https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 26 Apr 2026 01:07:14 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141533 Sun, 29 Apr 2012 03:09:37 +0000 looch 141533@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I used a schedule by month, so for x months old, awake time was y hours. It was less than 1 hour at 4 weeks IIRC. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141422 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:41:49 +0000 skibobrown 141422@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks everyone! Ok, so it sounds like there are 2 schools of thought on allowing babies to sleep after feeding. I think we'll probably stick with what we've been doing on that front. But I'll be more vigilant about putting LO down for a nap after 1-1.5 hours... and swaddling her, so hopefully she'll actually fall asleep rather than spending all of her time wacking herself in her face! I'll let you all know how it goes... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141379 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:28:55 +0000 Mrs. Superhero 141379@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>yeah it was around 8 weeks before I saw any pattern. And now at 11 weeks it's whenever she's been up for 1.5 hours. With my first she hit a real routine at 6 months. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141374 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:19:27 +0000 cupcakemama 141374@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Much like pp I started paying more attention to how long LO had been up and looking for sleep cues. At the first sign of tiredness, after LO had been up for 1 -1.5 hrs I put LO in their wrap and into bed. When I started to look the cues became a lot more obvious. Also at that stage LO varied so much in the day - it took a while for more of a routine to develop. LO is now 12 months.</p> <p>I bf LO straight after a nap not before they went down for one. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141372 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:16:20 +0000 Andrea 141372@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I followed a Baby Whisperer type schedule and generally did not feed to sleep because I didn't want that type of association. The one exception was the night time feed before bed. I didn't let her stay up more than 90 minutes at a time so I swaddled her right before 90 minutes and started the nap routine. She usually went right to sleep. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141345 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:47:48 +0000 plaidpants 141345@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I did something similar to what @Honeybee did and started really paying attention to how long my LO was awake. After 1.5 - 2 hours, she was almost always ready for a nap. She would usually start showing signs, like rubbing her eyes, but even if she wasn't, I would still put her down and she usually fell asleep. At 4 months, she's still pretty much on that schedule! </p> <p>I've also found that how much she sleeps during the day seems to have no effect on how she sleeps at night! Sometimes she'll wake up from a nap at 5:30pm and she'll still go to bed at 6:15pm. It's crazy. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141328 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:41:16 +0000 Honeybee 141328@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@skibobrown: My understanding is that some sleep experts advocate separating feedings and naps so that your baby doesn't develop a suck-to-sleep association; many (most? all?) newborns naturally nurse or feed to sleep because of the biology of sucking, but it can become a problem in older babies who become reliant on sucking/nursing/feeding in order to fall asleep. If you never create that sleep association, though, you never have to break it, later down the road.</p> <p>Personally, I did the same thing with DD and we never had an issue with it. I do try to make sure that DS (and DD, when she was a newborn) doesn't fall all the way to sleep while eating. Also, when DD got older and on a more established sleep pattern, I introduced a nap routine and other sleep associations so she wasn't reliant on feeding to fall asleep. My personal feelings are that newborns are biologically driven to suck to sleep, and that newborns can't form sleep associations anyway, so as long as you stop/change your routine before they get to an age where they are capable of forming habits, you should be fine. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141323 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:29:02 +0000 skibobrown 141323@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Honeybee: @Coco Bee: Interesting... so you both feed right before naps. I always feed right after naps. I've been following "The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" book, which says that babies should eat, then be active, and then nap, in that order. I'm not tied to following that system though if something else works better. I do see signs that DD is starting to get sleepy, but sometimes I worry that I'm forcing her to sleep too much during the day, and then she won't sleep well at night. I guess I should let go of that worry and start actually putting her down to nap. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141313 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:36:30 +0000 Honeybee 141313@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Different babies have different sleep cues, and it might take a little while before you figure hers out. Some babies will start yawning; other space out and just stare into nothing; others cry and get upset. Once you see her sleep cues, you can swaddle her and then put her to sleep like you normally would (snuggling, rocking, laying her down by herself, etc...).</p> <p>Personally, I follow the one hour rule; at 0-3 months, I don't keep DS up for longer than about an hour at a time. Once we start rounding about the one hour mark, I start watching him more closely. Usually, he'll get kinda cranky and start trying to eat his hands. Then, I'll swaddle him and feed him his bottle; being swaddled while eating makes him very sleepy and I can eaither rock him to sleep or sometimes just lay him down and he'll fall asleep on his own. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141311 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:33:14 +0000 Mrs. Pen 141311@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I started to notice around 6 weeks how long he was able to stay awake and start noticing a pattern. He is awake 1.5-2 hrs in between naps (he's 9 weeks old now, and it's still the same). I would start nursing him when he showed signs of tiredness and if he was about to fall asleep at the breast i'd swaddle him right away. Keep track of how long she's been awake, that helped a Lot for me.<br /> And same here, he'll only stay napping if he's swaddled. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-swaddled-your-infant-for-naps#post-141297 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:04:54 +0000 skibobrown 141297@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>...How did you know when it was time to swaddle them and put them down for a nap? </p> <p>Our LO is only 4 weeks old, so I'm still trying to figure out her daytime schedule. So far it's a complete mystery to me. It seems to be completely different every day, so I have no idea when I should put her down for a nap. Instead, we just keep her out around the house during the day, and eventually she falls asleep on her own... sometimes. Other times she seems to get pretty over-stimulated, and she probably needs a nap. She'll fall asleep briefly unswaddled but then wakes herself up with her flailing arms. Many times during the day she eventually just ends up napping in the Ergo with me... but that means that I can't nap myself, since she is strapped to my chest. Babies are so confusing!</p> <p>FWIW, she sleeps really well in her swaddle at night, which is why I want to start swaddling her for naps during the day. I just need to figure out when to swaddle her and put her down for sleeping... </p>