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February 2014 Moms
jena5595
member
Routine/Schedule? Naps (or lack thereof are driving me crazy)
jena5595
member
Apologies - I *think* I remember a thread on schedules from a few weeks ago, but the search function is not my friend...
LO will be 2 months this week, and is still very unpredictable when it comes to a nap routine. For feedings he's pretty good and typically looks for a bottle every 3-4 hours. Night sleep is not terrible either, he usually has one long stretch that can go anywhere from 3-6 hours (6 if we are very lucky!) and then 2 shorter stretches that can go anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours.
Where we run into trouble is during the day, as sometimes he is just a royal nap resister. Some days I'll get one long nap from him (2-2.5 hours) with some other periodic little snoozes throughout the day, but then little dude will just NOT nap on some days beyond 20-40 minute cat naps here and there. He then gets overtired and isn't shy about it and I'd love to be more proactive to avoid that situation.
I'm pretty much type A so this lack of routine is really wearing on me. I'm trying (really trying) to just follow LO's lead, but I can't help but thinking there has to be a better way. Does anyone have any advice or resources/books/sites that they'd recommend that might help? TIA!
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Re: Routine/Schedule? Naps (or lack thereof are driving me crazy)
We don't do nap schedules during the day. I started nap schedules with DS1 around 10 months and DS2 probably around 4-5 months. I'm anticipating starting the nap schedule around 4 months with DS3 as well. Before that it's too just unpredictable - babies go through so many developmental changes in those early months, some days DS3 sleeps 3 hours all day, some days he sleeps 7. And it rarely impacts his night sleep either way!
So, I suggest toughing it out with the crazy schedule another month or two, and then starting to transition to a 3 nap a day schedule. My kids napped at about 9:30am, 12:30pm, and 4:30pm as little babies, gradually dropping the 4pm by maybe 7-8 months, and the 9:30am by maybe 18 months?
Lucie's List has a great schedule suggestion with which we had great luck with my first son. Pretty much she talks about how long babies are technically awake and how to work naps around that. Worth reading!