Naps, routine & night wakings…

[Awoooga]

Advise sought please!

Hopefully I’m just tired and overthinking this as a first time Mum.

My 7mo EBF baby wakes hourly after the first 2-3 hours of going to bed. I’ve googled and read books for help to get him to sleep a bit longer, the one thing that keeps coming up which we don’t have is a strict daily nap routine.

He naps in total about the same amount of time every day and the final wake window is always over 3.5 hours but as every day we do something different, groups & classes are on at different times, we cannot nap at exactly the same time every day without giving up some of these groups - I have looked for alternatives and none fit.

Am I just overthinking, is it okay to not nap at exactly the same time every day or am I placing too much importance on getting out to Mum & baby groups or having plans in general that clash with naps? If anyone thinks this is a silly question, that’s why I’m asking on here first 😂

He also still only contact naps unless we’re travelling and sleeps in our room, I will probably be back for help with this in the not too distant future…

Thanks for reading!

Hi, I have a 5 month old and a 3 year old and I've never stuck to nap times.

I do pay attention to wake windows and make sure they have a nap when they need one, so for example my 5 month old needs one every 1hr 45 mins (or she's actually just asked for one at 1hr 20). In the early days I didn't worry about where they napped (usually in pram or car or carrier) but once she hit the 4 month regression I made sure at least one nap a day was in her cot. We then practiced self settling until she got the hang of it. I think this really helps with night time sleep. With 5 month old we were really struggling with multiple night wake ups so I made the effort to really nail her naps in the house and it seems to have paid off (along with changing a number of other things).

So nothing wrong I think with not sticking to a nap schedule, but it may be that to help night time sleep they need an opportunity to learn to sleep in their cot.

I did quite a few groups etc too (not every day, nice not to plan sometimes.

i did not do ones that clashed with naps though, sorry! We actually gave up one because he wouldn’t make it to the end without really, really needing a nap (but he was happy to nap in his buggy, which makes a big difference) his later nap in the afternoon I did always try to be at home for, sometimes we contact napped and sometimes he was in his bed.

At only 7m in your shoes I would cut few of the groups, but it’s really up to you. I always felt bad for DS when I could see he was getting tired and rubbing his eyes and we were still out, but I could at least put him down in the buggy.

Definitely nap wherever. Strict routines and schedules work some people but not for others and it's absolutely fine.
Contact/pram/sling naps are also fine.

For some brilliant sleep information follow these accounts on Instagram, they talk about normal infant sleep but do have loads of resources if you want to try and make changes without CIO:
Little nest sleep
Hey sleepy baby
Lyndsey Hookway
Second star to the right

I have a 19 month old DD and a 12 week old DS and I'm not following any routines or timings because I like to be flexible.
With DS it's all early days anyway but with DD I just went with the flow. She pretty much contact napped or car/pram napped for the first year. It was very up and down with her sleep but I just responded to what she needed and at 12 months she started sleeping through the night.

Wake windows are a guide and don't work for every child so you don't have to be too strict with those either if they stop working.

Every child is different and so are their sleep requirements, some need more or less than the recommended hours each day.

Basically, just do whatever works for you and don't get too hung up on "am I doing this right". It's right if it's working for you and your family!

Thank you all I really appreciate the feedback. None of my remaining close family or friends have babies so i think I don’t have the perspective I would have if my Mum was here to chat things over, or if I had a sister etc.

I had vague images in my head when pregnant that while on maternity leave I’d go ‘oh it’s 10am, time for a feed’ then put him down for a long nap in his crib and go get the entire house cleaned. Lol!

I might see if I can jiggle a weekly friend meet up around for a bit more consistency, get him napping in his own bed and try to stop worrying about things not exactly matching what the books say.

Thank you again!