Routine

First, I would wake him up at the same time every day and put him down at the same time every day. That consistency is really gonna set you up for success. If you’re using a sleep tracking app like Huckleberry, have a look at his 24 hour sleep needs. My little boy is a low sleep needs baby and only does an average of 12.5 hours in total - so if I want him to do 11 hours overnight (8-7am) I can’t let him nap more than 90 mins all day. Also I try not to let his last nap go longer than 30 minutes and leave at least three hours between waking up from the last night nap and his bedtime. So basically no napping after 5pm. Our bedtime routine is: bath and/or eczema cream, pyjamas, bottle, stories (normally three short ones), cuddle, lights off (red nightlight on), sleeping bag (I sing a little sleeping bag song to him), in the cot with his comforter, brown noise machine goes on, and I play the first few bars of the Endel sleep track to him on my phone. Then once he’s asleep, I sneak out.

@Sharon thank you so much! I have been putting him down at 7:30 every night but sometimes he will just refuse and cries no matter what I try! He usually wakes up at 7:30-8 but sometimes wakes as early as 6am, will be very grumpy but refuse to go back down. What is your nap routine? My little one fights sleep so much where he will be exhausted and still refuse to go down for a nap, if I put down asleep he’ll wake instantly! I start trying after the 2 hour wake window so he isn’t overtired but he just seems to hate sleep and refuse to nap more than 20 mins each time!

Wake up 7am, Nap 9am wake up 10/10 30am Nap 12/12 30 wake up 1pm Nap 3/3 30pm, wake up 4pm Bed 7 30/8pm no night wakes x

@Joanna thank you! Do you put down for naps or are they contact? My little one is currently refusing to nap any longer than 20 mins x

A mixture of both. First nap is always in the cot so I can get ready. But after that it depends what we’re doing. If I want to sit on the sofa and watch TV we will contact nap, or I contact nap if I want her to sleep for longer 🤣if we go out though her nap times go out the window but I still do no sleep after 5pm no matter what. How long are wake windows? Maybe he’s ready for longer windows and isn’t tired enough to sleep for long. My girl needed a little bit of pushing to get to those 2 or 2 1/2 hour WWs in the day but her naps improved a lot once we did. She went from 30 minutes to doing an hour (even more sometimes) x

Our naps are a bit all over the place, but I try to make the first one 2-2.5 hours after he wakes up. That way he’s nice and tired for it and it is generally a bit longer (about an hour). He’ll then normally do another one around lunchtime usually in his stroller if I’m out. The third one is the trickiest one - sometimes he skips it altogether but if his lunchtime nap was short and he doesn’t get a 4pm catnap, he turns into an absolute terrorist by 6.30pm and then it’s just a case of trying to slog it out till bedtime.

Had this the other week and I thought it was time to drop to 2 naps. Turns out she was cutting her first two teeth. But same boat as you, never any real set times but I have noticed the days all follow a very similar pattern now which is making things a lot easier!

Wake time varies, if my baby girl wakes for a feed at 4.30am she’ll go back to sleep till 7:30/8am. She usually has 3 naps, 2 long ones morning and early afternoon then a quick nap (30 mins max) at around 4:10/30pm, i do wake her up so her bedtime is 7pm at the same time as my son though.

We’ve recently used a sleep consultant because we were getting no sleep. She stressed that solids/weaning is so important to help them sleep, in addition to their nap/bedtime routine. We give our 7 month a wake window of 2hr 45 (except the first one is 2hr 30). If your baby is cat napping, you could try go in a few mins before they usually wake up and assist them back to sleep by patting them, ssshh-ing them, etc. and see if that helps.

@Megan What did your sleep consultant say about solids/weaning? We’ve only recently started weaning and I’ve noticed that he’s drinking less and less of his nighttime bottle. It hurts so much having to throw hard earned breastmilk down the sink each night.

@Sharon this is a snippet of the notes I took from our call: Nutrition is a fundamental part of good sleep. Make sure he is getting enough milk in 24 hours. A hungry baby will not sleep well. Gaps between feeds- every 3.5- 4 hours. Would like to see him drinking 4 full breastfeeds OR 150mls-180mls feed from the bottle. NB use the correct teat size. Milk is still his most important source of nutrition up until the age of 12 months. For babies 7 - 9 months: Milk feeds: roughly 4 feeds a day Solids: 3 meals a day all with Protein. Solids are only complementary. Make sure to include a variety which includes protein. Protein has Magnesium, Iron and Zinc – fundamental to his wellbeing. She also mentioned that because I was changing the frequency of his feeds from roughly every 2.5/3 hours to every 3.5/4 hours my supply would needs some time to adjust, so she recommended pumping after each feed for the first few days, to signal that I need larger feeds less often

@Sharon do you mean over night bottle, or bottle before bed? If it’s the bottle before bed, she said that needs to be a big/full feed; so I’d consider adjusting the timing of your solids. Our current routine is 6-7 wake up. Milk feed 10 mins after wake up 7-8 breakfast solids 8:30-9:30 Nap 1. Milk feed 10 mins after wake up 11-11:30 lunch solids 12:30-1:30 Nap 2. Milk feed 10 mins after wake up 3:45-4 Nap 3. Milk feed 10 mins after wake up 5- 5:30 dinner solids Milk feed before bath 6:30 Bedtime routine (incl bath) 7pm lights out

@Megan Thanks for sharing your schedule. We’ve only just started solids, so he gets literally a few mouthfuls of puree in the afternoon and maybe sucks on a bit of fruit. I’m trying to do it earlier in the day, but I’m struggling to find the time.