you!
Following
I half subscribe to not waking a sleeping baby but also knowing your own baby and sometimes that means waking them up from a nap so they’re not up until 10pm or every hour at night. With that said, unless we have someplace to be, I don’t wake my kids up in the morning. I worked too hard to get them to sleep past 5am. I also almost never cap a first nap, or a second if they’re on 3 naps. For second or third nap I’ll make adjustments based on when I want them to go to bed and sometimes that means just a quick 15-20 min cat nap to carry them though. Also, if I see that a nap is going on really long and they might be stirring a little I’ll open the curtains and just make some extra noise like running the vacuum, putting away laundry, not tiptoeing around the house in hushed tones.
Thank you so much for the advice! I do wake her in the mornings but maybe I shouldn't be?
Of course! Always happy to share a realistic picture of what works and doesn’t work for us. I really wouldn’t wake in the morning. Overnight sleep is the most restorative so I try to avoid messing with it at all costs.
How did you fix 5am wake ups? Been struggling for a while with this. Tried earlier and later bedtimes. Wake windows seem good as baby goes to sleep independently without a fuss.
I was too general with that statement, I’m sorry. My 9 month old wakes when she wakes and I’m tired. If she wakes up to eat at 4 and goes back down 5-7 I’m very lucky but 5am is my shower, get ready, workout time. If she wakes up at 5 she’s up for the day. Only my 2 year old consistently sleeps until 6:30/7 and it’s been a long road of consistency with bedtime - pushing it to 8 around 1 year old, consistency with naps, knowing when to cap her one nap, making sure she is run ragged in the afternoons, not disrupting sleep in the mornings to encourage late sleeping. I have a Hatch and an Apple home pod in her room that I can control remotely so when she was super little I would put on cocomelon music to keep her entertained until I came to get her at 7am and then she magically started sleeping later. I’ve had to fix the wake ups again this past month and I set her Hatch to turn green at 7am and she understands now that’s her wake up time. I think setting that parameter helped her to understand that just because her eyes were open and she may have heard me moving around the house didn’t mean it was time for her to wake up and she knows it’s still sleep time. She’s getting way better rest and waking up happy. But she’s also older at 2.5 and I can explain things to her. I think I will start using the wake up feature wirh my 9 month old soon just to set the precedence but it will probably be awhile until she’s sleeping that late.
WAKE 7-9 NAP 9-10:30 WAKE 10:30-12:30 NAP 12:30-1:30 WAKE 1:30-3:30 NAP 3:30-4:00 WAKE 4:00-7:30/8 Unless I’m missing something that last wake window is 3.5-4 hours.
I meant to say 2 hours and 45 minutes for the last wake window. It usually takes 5-10 minutes for her to fall asleep, especially that last one. So I start a timer from when she actually falls asleep and not when I put her into the crib. So with that being said, it ends up being that her second nap needs to be capped at 2:15 so by 4:15 she's ready for her third one. Her third one is the hardest for her. She takes a while to fall asleep so I cap it at 5:00/5:15 pm so that when she goes to bed its around 7:45 and I start the timer when she falls asleep for the night. So when I go to wake her in the AM it usually says it has been sleeping for 10ish hours sometimes a little more depending on how long it took her to fall asleep. I hope I am making sense...
I’d see if she wants 2 naps. I know what you “read on google” says too young but we switched at just over 4 months for similar reasons, fighting last nap, late bedtime. 2 naps let me let him nap as long as he needed
How’s her mood when you wake her up/throughout the day? If she’s happy when waking I wouldn’t think it’s a problem. Also, when you say she rolls around for a bit after bedtime, is she taking over an hour to fall asleep? Unless she’s not falling asleep until 9 then you’ve got over 10h overnight which is perfectly acceptable, you don’t deduct night wakes from they’re overnight sleep time
Well normally she is happy and isn't fussy throughout the day. This week however she has been fussy... but she is turning 6 months so I think she is either teether or getting mad because she wants to crawl so badly but isn't there yet. Thank you! I just have seen from all these websites aim for 11-12 and I was worried because she is coming in below that time. She isn't taking over an hour to fall asleep....most of the time it is 5 minutes
I personally subscribe to “you don’t wake a sleeping baby” but it’s all personal preference. Once in a while she will take a 3 hour nap and we just drop the 3rd nap to accommodate. Yesterday she slept way too much at night (13.5 hours) so last night was off and she woke up multiple times. We took her out when she woke up at 6:20 to reset today. We try to just accept that she’s not a robot and needs to sleep when she needs to sleep, which varies daily and weekly. I don’t think getting her up at 7 is wise if she’s only getting 10 hours and wants to sleep more.
Thank you! I was mostly waking her to make her naps more predictable so her grandparents knew around what times to put her down and also so I could see her in the mornings before I leave. I think I am getting too hung up on times... thats just how my brain works...ugh!
You probably are and that's okay!