I hosted a Q&A with my sleep consultant inside my private Facebook group and it was a huge hit. I thought I’d share some of the questions here as a way to help other mama’s who might also be struggling with getting their babe to sleep well. And if you just want some great, personalized help then I can’t recommend Becca of Little Z’s Sleep enough. She’s so wonderful.
Jessica asked: My daughter is 7 months old and 20lbs. We have had the hardest time getting her into a good nap schedule during the day. My mom watches her while I’m at work from 7:30-3:30. How many naps and for how long should she be sleeping during the day? Right now she will nap anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour at a time and she’s just all over the place!
Becca answered: Hi Jessica!! At this age I’m looking for two naps with a spread of 3 hours total daytime sleep, plus 11-12 hours of night sleep. Sounds like a lot, right?!😆 She can totally do it!! The first thing I’ll check on with short naps is the darkness. Is her room 100% dark? As in NO light coming in? Next I’ll ensure she is putting herself to sleep, without the use of sleep props (see my podcast Episode on this!)
Mari asked: Hi! My daughter just turned 3 months on the 18th, she is about 12-13 lbs. A typical day is her waking and feeding then usually she falls right back asleep and will sleep for up to another 4 hours but not always. She will eat again when she wakes up from that nap and be awake for about an hour. Then thats when we struggle with naps for the day.. she will fight going to sleep after that and only sleep 30-45 mins at a time. We try to get her to bed around 7 or 7:30 but sometimes it has taken up til 9 or later to get her to stay asleep. Once asleep she is (typically) good for the night. We just struggle with the afternoon naps/exhaustion at bedtime. I do nurse her to sleep at night but that is the only time she eats before sleeping (unless I’m desperate!). Thanks so much!
Becca answered: Hi Marie! Thanks for your question! At 3mo I am looking for awake window or 60-90min, and probably 4-5 naps (depending on length). At this stage short naps like 30-40mim aren’t bad! I would hope for one nap (maybe 2) to be longer (like an hour and a half). It sounds like that is a night feed, and then she is asleep for four hours until morning? I’m still looking for a later bedtime at this age, 8pm or 8:30 is okay. But starting the day between 7-8am.
Annabelle asked: Hey! My baby is 5 months old & she weighs about 15+ lbs! This is our current schedule
7am dwt (often wakes at 6:30am)
8am-9:30am nap
9:30am feed
11am-12:30pm nap
12:30pm feed
2:00pm-3:30pm nap
3:30pm feed
5:30pm feed
6:15pm ish solids
7pm nurse & bed time (often falls asleep while nursing for this feed).
My issue is that baby has and will go all night without a feed but she wakes every 2-3 hours crying! We pop in her paci each time just so we can go back to sleep. But there are nights she wakes crying every hour. So here lately I’ll feed her at 10pm and around 3am just so she can maybe go two hours of sleeping instead of 1 😩. We’ve tried letting her cry for up to ten minutes at a time but she does not soothe herself well at night. Her naps during the day are great! I’m soon planning to change her schedule to eat every 3.5 hours and see if that will help?
Any help would be appreciated!
Becca answered: Hi Annabelle! Looking st her day routine I would want 2 hours awake time, down for a nap. The morning might be slightly less, but she does need to be pushed or she’ll have inconsistent days. She’s somewhat on an eat/play/sleep expectation but it’s about to go away at 6-7mo when she will go to 2 naps a day. At night I will always look at bedtime. Is there a prop in place that she depends on to go to sleep? That’s the cause!! Removing all Sleep props at this age that cause her to rely on other things will help her sleep all night. Because SHE is in charge of her own sleep!
And finally I asked: I was going to message you this question but thought maybe it would be helpful to others if I post it here:)
Solomon is 3 months old and we’re working to get him out of his swaddle.
1. How long do you rotate one arm out before you take them both out?
2. He still uses a bink to fall asleep but now that a hand is out he keeps knocking the bink out of his mouth. So it can take a half hour of me reinserting it before he finally falls asleep. Do I need to get rid of the bink? I really don’t want to because it’s so helpful but right now it’s seeming more like a hindrance. And if so, how can I help him learn to fall asleep (and stay asleep) without it?
Thank you😘
Becca answered: Great questions Justine!
1) take one arm out at a time and within a week i want all arms out! You could do a zipadee zip sleep sack as a transition as well, or just arms free sleep sack.
2) if his pacifier is becoming more harm than good (causing more wakes) then take his cue that he is trying to figure things out on his own! I want it gone by 4mo anyways ☺️
And you’re question about HOW to get him to sleep prop free will be answered on Tuesday’s webinar!!! As part of the bonus for the course I’m going to be giving you the plan to be sleep prop free and get him to sleep all night when he is ready!!
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