Acting on Sleep Cues

[Mahonia]

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all keeping well.

I would like some advice please on sleep cues, and how to act on them.

I've recently been trying to improve my 4mo DD's daytime naps. She started to get quite overtired and seriously cranky and I realised that I needed to get her down for her naps earlier than I had been.

I'm trying to recognise her sleep cues, but am not entirely sure how to act on them. She usually breastfeeds to sleep but I wondered if I was better at acting on her cues then she might be able to settle down herself without needing the milk. Although I'm more than happy feeding and cuddling her at the moment .
Do I drop everything at the first sign of tiredness and pop her straight into her cot (or onto the boob)?
Or do I aim to get her into her cot within a certain number of minutes e.g. within 20 mins of noticing the first cue?
Do I stop the activity and start a quieter one like reading a book and cuddling and let her get more sleepy before putting her down at some point?

I just can't seem to get it quite right, and end up with either a tired, shouty baby or one who cries at the boob and arches away from me as she's not quite ready for it yet. I've read a lot about sleep cues and sweet spots but all I can find is that you need to act on them, not when or how.

I'm half expecting the answer to be that it depends entirely on the baby as they are all different... However! Any recommendations you may have based on your own experiences would be very gratefully received.

Thank you in advance.

M.

Visible sleep cues mean that baby is over-tired and needed to be asleep ages ago, so definately act on them straight away. The point when they are just getting tired, before any outward signs of this, that's the best time for a nap.

You can estimate, to give yourself some approximate idea of when this might be. A reasonable estimate is however long their last nap was, they'll want about double awake time until next nap. Give or take about 15 minutes or so either side.

So a nap from 9.30 to 10am might suggest next nap around 11am (10.45-11.15 range). A nap from 11am to 11.20 would be about 40m later... and so on. Not an exact science, just a very rough estimate.

In terms of cues, or signs, crying is the obvious one. Also not being willing to be put down.

I would generally feed baby upon waking, put down on floor to play. Then at the first cry, use that as the "ah oh, nearly time for a nap" call. But try to pacify the first cry on the basis it might just be wind or needing a nappy change. So pacify and put back down. If (a) baby won't be put back down. Or (b) baby cries again within a few minutes - then it's nap time. You know it isn't hunger (fed when woken), you know it isn't wind or nappy because you checked at last cry, so it's tiredness. I'd do a top-up mini feed and then dummy in for a nap.

Hi @FATEdestiny

Thank you so much for your advice. I will try out your suggestion this weekend and see how we get on. The only difficulty I have is that I can't put her down straight after feeding as she'll most likely be quite sick, so I'll have to work something out for that.

Wish me luck! And thanks again!