https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:01:02 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2471059 Tue, 23 Feb 2016 11:10:54 +0000 Eko 2471059@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DesertDreams88: I'm glad to see that you have started to find out what works for your LO. At that stage they are super little and sleep for us was super erratic. The sleep schedule started changing and became more consistent around 6-8 weeks. </p> <p>I personally think at 3.5 weeks anything you do is too early to become a 'crutch'. I can understand wanting a schedule for your daycare provider, but I would recommend trying to start good sleep habits or a routine around 6 weeks or later. With that said, you know what is best for your baby and your situation, so it's a lot of trial and error to see what works best for you. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2470969 Tue, 23 Feb 2016 10:30:38 +0000 Foodnerd81 2470969@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DesertDreams88: it sounds like things are moving in the right direction! I just want to agree with everyone that at this age you do whatever works. But I completely understand wanting to set up the good habits early. Sounds like you have a decent compromise. </p> <p>And I totally agree you have to parent the baby you have. My second baby is so different, sleep wise, than my first. My older one needed everything by the book- dark room, swaddled, white noise, and nurse to sleep. For a 40 minute nap. This one is so much more relaxed about sleeping even though I started everything the same. Good luck, hope it keeps improving! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2470938 Tue, 23 Feb 2016 10:20:53 +0000 raintreebee 2470938@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DesertDreams88: i have a six week old and am dealing with the exact same thing. Thank you for starting this thread. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2470313 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 15:53:52 +0000 DesertDreams88 2470313@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks everyone! I can't tag everyone individually since you all offered multiple tips, but here's a general tag:<br /> @MRSQUINCY: @PACHAMAMA: @BROWNEPIANO: @HILSY85: @EDELWEISS: @HOOTS: @MRSSRS: @APRILFOOL: @MRS.SHINERBOCK: @JOYFULKIWI: @SAPPHIRE: @HUMMUSGIRL: @JACKIEDAVIS87:<br /> I hope all-caps tags work...</p> <p>I implemented some of your tips today and it has gone much better. I know every day is different but your comments and my experience today have caused me to re-think some things :) Currently it's been "daytime" for 7 hours and he has been awake for 60-80 min cycles including about 10-15 min of soothing and asleep for 60-90 min naps.</p> <p>Things I did differently today:<br /> - Using a velcro swaddle - initially I resisted bc I didn't want to have to swaddle &amp; unswaddle every other hour, but it's worth the sleep!</p> <p>- Using the RnP in our dark bedroom - initially I resisted bc of the flat head / torticollis concerns, and wanting to check on him often during naps. I was trying to use the swing in the bright living room bc I thought it was similar enough.</p> <p>- Dressing him in long sleeves instead of short sleeves.... maybe he was cold? Nighttime sleep is always in long sleeves, and he sleeps decently then. </p> <p>- Putting him down after an hour, instead of 75-90 minutes. I think I was just scared of the nap battle so I procrastinated, making it worse!</p> <p>- Soothing more quickly</p> <p>As for our childcare provider, she is awesome and I don't want to do something to upset our arrangement, especially since we don't have any other options really, and we only need care for 2.5-4mo. She is dropping LO off at DH's work instead of us having to do pick-up; she is willing to use cloth diapers and even offered to launder them for us, and she suggested a price point that was way too low for us to even agree to - we had to meet in the middle. She and I are both Type A, organized people, and she had her babies on a BW schedule from Day 1. During the day she has her kindergartner at home part-time and 3 weekly commitments so I want to respect the need for some sort of structure, and I want some structure aligning feeding times to pumping times. </p> <p>I think I also have been trying to resist using sleep crutches during the day that can't be easily replicated (like, white noise &amp; pacis can go anywhere, but the RnP can't), and that will eventually require weaning. However, your comments have made me rethink that - good daytime sleep is worth the sleep crutches and eventual weaning, I guess. Maybe he needs them now, but won't later, so weaning won't be as difficult as I fear. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469794 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 09:15:14 +0000 mrsquincy 2469794@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I feel like the biggest misconception I had after having a baby was that they would actually take naps during the day! I read a bunch of baby sleep books and would literally drive myself nuts trying to get my LO to follow those schedules. When I relaxed, went with the flow and started to pay attention to his cue/my gut things were better (at least for my mental health!). Ultimately you parent the child you get. Some friends of mine had babies that could be put to sleep very easily during the day and slept for longer than 30-45 minutes, others did not. Here's the advice from my new mom's class that so far has held true for me:</p> <p>-When babies are very young their daytime sleep is usually only one sleep cycle (30-45 min).<br /> -Nighttime sleep organizes first before daytime and you start to see longer stretches with more periods of quiet sleep. Daytime sleep starts to organize and length as the baby gets closer to 6 months (yikes).<br /> -Do whatever is safe and works in the first 3 months to get them to sleep. I would definitely try using the RnP during the day and experiment with different swaddling strategies as well.<br /> -Start trying drowsy but awake, but depending on your babies neurological development it may be closer to 3 months when you find success with this.</p> <p>My LO is 12 weeks today and it has just been in the last couple weeks that his sleep cues have become much easier to read. He has also started being able to take a longer nap here and there. I don't think your daycare provider should pressure you to have your LO on a easy/babywise schedule. I'm not opposed to those systems, I just don't think it works for every child at this age. It will work itself out when it needs to and I think you'll really start to see things change for the better as your LO gets older. Good luck mama and you are doing a great job! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469789 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 09:11:27 +0000 pachamama 2469789@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>From what I heard, you can't really establish a sleep or nap routine until at least 6 weeks. They just don't have the circadian rhythm yet. My baby is almost 6 weeks old and acts a lot like yours still. Every day and night of sleep is different still! Don't feel too much pressure to get them on a schedule yet </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469769 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 08:54:29 +0000 brownepiano 2469769@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I wanted to leave another point of view cause EASY and BW did work for us and I started right away. Wake times seemed long for a while but then DS hit a growth spurt and all the sudden they got really short. Play with your wake times and keep trying to put him down drowsy-ish. But don't stress it if it doesn't work for that nap. Stick him in a swing or whatever works and try again next nap. For us it was worth the effort but I did stress over it more than necessary. If you keep trying you'll both eventually figure it out! There are a lot growth spurts early so it can be slow progress. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469755 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 08:44:03 +0000 hilsy85 2469755@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I agree that he might be overtired--15-25 min of awake time after nursing is really prob more like an hour of awake time at least. My LOs ofetn just fell right back asleep after nursing. Do you let him fall asleep while he nurses (after he gets in a good feeding)? or trying to wake him up?</p> <p>I don't think you need to worry about drowsy but awake at that age. If it happens great, but if not--he's way too young to be trying to force anything. What worked for us, if they didn't fall asleep with nursing, was a swaddle and some patting on the butt, and either rocking or a swing. IT takes about 20 min for them to fall into deep sleep so you might not be waiting long enough before you put him down. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469751 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 08:40:04 +0000 edelweiss 2469751@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>oh god newborn naps. sounds like you have done your research and are doing everything "right". i remember driving myself crazy wondering why my baby was following the f*ing rules after i had been following the rules. you're doing a great job with reading cues and instilling good sleep habits--naps can be really really tough at this age for a lot of babies. do anything you need to do to get them to sleep. if it doesn't work, know that it isn't necessarily anything you're doing right/wrong, it's just what it is.</p> <p>your daycare provider will be able to work on the EASY routine--that kind of scheduling is more realistic when the baby is older, like 4-6 months. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469737 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 08:22:54 +0000 Hoots 2469737@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The EASY routine didn't even begin to work until at least 8-10 weeks. Sleepy but awake doesn't really work all that well for us either (she's either passed out or eyes wide open and fussing). I'd think I'd get it down and then a growth spurt or mental leap would completely screw things up. Trying to follow all the advice in the books was making my maternity leave unenjoyable for both DD and me. I basically just started following DD's lead and looking for her cues. About 10 weeks, things started organizing into more of a schedule. I still have to hold her for most naps at 12 weeks for her to get any meaningful sleep. She did nap better swaddled when she was younger, but we cut the swaddle out at about 8 weeks because she's not allowed to be swaddled at daycare. What works at night does not work for us during the day. But I figure she's only little once, and I'll miss holding her for naps in the future. Yes, daycare will be a huge transition for us, but I think it will be no matter what. I'll do the best I can for her now, and we'll figure things out as we hit them in daycare. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469700 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 07:29:31 +0000 MrsSRS 2469700@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would basically wear LO all day for a few days because you have to get out of the overtiredness cycle before you can do anything else. Then I would work on a nap routine, starting with the wake times in the chart from @AprilFool, and using the swing or RNP for naps. I would also swaddle and use loud white noise. At this age we used ALL the sleep crutches, then we slowly weaned off them once we had a good napping routine down. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469653 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 01:23:53 +0000 AprilFool 2469653@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>It sounds like he needs a shorter awake time and is overtired before you even try putting him down. I lived by this chart <a href="http://www.mybabysleepguide.com/2013/02/average-sleep-charts-by-age.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.mybabysleepguide.com/2013/02/average-sleep-charts-by-age.html</a>. Always had success following its awake times. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469650 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 01:18:36 +0000 mrs.shinerbock 2469650@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>At 3 weeks, awake time for my LOs was more like 45 min. By the time they were yawning it was too late. I have to really pay attention to the clock and since it takes 30-40 min to eat and change diapers, it meant that I had 5-10 minutes until I started getting them ready for naps. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469646 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 01:11:07 +0000 JoyfulKiwi 2469646@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>He's so little still - wear or hold him if that's what gets him the best sleep. I think what you're describing is typical for most newborns. I feel like the EASY schedule and drowsy but awake come later, like closer to 3-4 months. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469638 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 00:55:05 +0000 sapphire 2469638@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>At that age we swaddled, bounced (vigorously!), used white noise, and used the swing a lot. If they sleep well in the RNP, why not try that for naps? We are big drowsy but awake fans, but not at that age! Just do whatever you need to at this point! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469627 Mon, 22 Feb 2016 00:09:17 +0000 hummusgirl 2469627@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If I were you, I would just do whatever it takes to get him sleeping well during the day now, and worry about the daycare situation in another month. Three weeks is so little, and his sleep should start to organize better in a few weeks. At least, that's what I'm telling myself based on my 3-year-old (I have a 2.5 month old now too). </p> <p>For my infant, I pretty much held or wore him for every nap until about a week ago when he started sleeping much better in his crib. Good luck! Baby sleep is crazy. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469617 Sun, 21 Feb 2016 23:43:23 +0000 arosebyany 2469617@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>♥️I feel for you so much! My 2 month old is exactly the same 😔. So far what help with him is to turn off all the lights, swaddle, (I leave his arms out, but for some reason if his feet are free at all he will absolutely not sleep.) rock, and most importantly I downloaded the white noise app on my phone and turn it almost all the way up. I read a study that said the womb was slightly quieter than a lawn mower. I just cycled through the sounds till I found the one that soothed him. Turns out the kid loves the air conditioner and fan, but water sounds only made him cry more. Also I know it's horrible but I dont put him down till he's out cold otherwise he wakes up and I have to start all over and he's just more cranky and extra over tired. I just keep telling myself babies can't be spoiled, which sometimes means I hold him for an entire nap. It's survival mode so whatever gets the kid to sleep! Good luck! 😊</p> <p>Eta: I really do think the white noise app is what's been allowing him to cycle from one sleep cycle to another without waking up </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daytime-napping-0-25-months#post-2469609 Sun, 21 Feb 2016 23:24:39 +0000 DesertDreams88 2469609@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My 3.5 wk old LO fights daytime naps. I feed, do a diaper change, and get about 15-25 min of calm awake time where he is happy sitting in his swing, not swinging. Then, he starts getting cranky, and I'm pretty sure it's bc he's sleepy. He yawns, has droopy eyes, etc. I have to bounce, rock, or wear him WITH white noise or a pacifier, and he will settle but not always sleep... and when he does sleep, it's for 10-30 min at a time. About 60% of the time I try transferring him, but about 80% of the time that wakes him, so maybe I need to get smoother or wait til he's in deeper sleep. Sometimes he'll get a longer stretch in the afternoon, but that's it. Overall he only sleeps for about 12 hours a day, most of which is at night. This is not including the 5-10 minute cat naps he catches during nursing or soothing.</p> <p>He sleeps decently being held or worn or driving in car seat, ok in swing, crappy in pnp, and good in RnP but I only use that at night. He seems to need the white noise or motion to sleep deeply.</p> <p>I've heard:<br /> -put them down drowsy but awake<br /> -nurse to sleep (yes do it, no don't do it)<br /> -newborns have a max limit of 1-1.5 hours of awake time<br /> -sleep begets sleep<br /> -cluster feed in evenings</p> <p>But still, I can't get him to nap well, and he's so overtired. What worked for you? I'd like to get him consistently napping during the day before I go back to work at 2.5 months. My childcare provider wants him on a babywise/EASY routine. </p>