How can my baby have great naps?
Do you have a nap wish list? I did. For almost every single nap. My nap time wish list was essentially a list of hopeful to-dos while my baby napped soundly for over an hour: work out, clean up last night’s dinner, shower, sleep.
At least that’s what it was in theory. In practice? Well … the naps weren’t always hitting that “over an hour” mark … nor were they happening at a reliable time.
This was tough for me to accept. At the end of each day, after getting through three naps, I’d be looking at my list of hopefuls and seeing maybe 1-2 things crossed off if I was lucky. I felt like a failure to my partner, who frequently came home to dirty dishes, dinner partially-prepared, and an exhausted spouse, and I felt like a failure as a mother, who was unable to achieve timing naps in a way that helped my baby sleep longer.
So let me give you some tips for how to have significant success with naps:
💛Follow optimal wake windows for your baby’s age.
Adenocine (what we call sleep pressure) naturally builds up in the brain over the course of your baby's awake time. If it gets too high, it triggers the release of cortisol (baby's flight/flight/freeze response) and makes baby feel fussy, stressed, and have difficulty getting to sleep. This is why we stick to awake windows/awake time for baby's age 🙂
You can download our FREE Awake Times Chart here for ages 0 months - 3 years.
💛Prioritize the first nap.
If we schedule our errands in the morning (meaning the first nap is on the go), or have baby napping in a variety of places, their nap won’t be as quality. If we black-out baby’s room (I’m talking “I can’t see my hand in front of my face” dark), and lay baby down in the crib with our sound machine on, then their sleep environment won’t lend itself to distractions. There is also more melatonin (sleepy juice) leftover in the body from the night to help baby have a GREAT first nap. This is massive, because it sets baby up for a terrific day, and enables us to have other naps on the go if needed. Read more about why we prioritize the first nap here.
💛Cap baby’s naps when sleep is running too long.
I know - it sounds CRAZY. Why would I ever intentionally wake my baby up? Well, there is such thing as too much day sleep. When this happens, it affects nighttime, causing issues with baby falling asleep, causing extra night wakings, and often early mornings: the perfect storm.
Now, hear me out. I’m not saying to wake baby up early from all naps. Baby needs to go through a full cycle of sleep. We don’t want to be making them wake up mid-sleep cycle because each part of the sleep cycle has an important job. Find out more about when we need to cap naps and why in this video:
It can be done. Your little one can have great naps! If you are struggling with naps, check us out on instagram at @littlewinkssleep. We’ve got great resources for you in our link in bio.
You can also check out our Navigating Naptime course, where we cover everything from how to lengthen naps, to how to have great naps on the go, from how to drop a nap, to how to troubleshoot when naps are going wrong, and more!
Enjoy checking things off your wish list,
Anna