![]() Or, check out my Newborn Sleep Program which has every tip and trick I know for getting your newborn sleeping their best (and longest) sleep. For more detailed advice, see my article on newborn sleep schedules. So give them (and yourself!) a little break. Those first two months are tough enough, and babies are just figuring out how to eat, digest, and keep themselves warm. ![]() If you start to get stressed or anxious, immediately stop what you are doing and go back to what was working. However, even doing that will be next to impossible with most 2-3 week old babies. In other words, from 7 am to 7 pm, don’t let that little guy or girl sleep longer than 2 hours at a stretch without getting them up, feeding them, and keeping them awake for a little while before putting them back down. Wake that baby up once it’s been asleep for two hours for a nap! Instead of telling you how many naps a day your (very) newborn should be taking, I’ll tell you one of the biggest favors you can do for your little one and yourself. (And then they’ll be awake all night.) Whatever they’re doing, they’re supposed to be doing it. Sometimes they’ll only sleep one, 5-hour block from noon to just before dinner. ![]() Newborn and 1-month-old nap schedule (0–8 weeks)īabies do some crazy stuff those first 8 weeks. Short naps are usually addressed by dealing with other sleep-related problems (cutting off other naps, not letting naps go too late, timing naps appropriately, etc). They are not able to fall back to sleep because they don’t know how to without your help.Ĭertainly babies who are sleep trained often struggle with short naps, but those struggles are usually short lived. That’s because they’re finishing a sleep cycle during a nap, and then waking up. You’ll find a strong correlation between babies that don’t know how to put themselves to sleep, and those who don’t nap long enough. So, I like to aim for naps that get past that pesky 45 minute mark many kiddos seem to love so much. Each sleep cycle is about 30–60 minutes in length, depending on the baby and their age. Ideally, babies need to complete more than once sleep cycle per nap. Sleeping too late in the day causes nighttime sleep issues for babies. But if you went to sleep every day at 7pm for 45 minutes, you would quickly develop a problem falling asleep for the night before 2am. Maybe once in a while if you fall asleep so close to your normal bedtime it’s not a big deal. Sleeping past 4pm is the same as adults taking a nap at 7pm. Many parents allow their babies to take a 3rd (or 4th) nap that occurs way too late in the day.Īs a general rule all daytime sleep should end by no later than 3:30 or 4:00 pm. This is either because they are difficult for baby to fall asleep for, or because they start and end late in the day. They also have a tendency to be problematic. They are necessary, but are of little cognitive or physical importance. All subsequent naps are simply “bridges” to bedtime. The first nap of the day for baby is mentally restorative and the second nap of the day is physically restorative. Here’s where I answer the “why” portion of the original question of how many naps your baby or toddler needs. Photo Credit: Gift Habeshaw Why the Amount of Naps Your Baby or Toddler Takes is Important
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