Daytime Sleep Patterns

Julie - posted on 01/24/2009

Thanks Trish!  That's helpful...

Lisa - posted on 01/24/2009

My daughter takes 3 naps a day ranging from 30min to 2.5 hours. Some days they're all an hour long, other days all half an hour, there is just no predicting it! When her routine changes it seem to change fast. I always had to nurse her to sleep until one day in early January. She did not go to sleep nursing, and she was fussing when I tried to rock her so I took her in and put her on her stomach and patted her and she went right to sleep (if I don't put her on her stomach she rolls there as soon as I put her down). She has gone to sleep like this for every nap since then! I do still feed her/rock her to sleep at bedtime, though.

Ramona - posted on 01/24/2009

hey julie, we used to do the swing for the longest while but she's graduated to her pack n' play during the day. i find that we've to run thru a slightly modified bedtime routine which includes reading a book; also we usually try to keep her napping area a little dimmer than normal. i'd keep track of when your LO starts to get drowsy and then put him down about 20-30 mins prior to that. with mine it works like clockwork but if i miss that window, then it's a little harder.

Julie - posted on 01/23/2009

Moms, thanks for sharing your different sleep scenarios!  It helps to know that there are other alternatives that I can try to have a healthy, happy baby...

Melissa - posted on 01/23/2009

My son takes a 1/2 hour nap every morning around 9:30 in his swing.  He also takes another 1/2 hour nap around noon, and then a long one (1-2 hours) in the later afternoon.  For his afternoon naps, he'll rub his eyes, and that's my cue to rock him to sleep.  For his short nap, I'll let him sleep on me.  For his longer naps, he falls asleep on me, then I move him to his crib. 

Lindsay - posted on 01/23/2009

It was really hard, but around 3 mo. I stopped rocking/nursing my son to sleep. I followed Dr. Weisbluth's advice from Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. We had about a week of a lot of crying, but now, I place him in the crib awake. I sometimes nurse him, but always dim the lights and rock him for a few minutes. Sometimes he chats to himself, sometimes he cries for a few minutes and sometimes he goes right to sleep. The length of his naps vary greatly. Sometimes they are 45 mins and other days they are up to 2 1/2 hrs. He normally takes 3 naps/day with at least one of them usually being 2 hours and the last one 45 mins. If we are out running errands, he does usually fall asleep in the carseat, but will sleep on the shorter end. He usually wakes around 7am and goes to bed around 6:30pm.

Shelly - posted on 01/23/2009

My daugter always naps in her crib when we are home. I always lay her down awake and she talks or fusses for about 1-2 min and then falls asleep she takes about a 1 1/2 to 2 hour am nap and 2 1/2 to 3 hour pm nap (sometimes she will take an additional 1/2 hour about 6) and goes to bed at 8 every night. She also sleeps on her tummy now, which has helped immensly. She turned herself over anyway so now I just place her on her tummy.

Marjo - posted on 01/23/2009

I just have to take our son to his own bed, for a while he will "talk" to his teddybears and then fall asleep. He sleeps about half an hour to 45 minutes. Then he´s awake 2 hours and again it´s napping time!

Whitney - posted on 01/23/2009

jp's "scheduled" has changed a lot. first it was no morning nap and then just an afternoon nap. then he changed to no napping (when he started teething). thankfully that only lasted a couple days. now he's pretty set on sleeping every 2 hours. i just follow his cues of he doesnt wanna play on the floor or in his exersaucer anymore and he rubs his eyes. i just sit w/him in the rocking chair and he'll nod off and then i just lay him in the crib. have u not been using his crib? y dont u just try that?

Kimberly - posted on 01/23/2009

We have the same music box which our Alex loves as well. Fortunately Daddy has him trained very well, Alex will have a bottle and gets laid down in his crib wide awake! One push of the music box, a little talking to himself or the monkey (we haven't decided) and he's out for an hour or so.

Kier - posted on 01/23/2009

I have a rainforest musical machine. It's round and it has a waterfall that lights up and a fish, frog, and monkey that move back and forth. If my son is tired but is a little fussy about taking a nap, I turn out the lights and put this on; usually by the second time (it lasts about 7 mins) he's asleep. I hope this helps.