Nap questions

ebales

So, the little Katie bug will be 7 weeks tomorrow (wow) and I've been wondering some things regarding napping.  She is still on an eat/awake/sleep cycle throughout the day...her nap times vary anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple hours (depending on the time of day).

At what point do we need to start eliminating certain naps?  I try not to let her fall asleep past 7ish so she goes down by 10.

 Am I thinking about this stuff too soon?

scherza

It's pretty early to worry about a nap schedule; at her age, she should be going down for a nap after 1 1/2-2 hours of being awake and napping at least 45 minutes-2 hours at a clip.

By about 3-4 months, she'll probably move to a 3-nap-a-day routine (naps all about 1 hour long), and the late afternoon nap will fall by the wayside around 7 months or so with the midafternoon nap getting longer.  By 11-12 months, she'll likely be down to one nap a day in midafternoon.  Or at least that's been true for both of mine so far!

mmd7999

you should just go with the flow for now.  when she is 4m you will see a more def pattern.  maybe you can read happy baby healthy sleep habits.  I really liked it and it helped me understnad LO sleep habits

mmd7999

you should just go with the flow for now.  when she is 4m you will see a more def pattern.  maybe you can read happy baby healthy sleep habits.  I really liked it and it helped me understnad LO sleep habits

maykat

I would say pretty early, but you should try to get her in a routine.  One of things we did  is every 3 hours, we would feed-play-nap.  And also try to go out for a morning errand and afternoon errand if you can fit this in.  By 12-16 weeks, you will hopefully see her drop some naps and move towards 2 main ones in the am (around 10ish) and pm (around 2-3 ish).  At around 12 weeks, we started putting both of ours to bed around 7pm and they would sleep until 6.

ebearwife

I second MayKat.  We did a night time "routine" from one week on that worked for us, dinner at 6, bath at 6:30, bath at 7, Daddy time (I pumped and got about 2 hrs or so uninterrupted sleep) until 10 or so.  At about 12 weeks, we tried to put her down for the night at 7ish (or whenever we were done with the bath and nursing) and she would stay down for the night, only waking to eat (once, maybe twice).  The rest of the nap routine kinda snuck up on us at 4 months when we noticed she would tire at about 9AM (wake at 7AM), then wake about 11 or so, then tire again at 1ish.  P liked (likes) a quiet dark room all by herself with the door closed for naps and bed time.  Naps have the same calm down routine minus the bath as bed time.  Diaper change, book, nurse, nap.  (Now minus the nursing)...do the same thing every time at about the same time every day and they catch on.

mrsd0907

Ditto Maykat almost exactly. We let him decide his schedule until after his 4 month appt. Then we started to try a routine like the pedi suggested. At about 5 months D started to put himself on a routine and absolutely required a nap at about 9:30 for 2 hours and then about 4 for another 2 hour nap. He doesn't have a specific routine for naptime, just likes to rock and cuddle or sometimes just go straight down. His afternoon nap is a bit later than most because he doesn't go to bed until about 9:30 most nights since time varies on when DH and I get home at night.

Mrs. Theobald

We have no schedule. I have always left it up to Ava as to when she sleeps or eats.  Sucks sometimes when she falls asleep late and I know she will be up late but I have always been a believer in letting her sleep when she is tired.  My DH and I have a saying...  Don't wake the bear! 

 

ebales

OK - that's pretty much what I figured, but then of course had to ask! Thank you!!