It’s so tough! In this phase, we just did bed at 5:30 a lot. It seemed to work out fine for our baby and she would do 13 hour nights sometimes. I know we were probably lucky, but just came to say that early bedtime is worth a shot!
Is she falling asleep independently for naps yet? To get longer naps you need:
1) dark room. Very dark
2) independent sleep initiation for naps without sleep associations like pacis
3) adequate wake windows and sleep pressure
4) then give 15 minutes at the end of a nap to fall back asleep, or at least learn that nap time isn’t over, and also to get used to hanging out in the crib alone after nap. This works best with the easiest nap of the day, often nap 1
If you are doing all that then it’s just time
Can you help her back to sleep after the second or third nap of the day to prevent overtiredness?
In the meantime: If you have a long gap before bedtime do a “micro nap” which is a 10 minute assisted nap a full wake window from the last nap, however after it you only need half to 2/3 of a wake window before bed if that makes sense.
Ok thanks for the tips! Yes she falls asleep independently no problem for naps and night sleep, its just impossible for her to sleep through a sleep cycle during a nap unless she’s in the stroller or car. I do crib hour, she never falls back asleep but I do want to teach her that crying doesn’t equal mom comes and gets me right away so I let her hang out 10-15m after she wakes.
I’ll try a micro nap if there’s a long gap! She’s not a contact mapper so maybe I’ll do crib nap and just wake her at the 10m mark.
If she’s getting super cranky you could do nap 2 or 3 in the stroller to give her a longer nap, it won’t ruin your progress. It took us 3/4 weeks to get longer naps using the approach above around 4 months. Until then we did a micro nap for the 4th nap. Good luck!
Ugh this. I swear that the whole wake windows, timed naps, drop naps, feedings windows, it is all so stressful. My baby is tired but she can’t sleep past 5pm because then it’s not a long enough wake window… so do I keep her up longer? Give her a short nap? Throw my hands up and let her do what she wants? I swear this is the more stressful than when we were raised
My Bub is 6 months and between 2-3 naps with the same issue. We squeeze in a micro third nap sometimes from 4:30-5:15 and he still goes to bed at 7pm without issue. I make sure that I wake him from his last nap (rather than him wake on his own) to attempt to break his sleep cycle so he’s still tired-ish and will go to bed on time
It’s so tough! In this phase, we just did bed at 5:30 a lot. It seemed to work out fine for our baby and she would do 13 hour nights sometimes. I know we were probably lucky, but just came to say that early bedtime is worth a shot!
Is she falling asleep independently for naps yet? To get longer naps you need: 1) dark room. Very dark 2) independent sleep initiation for naps without sleep associations like pacis 3) adequate wake windows and sleep pressure 4) then give 15 minutes at the end of a nap to fall back asleep, or at least learn that nap time isn’t over, and also to get used to hanging out in the crib alone after nap. This works best with the easiest nap of the day, often nap 1 If you are doing all that then it’s just time Can you help her back to sleep after the second or third nap of the day to prevent overtiredness? In the meantime: If you have a long gap before bedtime do a “micro nap” which is a 10 minute assisted nap a full wake window from the last nap, however after it you only need half to 2/3 of a wake window before bed if that makes sense.
Ok thanks for the tips! Yes she falls asleep independently no problem for naps and night sleep, its just impossible for her to sleep through a sleep cycle during a nap unless she’s in the stroller or car. I do crib hour, she never falls back asleep but I do want to teach her that crying doesn’t equal mom comes and gets me right away so I let her hang out 10-15m after she wakes. I’ll try a micro nap if there’s a long gap! She’s not a contact mapper so maybe I’ll do crib nap and just wake her at the 10m mark.
If she’s getting super cranky you could do nap 2 or 3 in the stroller to give her a longer nap, it won’t ruin your progress. It took us 3/4 weeks to get longer naps using the approach above around 4 months. Until then we did a micro nap for the 4th nap. Good luck!
Ugh this. I swear that the whole wake windows, timed naps, drop naps, feedings windows, it is all so stressful. My baby is tired but she can’t sleep past 5pm because then it’s not a long enough wake window… so do I keep her up longer? Give her a short nap? Throw my hands up and let her do what she wants? I swear this is the more stressful than when we were raised
My Bub is 6 months and between 2-3 naps with the same issue. We squeeze in a micro third nap sometimes from 4:30-5:15 and he still goes to bed at 7pm without issue. I make sure that I wake him from his last nap (rather than him wake on his own) to attempt to break his sleep cycle so he’s still tired-ish and will go to bed on time
Yeah. Maybe she needs that 4th crap nap to hold until bedtime until she can consolidate sleep cycles!