“I’m going to sleep like a baby tonight!”
Have you ever hear this expression and thought to yourself, “What baby are they referring to? Because MY baby does NOT sleep.”
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Awake time: 45 minutes to 1 hour.
In the newborn stage, it really is about letting baby sleep when they need to, when they just fall asleep, but as they get older, you will notice they are more alert and awake.
At this age, I made note of the awake times but I usually just went by their tired cues. If I saw the sleep cues start, such as yawning, I knew it was time for a nap, especially if it was close to the end of their awake time.
Do not put too much pressure on yourself in these early days! Everyone is trying to get into a routine.
Give yourself grace and understanding.
You are doing an incredible job.
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Awake time: 1.5 hours - 2 hours
This age is when sleep regressions usually start.
Do not panic or worry if your baby is staying awake longer, fighting sleep more, taking shorter naps or is waking up more through the night.
This is all a perfectly normal part of your babies developing sleep schedule.
Your baby is now moving into longer sleep cycles much the way adults sleep cycles go but babies are still learning how to put themselves back to sleep so often naps end up being 20-30 minutes.
It’s exhausting and frustrating but it’s normal.
Make sure to pay extra attention to your childs sleep cues during this stage. Since there will be less naps, they have a greater chance of ending up overtired, which is no fun for anyone. Putting them down as soon as the sleep cues start, even if it’s not quite at that 1.5- 2 hour mark, will help prevent an overly tired tiny human.
This is the age range it is recommended to start sleep training. I do highly recommend checking out the Sleep Sense Program but as always, do what feels best for you and your family when it comes to methods of sleep training.
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Awake time: 2 hours to 3 hours for naps. (It’s not uncommon or there to be only 2 hours from wake up to the first nap at this age.)
Awake time before bedtime: Up to 4 hours.
At this age, your baby may be sleep trained, they will be starting solids and hitting new milestones. This was my favorite age in he baby stage.
During this age range, it’s usually easier to have a set schedule rather than just going by awake times.
Usually the naps are centered around those awake times though.
At this age, babies are usually dropping from 3 naps a day to 2 naps a day so bedtime or awake times before bedtime are usually more important to pay attention to.
If they are already down to 2 naps, depending how long the naps are, bedtime may need to be pushed up. If they are closer to 6 months, I’d recommend 3 hours tops before bedtime, closer to 8 months, you can push it to up to 4 hours if your baby doesn’t get overly tired.
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Awake time: Between naps 3 hours.
Awake time: Before bedtime between 3-4 hours.
At this age, it’s common for babies to be at a solid 2 naps a day schedule with 2.5-3 hours between each nap depending on the length of the naps and your child of course. 4 hours awake time before bed.
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Awake time: 3 - 4 hours
You are approaching your littles 1st birthday! Huge milestone! Congrats. Y’all made it! Phew.
At this age, your baby will still most likely be at 2 naps a day with up to 4 hours of awake time between.
You should also have a nice, predictable routine down. Huzzah!
Children do not usually drop down to 1 nap a day until between 13 - 18 months.
Relatable at all? That was me in 2016 and early 2017 with a newborn that just hated sleep. She hit every single sleep regression milestone with pride.
My little Bugaboo.
I was researching at nauseum about how to get this baby to sleep so I could sleep and function, but also so she could grow and develop properly. Sleep is so important, especially for a tiny human who is brand new to the world.
Most babies are born with not a single sense of night and day and when is time to sleep. Their little bodies are not used to regulating such a thing in the manner in which we as adults are accustomed to.
That’s where we, as parents, guardians or just general humans with knowledge and experience on the topic come in to help.
This page is dedicated to guiding you through how to help your little love, and eventually, yourself, get quality sleep.
I will be providing links to outside sources that helped me during my journey with babies and their sleep. As well as talk about my personal struggles and experience on the topic with information that helped me tremendously.
I hope to provide the information in a knowledgeable, relatable, humorous and understandable way.
-The Messy Hippie 🌈✌🏻
