Babies: 3 - 6 Months
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Naps and schedule?
I feel like I'm the only one who has a baby that isn't on a schedule... He eats pretty regularly (3h), but everything else changes every day.
Plus he will not nap if we put him down! He wakes u when his head touches the crib/play pen/floor/couch...
Anyones has any tips and tricks?
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Re: Naps and schedule?
My child still refuses to nap.
His bed-time, bedtime routine and wake-up time are all the same, every single day. Everything else is a crap shoot, in spite of much, much effort to getting him regulated and on a schedule.
DS is not on a 'set' schedule either throughout the day until bedtime. Our bedtime routine is set in stone! Bath starting at 7:30, feeding, swaddle and put in crib by 8:15 to 8:30. I can lay DS down drowsy, and he will put himself to sleep in a matter of minutes. If we differ from this routine then he usually needs more help falling asleep. He has STTN a handful of times, but normally wakes up once around 3 or 4 for a feeding.
During the day DS follows a schedule that he put himself on. He likes to eat every 3 1/2 hours and takes 3 naps throughout the day. He normally stays awake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours between naps. The times he does this varies depending on what time he wakes up. It's normally between 6:30 and 7:30 that he wakes. I'm a SAHM, so DS doesn't need to be on a strict schedule. With that being said, between months 4 and 5 I am going to try to get him on something a little more structured. I don't think he is ready for it now though. DS is 3 1/2 months but he was born over 4 weeks early, so his adjusted age is 2 1/2 months.
As for the napping, DS only sleeps in his crib swaddled. He can't fall asleep anywhere else. Maybe try putting him down after 1 1/2 to 2 hours of awake time, even if he doesn't seem tired. If he starts showing signs that he is tired, then he is already overly tired and it's harder to put them to sleep. GL!
This is us exactly.
She'll eat around every 3 hours or so, and I can *usually* get a good 2-3 hour nap out of her in the afternoon, but it's really based on what she wants.
Evelyn doesn't stick to a strict schedule in terms of times of the day either. The only thing that is constant is her bedtime. She's always tired at the same time every night, no matter what she's done that day, and wants to go to bed. Thats 7PM.
But she gets up once during the night (usually between 2-3 AM) but this can vary. And depending on when she got up to eat in the night, determines when she wakes in the morning. On the weekends, sometimes she'll wake up at say 2:30AM to eat and go right back to sleep. Then she'll wake up around 6:30-7:00AM and rather than start the day, I can sometimes feed her and put her back down and she'll sleep until 9AMish. During the week, we just get going for the day around 6:30-7AM. But again, this is just a rough pattern/norm, its not guaranteed it will happen every day you know?
Her naps are variable too. She usually eats, plays for about an 1.5 to 2 hours, and then you can see she's tired. So, I try to put her down and she'll usually sleep for about an hour and the whole thing then repeats. But its not always at say 1PM she goes for a nap. You know?
I didn't have much of a nap schedule with my DD 'til 6 months and that's just because it's when I went back to work and I wanted the nanny to have something to work with.
DS really doesn't have much of a nap schedule (except that he generally has one longer nap per day which usually falls in the afternoon when we're home for DD's rest/quiet time). When DD goes back to school, our mornings may have more of a nap routine in between taking her and picking her up.
I am a stickler for bedtime, but it's better for us if naps just happen when they need to.
Thanks everyone for the advice.
The thingis, my little guy fights sleep!!!! He gets cranky about an hour after he's awake, which is when I'll tap his bum to sleep (what works for him). I put him down after 10-15 min of him sleeping in my arms, and he wakes up immediately!
And he doesn't fall asleep if we're not holding him...
But the problem that I have now is that he's so tired, he now ALWAYS falls asleep when he's nursing, so he's not getting much food...