Help with Regular Nap Schedule

Read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby. I also like Jodi Mindell's Sleeping Through the Night (she follow's Weissbluth's general philosophy). The amazing thing for us was the 2 hour rule really worked - asleep two hours after waking up (which means about 3 naps a day). Plus we did an extreme specific nap routine each and every time (even read thing the same book) at the same time every day. We were really strict about this for about a 2 month period and it all paid off with a baby that naps like a charm now!

great resource book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. We have great sleepers & nappers (12 hrs at night & 2 naps for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs) who self soothe.

D.-
I understand your need for a stable nap schedule, but your wants are a little pre-mature. Your son will get into a routine, but this naturally happens around the 5 month mark. Its good that you are starting with daily routines, because that will only help him to know what to expect. The first nap that is usually established is the morning nap, with the baby going down soemtime between 9:00-10:00. But before that even happens, I would suggest getting your baby to sleep through the night.
Although I am a first time mother, I was a professional nanny for over 10 years and have worked with a lot of infants on sleep habits. A great book to purchase is:
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
This book talks about everything I did naturally when I was a nanny, but now that I am a mom, I find it to be a great resource when I doubt myself. (Now why i doubt myself now, and not when I was a nanny--is a funny thing)--Nevertheless, every time I am at a loss of what to do, I just re-read the section on my daughters age.

7 hours of sleeping at night is a great thing, and it means you are well on your way to dropping those night time feedings. Its been my experience that once you get your baby sleeping through the night, then the daytime naps develop soon after.

Hope this helps!

Heathy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Marc Weissbluth is the best book for exactly what you are looking to accomplish. It was recommended to me by several moms when my daughter was your son's age and I will be forever grateful to them.

i recommend dr. marc weissbluth's book "healthy sleep habits, happy child". at about 4 months i began introducing the morning nap from 9-10:30 - this was easy to establish. then came the afternoon nap from 1:00 to 3:30. we used the "controlled cying" method of increasing intervals to check in with the kid while she was trying to learn how to put herself to sleep. it was tough but really worth it. she goes down easily for naps and bedtime and puts herself back to sleep from night wakings.

I have three boys - six, five and eighteen months. The best book I ever read for napping, feeding, just about anything to get your child into a good schedule is called "Baby Wise". They have several books for different ages/stages in life. This became my baby bible. It is a short, easy read with very practical advice for real every day problems.

I used it with all my boys and they are so healthy and well adjusted to all situations. My six year old still has "rest-time" each day, my five year old still takes an afternoon nap, and my eighteen month old still takes two naps a day (when I want him to).

Hope this helps.

I remember those desires at that age too - now that my son is nearing age 2, I look back amazed at all the various transitions he made in schedules - whether that was sleeping, eating, playing, anything. I put so much effort into worrying, desiring & sometimes insisting that he sleep (which he rarely did until 15 mths - seriously), or eat a certain amount.

There are great books to glean some helpful hints on establishing routines (listed below), which is very important. But other than that, you can not make your kid sleep when & how long you want him to (at least I was never able to accomplish that!!). Definitely put him in his crib or wherever you want him to sleep at certain times of the day; definitely create your daily schedule so that there is consistent nap times established for him (meaning, don't schedule errands to be done when he typically naps). 3 months is the very beginning of when you can start to sleep train, but he's too young to be expecting that long of a sleep session, at any time of day.

Consider yourself BLESSED that you are getting a 7-hour stretch out of him, that is so great!

In my opinion, the best thing to do right now is take a few days & really pay attention to the specific times of the day that your son looks like he needs to sleep; jot that down somewhere. Once you get a specific idea of what HIS schedule usually is, then you can start molding YOUR schedule around that. Certainly you can put your son in his crib anytime you WANT him to nap, but you'll have a lot of crying, a lot of frustration, etc.

Sleep can be a consuming thing in this time of your relationship with your child - again, looking back, as much as I needed the sleep (and still do!!) I wish I had paid more attention to his signals & know that these times really are so short. My kid's naps usually lasted 20 minutes - once he hit 7 or 8 mths, they started to stretch out. But even though he goes to nap at a certain time of day every day, it's never consistent - sometimes an hour, sometimes 45 minutes, sometimes 3 hours! You just have to go with the flow (in my opinion) & try to enjoy this time you have with him. I know many will disagree with that concept & they have to, because they work, because they need a tighter schedule, etc. But I just did not have any luck with trying to force my schedule over his. You have to do what works for YOUR family.

Book recommendations:

"Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth

"Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition" by Richard Ferber

"The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer" by Harvey Karp

Some babies simply won't nap twice a day. I could never get my grandson to take two naps per day. he slept from 9:00 p.m. - 7:00 a.m. every night without any problems. He got up at 7:00, ate and played and was asleep for his morning nap at 9:00 a.m. He would sleep two to three hours and that was it. He was then up until 9:00 that evening unless we went for a ride somewhere and he fell asleep in the car. I thought he should have slept more, but he wasn't fussy and this scheduled worked well for both of us.

I totally appreciate your need for a schedule. When my 4th was born I was exhausted and frustrated because of the efforts to get her to sleep. A friend gave me a book that outlined how to put a baby on a schedule. It saved me. The gist of it was sleep 2 hours, awake 2 hours all day and as they get older extend the awake time. Also put the baby down when they are awake so they learn to put themselves to sleep. A real saver when they get older as I am sure you have read about toddlers not putting themselves to sleep. Adapt the schedule to what works for you. Pick a time in the morning before he is exhausted and put him down and walk away. Crying will not hurt him. He will catch on. Good luck.

I am a mom of 4 ages 14, 10, 7 and 4.

At three months, he is just finally adapting to life outside of your protective body. If he had a sleep schedule right now, it would be an entirely different one in a month's time! I would suggest going with the flow until just a couple of weeks before you start work, when you can then (as previously suggested) start a mini-version of your bedtime routine with him to get him down to nap. Also, remember that what you read about children and development is only a general picture, whereas each baby is definitely unique and will add their own shades of color to the general picture...it isn't so much that they "need" two naps a day, as that they need a certain amount of sleep to grow and thrive. Some children will take four short naps, and some lucky moms get the ones who take one long one each day, but they will all get about the same amount of sleep in a 24-hour period (except, of course, for the ones at the far end of the "normal" spectrum, who can drive you crazy!). Try to relax a little with the "shoulds" for another month, and you may discover he will let you know what it is that HE needs--that's way more important than whatever "they" as a whole need. It's a learning process for all of us, but it's the most fun adventure to discover what's unique about each child and play to that, instead of trying to fit them to the model that truly is only a generalization.

Hi, D.,
I also have a three month old son. At this age, I think it is too early to do a set schedule, other than eat, play for a short while and then sleep, as others have pointed out. My little one has a very erratic schedule during the day, sometimes taking 3 hours naps twice a day and some days cat napping for 10 minutes throughout the day. At this young stage, the babies are constantly changing their schedules, month to month, so what your baby is doing now, he won't be doing in three weeks! My son is also about 12 lbs and sleeps pretty much through the night as well. Count your blessings! it is great that your son is already sleeping 7 hours at night. This, too, however, could change. It is still too early to set anything in stone. They are evolving and growing and changing schedules. The Baby Whisperer book is a good one, but my older son was also changing his sleep schedule every 2-4 months. good luck!

Hi D.,
I HIGHLY recommend the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth who has extensive experience in sleep and sleep disorders. Understanding the biological sleep rhythms and how/when they evolve will help you tremendously. At 3 months old his rhythms may still be immature, but I'll tell you what my daughter's sleep schedule was at that age. Paige woke up at 6:30-7am, morning nap around 9am, early afternoon nap around 1pm, a quick late afternoon nap by 4pm and bedtime by 7pm. When I noticed that she was sleeping longer than 45 mins at the late afternoon nap I eliminated it and moved her bedtime to 6pm. Dr. Weissbluth really stresses the importance of the early bedtime and I can't agree more. He will sleep better, not only at night but during the day, if you move his bedtime much earlier. If he seems tired before 9am in the morning he may still need to be going back to sleep within 2 hours of wakefulness. Everything depends on the evolution of his sleep rhythms, which isn't something you can change. (Believe me I have tried!) As to night waking, he MAY need to eat once or twice during the night up to 9 months of age. I know it sucks, but every baby is different. The duration of his naps can vary, but Dr. Weissbluth says it needs to be a minimum of 1 hour to be restorative. Make sure all sleep takes place is a darkened, somewhat quiet area without movement (no swings or car) for healthy sleep. If you are going back to work, make sure his nap routine is something a caregiver can replicate easily. I didn't think that far ahead and had some difficulty changing it. I always had a routine (for naps and bedtime) and at the end I put Paige down whether she was awake or asleep. At 5 or 6 months our pediatrician told me to start putting her in bed awake and was amazed when I told him I had been doing this for some time with no problems. I also use a white noise machine from Target by Homedics called SoundSpa Lullaby which has a timer and picture projection. My daughter (almost 3 yrs) LOVES it and can't wait to watch her "pictures" at bedtime. If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Weissbluth's methods, email me.
Sincerely,
L.

i've been struggling with that same issue with my soon to be 6 month old. i returned to work a little over two months ago, so she is now in the care of someone else during the day. But on the weekends, it really hard. what i'm learning about naps and sleep for kids are each one is entirely different. my niece at this age was good with 3 short naps during the day. my daughter on the other hand, likes a short (30 to 45 min) nap in the morning, an hour or so nap in the after noon and a evening nap for about 20 minutes.

i would say go with the flow. if he needs shorter more frequent naps, he just needs that.

I raised 4 children and they all took one nap per day. They sleep more when they are younger. Each child is different. I had one child that didn't seem to need as much sleep. She took a much shorter nap than the others. If your baby isn't sleepy in the afternoon, try putting the baby down a little later in the morning and a longer 1 nap per day.

My son is 4 1/2 months old. I read the book "Baby Wise" and loved it! The things they taught me has got my son on a regular night time schedule & nap routine. He is like clockwork! There are times, of course, when he doesn't want to finish his nap or whatever (come on, he's a baby). But I do get comments from people like....wow, you know exactly when he'll take a nap? Or, I'll say...baby will wake up in a few from his nap, and he DOES it's amazing :-) Anyway, I highly recommend the book.

I found the Baby Whisperer's books incredibly helpful for getting into a routine. Do keep in mind that a routine is *not* tied to a clock; it's simply the order in which you do things. Don't think, "at 9am he'll have a nap and at noon he'll eat." I have found there is a general time range that things happen, naps start between 11:30-1:00 pretty much everyday, but there is no strict clock time involved. The BW's routine is EASY: Eat, Activity, Sleep, Your time (while they sleep). That routine made my life so much easier. We all knew what to expect which helped me relax. Before you start doing any big changes, take a couple days to write down your baby's schedule as it is now. That will help you see any trends. And remember, just because you've read they should sleep 1.5 hours in the morning and 2.5 in the afternoon doesn't mean there's something wrong if your child isn't. Each and every child is different (my nephew stopped naps altogether around 8 months!) and--to my mind--as long as your child is happy and healthy, progressing developmentally, and you don't mind the routine you're in....you're doing just fine! :) (that was a hard lesson for me to learn.)

Recently I've also found that my son's ability to fall asleep entirely on his own helps him sleep longer in general. Bed time now is bath/pj's, couple books and into bed while he's awake but sleepy. We can kiss him goodnight and walk out the door....it's a beautiful thing. It was a bit of a struggle to get him to this point, but soooo worth it! Good luck!

My children were on the same routine. About an hour after breakfast, then would go down for a nap that lasted about 45 minutes to an hour. Then shortly after lunch, they would go down for a nap that lasted 2 - 3 hours. Our daycare puts kids on a similar schedule, so it's something you might try.

Hi D.,
I LOVE the book The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems. The nanny who wrote the book recommends a 3 hour feeding schedule for a 3 month old baby with naps in between feedings. At four months she recommends switching to a 4 hour feeding schedule with naps in between. Obviously there is more awake/play time as your baby gets older. Usually it is eat, awake/play, then sleep. The schedule is laid out really well and much easier to follow than Baby Wise. She even takes into account what you should do when you start to incorporate solid food. She also recommends a "dream feed" at around 10 pm where you feed your baby without waking him. That helps him sleep until morning. I used this book with both of my kids. They slept through the night (from around 7:30 pm to about 7 am) at 3 months with the dream feed and the daytime schedule. I am constantly raving about this book because I still have 2 good sleepers!
I hope that helps!
C.

I wasn't able to get my baby down for regular naps until 4-5 months of age. At that point, I used the swaddling/rocking to get him down and it kept him from waking himself with his arm movements. I gradually removed the swaddling when he started to remain asleep in his crib when I put him down. He started with 3 naps a day with a short one in the evening before his bedtime. The am naps seem to be more difficult, but if you keep pursuing when the time is right, hopefully baby will ease into the regular routine when ready!
good luck,
Jen

Try to do a short version of your night time routine. At night we have a bath, 3 books, a bottle and then rock for a while and James goes right to sleep. When i did the same thing with no bath and 2 books he went down a lot easier for naps. You are so lucky he sleeps that long during the day. James when he was 3 month would only sleep for 30 mintues at a time several times a day. i was never able to take a nap.
A.

I highly recommend the book the Sleep Easy Solution. It worked wonders for our little one!