Hello Wifessionals readers! I'm Tawnya and I blog over at All of Life's Little Adventures, mostly about life as a new Mama. I was so excited when Kaitlyn asked me to write this guest post about transitioning number of naps and although I have to admit I am by no means an expert on the subject, I am more than happy to share my story and helpful tips I have learned along the way.Since Scarlett will be the center of this post I want to start out by introducing her. She is our first baby and she was born October 19th, 2012, making her just over 15 months old now. This past year of sleep has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride thanks to this sweet little munchkin, so I can wholeheartedly empathize with all who are currently experiencing sleep struggles.
As I said above, I am by no means an expert on the subject of transitioning naps but during my pregnancy and after Scarlett was born, Adam (my husband) and myself read a lot of books. The book we found most helpful was The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg, but not for the literal application of her "sleep training". We found her theories very interesting and I found the book helped me to understand infant sleep better, making my own gut instincts about what Scarlett needed stronger. Our philosophy was (and still is) listen to your baby's cues while gently guiding them to where you want them to be through routine and consistency.
Oh we definitely had our sleep struggles, especially with napping. We co-slept for Scarlett's first four months of life and held her for most of her naps during that time. I guess you could say we developed some "unhealthy" habits that made sleeping without Mama or Daddy within reach difficult for her. I have no regrets as I cherish each and every one of those snuggles to this day but it made the transition to consistent naps in her crib very difficult.
At about four months we transitioned Scarlett to her crib, this was the same time she was awake enough in the day that we tried for two consistent naps. She was sleeping through the night at the time a pretty consistent 10-12 hrs (waking for one feeding around 3AM). We would put her down around 630-7 and she would wake around 630-7. Nap time was where we were having a lot of struggles, she would go down easily but would wake at the 45 minute mark no matter what we did. Two 45 minute naps was not long enough because she was cranky the rest of the day so this is where we integrated some of the baby whisperer methods. We would quietly enter her room at the 45 minute mark and put our hand on her back and gently pat it while quietly 'shushing', also known as "the shush pat". Sometimes it would take 10 minutes, but most of the time, if she was really tired, a few minutes is all it took and she would sleep for another 45 minutes. This went on until about eleven months (with several sleep regressions in between) but we were able to successfully transition to a 9AM nap and a 1PM nap, both lasting 1.5-2 hrs.
Successfully napping in her crib with her Aden and Anais dream blanket (see below)
Around 11 months I found her naps were starting to get shorter. I also found she was sleeping longer at night, therefore napping later in the morning which in turn caused her afternoon nap to be nearly impossible, which made for an extremely cranky baby around 5PM. This month of her life was incredibly difficult so I began to transition her to one nap. I did this by pushing her morning nap a little later each day until I was able to keep her up until about 1PM. I am not going to lie, there were some days where I just wanted to throw in the towel and let her go to sleep at 10AM but I knew that it would just make for a long evening. It was easiest if I had things for us to do outside of the house so that she was distracted. Looking back I don't even think she was tired, I think she was just so programmed to go down for a nap at 9 AM that I had to break her old normal sleep cycle. Babies thrive on routine and a schedule so breaking what she was used to was difficult and that's why I think doing it gradually worked for us.In most books I have read or internet forums I have come across, the general advice says that babies transition to one nap around 15-18 months, so when Scarlett was showing signs of being ready to transition (sleeping through the night consistently, resisting one of her naps) I struggled with my gut vs. the norm. This is where I have to say go with your gut, you know your baby best and if you think they are ready to transition then transition them. I think the most important part is to be consistent so you don't throw their entire sleep cycle off and end up with a bigger problem.
My other little bit of advice is to go into nap times with a routine. Just like having a bedtime routine, it is important to stay consistent with a nap time routine. Our routine is as follows; We take Scarlett up to her room and change her diaper, we then dim the lights and read a couple of books in her rocker. Then we snuggle up and rock her until she is almost asleep and proceed to put her down in her crib for her nap. We have done this same routine throughout her life, so when we transitioned nap times the only thing that really changed was the timing of the nap.
I also want to share some things we found helpful for sleep and nap time success because I love seeing what helped from other moms. I know some of these things won't work for everyone, but I can confidently say they are mom tested and mom approved in my books!
|| One || Two || Three || Four || Five || Six ||
(See below for a little explanation of each)
(#1) The Aquarium helps to soothe Scarlett back to sleep now that she's older and can turn it on herself, if she wakes up from her nap she will turn it on and lay there listening to it for quiet time and more often than not fall back to sleep.
We used both soothers and swaddles early on and (#2) and (#4) are what worked best for us.
(#3) The video monitor is a must have in our house, I am sure there are many other fantastic brands but the one I pictured is the one that we have and love. Having a video monitor was one of those things we almost didn't indulge in (we thought it was definitely a first world luxury), however being able to see what your little is doing when they're fussing makes it so much easier to determine when they actually need you vs. when they're just fussing in their sleep.
For sleep regressions (#5) Lusa Organics sells this essential oil that you rub behind baby's ears and I swear by it. I find Scarlett settles much quicker when we use it and the price point isn't very high so it's definitely worth a try!
(#6) I love the dream blanket because it breathes very well while still keeping baby warm. I know it isn't going to completely eradicate the risk of SIDS but it really made me feel a lot better leaving her in her crib with this blanket as opposed to others.
I hope that my experience can help some of you moms (and dads) who are struggling with nap times. I would love to hear some more stories about how you transitioned your little's number of naps as I am sure we will hit another sleep regression at some point and any mom advice is always helpful!
