Does your baby nap/sleep to a time schedule?

[greygiraffe1]

Hello,

I'm just wondering what you all do.

Does your baby work to a set time schedule for naps and sleep? Interested to hear your views and experiences.

At the moment, we simply follow LO's (nearly 7mths) lead

Thanks!

At nursery yes! At home we wing it a bit more based on what we’re doing but it usually comes down to a nap after breakfast, a nap after lunch and maybe a quick late afternoon catnap if the after lunch nap was short. Bedtime is always around 6.30pm.

Yes. She’s nearly 7 months.

Wake at 7/7.30
Nap at 9/9.30 depending on wake time, usually for 30/45 minutes
Nap at 12/12.30 for around 2 hours
Occasionally a small nap in the pram around 4 while I walk the dogs
Bed at 6.30pm

My LO was still having 3 naps at 7months
9am nap - 1 hour.
1pm - 1hr 30mins
445pm approx for 30 mins.
8pm bed.

Yep! Started off as a new born doing 2-3 hourly breastfeeding and gradually put in a routine based on the blissful baby book. She's now 9 months and we wake every morning at 7, bottle 7-7.15, breakfast 7.45, nap 9-10, bottle 11, lunch 11.45, nap 12.30-2.30, bottle 2.30, nap between 4-5 (but now only often 10-30 mins as she's transitioning to 1/2 naps), dinner 5-5.25, bed pm. I think if you want a routine the key is to keep things the same each day no matter what for at least 1-2 weeks.

However, my son totally breastfed on demand and had no routine particularly and that had it's advantages and suited both him and me so I do think it depends on the baby as to what's best. Don't feel pressured to put in a routine because others think it's best.

Both of mine did and they were very happy content babies in their routine. They hardly ever cried and slept well at night.
Downsides are that you need to be very consistent and they tend to freak out if you go off schedule.

That Should say bed at 7pm

Yup, very consistent from 6 months but also seemed to be what she needed. Family gave me a really hard time for being “rigid” but I liked the predictability and struggled to see the upside of a tired baby & chaos! I’m pretty organized though.

@SparklyGlasses, @Happyhappyday, @LakeShoreD, @Fancyties, @Sexnotgender, @LapinR0se - thanks so much that's really useful.

What have you found the benefits to be? Have you found it helps nighttime sleep?

My LO similarly has 3 naps a day, however the timings and lengths vary wildly and wake up time can vary anywhere between 6am and 8am!! Nighttime sleep seems to be suffering too so I'm wondering if more of a time schedule could help...

I think at 7 months. They need the third nap, but can be difficult as can disturb their night sleep. Though not old enough to drop this nap. Hence always awake by 515/530.

I'm a lover of routine, and found I knew when she be napping, when I needed to be home and such.

I always capped my Los first nap to an hour at that age, encouraged longer afternoon nap and along with 8pm bedtime I got past 530am. I don't cap naps anymore now we're on 2 naps.

It worked well for our nights. She still wanted a feed at that age in night and I gave it. I think between 7 to 10months old can be quite messy with sleep from what I read.

I find the benefits are that she sleeps well at night (although she mostly always has so not sure if it is the routine that has helped!). She also tends not to get overtired at any point or grumpy from lack of sleep. In the evenings, she is pretty happy up to 7pm when she starts rubbing her eyes on cue!

I think the main thing for us was waking her up at 7am even from the very start. She now always sleeps in till 7. It means we never have a lie in but also never have a very early one! The routine also means we can plan a bit around naps and can vary them a bit as needed without worrying she'll be exhausted as we know she will have napped previously.

I have a 7 week old baby who absolutely refuses to nap. He sleeps ok at night- usually 11pm-6am with two wakes to feed,(we do try putting him down from 8 but he fight’s sleep until 11ish) but from 6am- 11pm he will sometimes not nap AT all. The best we get is if I’m pushing the pram/ driving the car. But even that isn’t fool proof and sometimes he doesn’t sleep then either. I appreciate he’s very young, but I’m sure he is very overtired and we are stuck in this viscous circle. He is combi fed and is gaining weight at a healthy pace, so I don’t think it’s down to hunger. And we’ve tried all the obvious things, sleeping on me, in the sling, white noise etc etc. If anyone has any advice, techniques they’ve used. I’d be very grateful, he needs more rest, and so do I!!

Mine is based on time from each wake up. LO is 7 months. So wakes up, typically goes down 2h15 from morning wake up. I am waking him after 25 mins which is ensuring one long chunk at lunchtime (gap between mid morning wake up and going down for lunch is 2h30). The tricky thing then is sometimes having the last nap and sometimes not. This depends on what time he wakes up from lunchtime sleep. Most often I do a 15 mins contact nap otherwise don't think he would make it through to bedtime. He doesn't sleep through the night but this nap routine seems right for his age.