Hello all
l'a like to hear any and all suggestions for starting more of a schedule please!
Mine is 16 weeks and I'm thinking of making a plan to organise her sleep habits beyond "lets keep a vague eye on wake windows and put her down when she looks tired". Not planning anything formal for another month or so in case she hits the dreaded 4 month sleep regression but want to start a bedtime routine and all that jazz.
At tbe moment she naps somewhat at random in the day (sometimes fall asleep on the breast, if the timing is ok for end of a wake window I will put her down or wake her, otherwise i will put her down when grizzly at between 1.5 hours/2.25 since last sleep and she generally finds her thumb and drifts off)
She goes to sleep somewhere between 10 and midnight "for the night" sleeps anywhere between 3 and 8 hours and then wakes for a feed, sleeps a couple hours, another feed, another couple of hours and then is up "for the day". At night we have her in the bouncer with us or cuddling while we watch ty but i reckon those days are numbered as its starting to be a bit weird watching thrillers/adult stuff with a baby who is either squirming or agog:
I'd like for us not to be tied at home for naps always, so a schedule that works with a bassinet/out and about too.
Specifically: Ive looked at her existing habits and her nap lengths, numbers and wake window lenghts really have no consistency at all except that forst morning nap tends to be longest. One day she'l have 4 naps, another 6, one day she'll be awake 3 hours before bed and sleep for 4 hours, another it's only 1.5 hours before bed but she sleeps a 7 hour stretch. naps are exactly 35 mins with the odd 1+ hour one which tends to be in the morning. Should I be standardising this? If so how?
According to some approaches l've seen (Little Ones) you should try to consolidate the midday nap first to go 2 sleep cycles from 4 months and then do the others, but I've read elsewhere that it's ok to let the first morning nap consolidate first which seems to be happening for her. What do you think?
Similarly I've seen from some sources that atcthis age the last wake window before bed should be longest but others disregard this. Again, what's the hivemind consensus?
Thank you!!
*She generally puts herself to sleep pretty well, but if youd like to share routine suggestions please bear in mind that we're in the UK so: per UK/nhs advice she is fed on demand and naps and sleeps in same room as us for SIDS prevention. We also don't have ac and need windows wide open in summer so we can't make it particularly quiet or dark, especially during the day but can use white noise.