Tips for beginning sleep and nap routine

[FebruaryJuly]

My baby in now turning 2 months and it was around now that we started introducing a nap time routine and a more regular bed time routine with our first born (now 5 years).

I feel that it all worked so well with our first born and he was so easy and regular to put down for naps and he took to his bedtime routine very easily too.

Our second born is very different (as all babies are!). He struggles to stay asleep for any longer than 15 minutes without being held, his sleeping is all over the place and I can imagine that he is going to be much more difficult to get into a working sleep and nap routine!

With our first, it all just seemed to happen so easily without asking around for tips, however this time I would like some tips as he is a baby who seems to hate sleep!

He struggles to stay asleep for any longer than 15 minutes without being held

Try moving your naps into something with perpetual movement. A bouncy chair works well when you have older siblings to be dealing with at the same time as getting baby to sleep.

Also a dummy, if you've not already introduced one. It makes independant sleep significantly easier.

As for routine, cycles around your wake windows work best at this age. And limited awake time between naps - it might only be 45 minutes that baby us awake between one nap and the next, with a feed and wind included in that time.

So you end up with repeating cycles of:

Wake
Full Feed
Wind/cuddle/nappy/floor time
Top up feed
Sleep

With one cycle taking around 2h, and repeated over and over again all day long.