Sleep & Wake Tips

Sleep/wake Some tips or things that have worked for us in regards to sleep/wake. • Babies should be up for 12 hours and sleep for 12 hours. For example, if your baby wakes at 6:30 each day, their bedtime should also be 6:30. • Wake times are important but do not go crazy over them. Make sure you are in the age related wake window range but every child is different and can either stay up longer between naps or cannot stay up for the entire wake window. Pay attention to your child’s sleep cues such as yawning, rubbing their eyes or getting fussy. • We are still in the “30 ish” minute naps but soon I hope that will change. Young babies do not know how to connect their sleep cycles even if they have already connected them at night. Their drive to sleep is not nearly as much as it is during the night, therefore they have a harder time transitioning sleep cycles, therefore, having a longer nap. • Don’t go right in when your child wakes from a nap or in the morning. Let him or her babble and have some independent play for a little bit. It teaches them how to be content and also teaches them that every noise they make does not warrant mom or dad rushing in to get them. • Try to keep a consistent daily wake time, within thirty minutes each day. This allows you and your baby to sort of have somewhat of a predictable schedule each day. • When dropping a nap (going from 4 to 3 naps for example) you will definitely have some early nights. Try to keep bedtime after 6:00 if possible. We are currently in this stage, but your baby just lost a whole nap and needs to catch up on that sleep at night. Our son does not take long naps now but when he does, his bedtime should be a little later than 6:00 I would guess. In time I am told. • If your daily wake time is 6:30 but your son or daughter always wakes up before that, don’t get them until the time you want them out of their crib. For example. Our son wakes up around 5:30 every day but that is because a little bit of light is coming through the air conditioner and wakes him up. After babbling for awhile, sometimes he falls back to sleep and either wakes on his own around 6:15 or we wake him up to keep that consistent wake time. • A nap and bedtime routine are your lifesavers. Whether it is bath, song, book, massage or your own rendition of a routine, stay consistent each night and before each nap to allow your little one to know what is about to follow. Our son has not cried before bed in months because we bathe him, sing a song, do lotion and say goodnight to things in the house on the way to his bedroom. This signals to him that bedtime is soon to come and he rolls with the punches. Naps are getting there but he still protests sometimes before these because he isn’t quite as tired. Someone told me that when babies are protesting before a nap or bedtime, it is just their way of tiring themselves out and getting to the point where they can fall asleep. • We have not quite reached this stage yet but after doing a lot of reading and asking other mother’s about it, if your son or daughter flips or rolls in the night, leave them alone. They need to figure it out on their own how to either lay their head down and sleep or flip back over. If you go in and flip them, they will just flip again and the cycle will go on all night. This is going to break my heart when it happens but if I go in each time, it does not help either. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks or advice.