Archive for the ‘Naps’ Category

In the beginning, your newborn sleeps most of the time and you don’t have to worry too much about naps. Your newborn’s sleep schedule and patterns are highly unpredictable, usually, so it’s hard to tell if she will have 5 naps or 8 on any given day. You’ve just given birth (or partnered the birth), so as long as she sorts out the difference between day and night, you probably won’t stress too much about it, unless she isn’t “sleeping like a baby.”

Once the fog lifts, you most likely want more predictability in your day and so you start focusing on getting your baby on a schedule and getting your baby to nap better, especially if your baby won’t nap. Just when you succeed, things change again and you wonder where you went wrong. It’s a good idea to know just when your baby will start to transition to fewer naps, so you know just how long you can enjoy good sleep before he changes on you again.

Here are your guidelines to the number of baby naps by age:

From 1-4 months, the number of naps your baby takes will be variable, but will hover around 4-5 naps per day, depending on how long his naps are and how long he can stay up between naps. By 3 or 4 months old, she will lean towards just 4 naps, rather than 5.

From 5-8 months, most babies will have three naps per day (though my son had four until after 7 months) . They will start to resist the fourth nap, no matter how tired they are. There are a few babies who will only have two naps at a very young age, but those naps are usually long.

From 9-15 or 18 months, on average, your baby will nap two times a day. Although many people believe most babies transition to one nap at 12 months, the average age is actually 15 to 18 months.

From 18 months to 4 years, toddlers will nap once a day. The age to transition away from all naps varies a lot, from 2 to 5+ years old.

You may want to view and bookmark our sample baby sleep and feeding schedules by age. And, if you’re looking for ways to get your baby or toddler into a healthy sleeping routine during the day, I encourage you to explore Mastering Naps and Schedules, a comprehensive guide to napping routines, nap transitions, and all the other important “how-tos” of good baby sleep. With over 40 sample sleep schedules and planning worksheets, Mastering Naps and Schedules is a hands-on tool ideal for any parenting style. Or, join our Members Area packed with exclusive content and resources: e-Books, assessments, detailed case studies, expert advice, discounts, peer support, and more! It actually costs less to join than buying products separately! For those looking for a more customized solution for your unique situation with support along the way, please consider one-on-one baby and toddler sleep consultations.

Happy napping!

Naps can be challenging to get from your baby and sometimes it seems like he just won’t nap. Part of the reason your baby won’t nap is because day and night sleep are handled by two different parts of the brain. What your baby knows how to do at night doesn’t necessarily mean he will do the same thing during the day. Depending on how perceptive he is, the sunlight can keep him up or just playing with the smallest piece of lint in the crib. There is a whole lot of fun to miss during the day!

Another reason why your baby won’t nap is because the drive for your baby’s body to sleep at night is strongest. Our internal clocks strongly push us to sleep at night, but during the day, while our babies are sleepy and they do need to nap, the drive to sleep is not strong enough to make it easy for all babies. This is when it gets frustrating. You might try 45 minutes to get a 30 minute nap. And, you might do this 3 times a day!

When your baby won’t nap it’s most frustrating when she’s cranky because of the non-napping or when she refuses to sleep through the night because she’s so overtired come bedtime that she wakes up often at night, unable to settle. Though there are a few babies who appear to do fine without enough napping, naps are a key component of good night sleep, happy babies, and happy parents.

Most of the time, if your baby won’t nap, it can be solved by avoiding some mistakes that many parents make. Today, I begin offering a new free e-Book called 7 Common Napping Mistakes that discusses the 7 most common napping mistakes and what you can do about them. Just like my other free e-Book, 5 Ways to Help Your Child Sleep Through the Night, this e-Book is completely free, with no obligation. To get your free copy, sign up here.

Almost two months ago I offered my new e-Book, Mastering Naps and Schedules, to my blog readers and mailing list during a pre-sale event. One of my hopes was that I’d get some feedback on the e-Book and make any changes before officially putting it up for sale. To my delight, I have not received one refund request and not one recommendation for any changes! I could not be happier! I even received this e-mail (among others) from a customer:

“I found the book so helpful that I haven’t been able to come up with a question for my two free consultations! My baby is 7 months old and she is a decent sleeper but still isn’t sleeping through the night – I have two older children who were both sleeping through by now. The info on the amount of sleep needed, sleep associations, and the sample schedules were really helpful. As she grows and different issues come up with schedules and transitions I will come back to this book as a resource. ” -Melanie

In Mastering Naps and Schedules, our newest e-book, we’ve captured the unique qualities of every type of sleeping method and tailored them to create a series of napping schedules that fit easily into your family and your lifestyle. No matter how you get your child to bed at night, you’ll be able to find an additional solution for the daytime issues that plague you the most: nap transitions, shifting schedules, dealing with issues of crying, and even planning out how to get the most out of your baby’s daytime sleep. It also has an incredible 40+ sample schedules to choose from for babies as young as 4 months old to the toddler years!

Mastering Naps and Schedules is a comprehensive baby and toddler napping guide that will affect the way you approach your day – and your night. No matter where you and your little one are on the path to great rest, you’ll find these tools as easy to implement and maintain as all our other great products.

This e-Book is now officially for sale and I’m offering it only to my blog readers and mailing list right now for THREE days for a special introductory sale at a discounted price, which includes sleep consultations, too. You won’t want to miss it!

We’re excited to get your child into a consistent schedule for happy, healthy sleeping! For more information, click on this super secret link. This offer goes away in just THREE DAYS on May 28th at 11:59 PM EST!!

A few weeks ago, I asked you your #1 question about naps and schedules. And, I thank you for all the questions sent to me (keep them coming)! I am now in the process of developing information sessions all about naps and schedules. These information sessions will all be FREE and they start in May! One will include common napping mistakes and another will be a case study on a no-cry napping method of one of my client’s. The last will be a tele-seminar where you will be able to ask live questions.

In order to keep from clogging the blog with posts about the information sessions, I made a new mailing list just for this that you can join to get details about the upcoming naps and schedules information sessions. If you’d like to participate, please click the below link and sign up.

Sign up for FREE information sessions

Thank you for your continued participation in the The Baby Sleep Site™ community! I hope you are finding all the resources you need. Be sure to send e-mail to asknicole [at] picknicksbrain [dot] com with any article ideas if there is anything you have been looking for and haven’t been able to find.

When it comes to great sleep for your baby or toddler, a good nighttime routine is only half the battle. Consistent, quality naps that are attuned to your child’s natural rhythm are the best way to ensure that he or she is not only getting the right amount of sleep during the day, but that bedtime is easier and more satisfactory than ever before.

Here at The Baby Sleep Site™, we’ve taken our same great approach to sleep routines and tackled the issue of naptime head-on. In Mastering Naps and Schedules, our newest e-book, we’ve captured the unique qualities of every type of sleeping method and tailored them to create a series of napping schedules that fit easily into your family and your lifestyle. No matter how you get your child to bed at night, you’ll be able to find an additional solution for the daytime issues that plague you the most: nap transitions, shifting schedules, dealing with issues of crying, and even planning out how to get the most out of your baby’s daytime sleep. It also has an incredible 40+ sample schedules to choose from for babies as young as 4 months old to the toddler years!

Mastering Naps and Schedules is a comprehensive baby and toddler napping guide that will affect the way you approach your day – and your night. No matter where you and your little one are on the path to great rest, you’ll find these tools as easy to implement and maintain as all our other great products.

This e-Book is actually not for sale…yet…and I’m offering it only to my blog readers and mailing list right now for THREE days for a pre-sale at a deep discounted price, which includes sleep consultations, too. You won’t want to miss it!

We’re excited to get your child into a consistent schedule for happy, healthy sleeping! For more information, click on this super secret link. This offer goes away in just THREE DAYS on April 9th!!

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has submitted their #1 nap question! Stay tuned for some upcoming information sessions on napping and schedules for your baby or toddler where I address these very issues, many of which are covered in Mastering Naps and Schedules. One more time, here’s the link: Naps and Schedules Pre-Sale.

I goofed had a technical difficulty, so I apologize for the incomplete post on Tuesday. I didn’t want you to miss adding your question, so here it is again.

I will be writing a series of posts on baby and toddler naps and implementing schedules in the very near future. You might have reviewed some of my sample schedules on the site and have some questions or you have other questions about naps or sleep schedules. Please let me know via e-mail info (at) picknicksbrain (dot) com or post a comment below.

What’s the #1 thing you want to know about naps and sleep schedules?