Nap question

elizabeth0705

Hey all,

I have a question regarding overnight sleeping and napping. My little ones sleep from 8pm-5:30am, then we do a feeding, and then they want to go right back to sleep until around 10am. At that point, they are up for the day and only nap once in the afternoon.

I know the ideal scenario would be for them to sleep until 7am, then get up for awhile, then take a morning nap around 10. I tried to impose that schedule on them yesterday, and although they did take half hour naps in the morning and afternoon, they were basically underslept and cranky for most of the day. So my question is, how did you get your babies to follow this type of schedule? 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! 

BananaPancake

At this age we usually follow the 2-3-4 schedule until about 10m or so, I think? They get up around 6/7, go down two hours later, sleep at least an hour, go down for their next nap after three hours awake, sleep at least an hour and go down for the night about 4 hours after waking up from their second nap. Every few days someone will end up a 3-nap day, but they're pretty consistent if we're at home. Morning naps are shorter, about an hour and a half, afternoon naps are usually 2-3 hours or so. 

erinruns

If your current schedule isn't working for you and you want to change to having them wake up at 7, it's going to take a few days for them to get used to it.  Try to map out the schedule you want so you can direct them towards that, but know they'll be crabby for a bit, and you won't get there immediately.  For us, waking them at the time I wanted them up (as newborns and beyond) was the key to our days.

elizabeth0705

I would be fine with it because I stay at home and have a flexible schedule, but I feel as though most people do two or three real naps (beyond the nighttime sleeping) in order to get in enough sleep. I think the key is getting my two to sleep past 5:30 am, maybe until 7 or so...but they are not there yet. When did your babies start sleeping for an 11 hour stretch at night?

I guess for now, I could put my babies back to bed after the 5:30am feeding as usual, but wake them a bit earlier than their natural 10 am wakeup time.