Nap time

Have you got the Huckleberry app? It works out your LO perfect wake window and suggests when you should start trying to get them to nap? I can't give you any words of wisdom though, as all of our naps are contact naps or travelling naps.

Look for signs like eye rubbing, red eyebrows, ear rubbing, yawning, and getting a bit wingey. Thats what I do, I breastfeed to sleep most of the time but sometimes I do just lay him in his cot when he’s seeming really tired and has eaten recently, he usually falls asleep with little to no winging, if he really cries I get him out and rock him or feed him to sleep x

thank you! So do you just wait until you see the signs? You don’t just try to force nap after feeds? Like rocking and shhing xx

i will strongly recommend the Huckleberry app. My LO is 2.5 months and we could not get him to take a nap in the daytime at all. The Huckleberry app started a trial for the plus membership and it has been the best. i can adjust the start times in terms of when he wakes up, and even suggest the bed time. i am still working on that as my LO always goes to bed around 9pm. But basically every 1.5 hours and stay awake 1.5 hours sleep. Trust me you won't be forcing your LO to nap. They are tired. When it is time I swaddle him and give him a bottle, put the white noise and rock him either on the chair or I stand. I also do shushing sounds. Hope that helps.

Look into wake windows!
i believe at that age it’s at 60-90 mins.
after that period of time I would then try rock them to sleep

if he is good at self soothing at night times, i’d implement that to his naps!

Unsure though, my bub is 4 months and we feed to sleep at night time & rock to sleep for day naps

Thanks ladies for all your advice!

Does anyone hold their LO up for 15-20 mins after feeding? Or just put them down straight away?

My little one is confusing I just don’t know when he is tired and sometimes he will fall asleep and then wake up the second his dummy comes out … I’m really struggling :(

I bottle feed my bub-
if he’s having breast milk, i tend to hold him up for a little bit, just because he tends to be more spewy or gassy with breast milk.
With formula, he’s okay to be popped down but sometimes I hold him for a play after.

He may be waking because his dummy has fallen out and he’s used the dummy as a source of soothing - not necessarily waking because he wasn’t tired.

My baby is weird, he’ll suck the dummy and then spit it out when ready to fall asleep lol.
All baby’s are different, it’s best to let your mum instincts take over. Work out if he sleeps better with contact naps or by himself, maybe he’s happier to be swaddled or not etc.

I devoted an entire week on sorting out my baby’s naps.
I swaddled him for every nap, wrapping his arms up tight (i only do this for daytime naps as I keep an eye on him. night time he’s in a arms out sleeping bag) I stand up and rock him with white noise on blast. He cries for under 5 mins and when he’s getting drowsy I lay down

(i lay down because i cbf standing anymore lol) once his eyes are closed I just lay him on his side on the bed
Again, i’m watching him the whole time, or at least peeking through the door every 5 mins to make sure he’s alright.
He naps for about 40 mins. He only ever naps for 40 mins regardless if he’s contact napping, travel napping, or how I do it so i’m not concerned.

^^ that’s how I get him to bed.

He wakes at 8/8:30 in the morning, whenever I can be bothered to get up hahaha (wake up to an alarm and then get him up)
He’s usually awake for about 2 hours or 2.5 before I put him down for his first nap.
Unless he had a shocker of a night and is tired. I can usually tell because he gets fussy or upset
- it’s not good to let it get to this point because it can indicate they are overtired and can be harder to get to sleep but I’ve never had an issue with my baby. I’m just terrible at picking up tired cues because he’s yawning and rubbing his eyes all day haha.

He usually has wake windows of 1.5 hours.
If he has a weird nap and wakes after 20 minutes or 30 minutes - he’s usually ready for another nap after an hour.
if it’s a normal nap - 1.5 or (rarely) 2 hours.

Then the whole process starts again.

I’m terrible at remembering when he woke up so I did download the huckleberry app. I don’t have the premium, i purely use it to log his feeds & his naps so I can tell if he’s due for a bottle or if he’s due for a nap when i’m trying to figure out why he may be upset.
I have recognised his wake window lengths and use that and the app to check if he’s due for a nap

I’m not sure if any of this makes sense and I apologise for the huge amount of text but honestly, it all comes down to your instincts about your baby. Maybe it’s best to try naps without a dummy?? Or hold him while he naps.
I’m not sure, my bub doesn’t use his dummy often.
i’m figuring it out too lol this 4 month old is my first

My son used to be the worst napper huckleberry helped me track his naps and predict the next one and I made him a small nap time routine that I know helps soothing him to give him cues is time to nap my baby is dark room,sleepsack, pacifier, Mozart and rocking, I’ve started fading the rocking and just holding him for the past week. Also if he is tired at the same time he is supposed to eat I replace pacifier with bottle. I also make sure he has a dry diaper before every nap. White noise might work but baby prefers Mozart for sleep. All of this has been lifesaver for me his sleep at night also improved tremendously is not great I’m still tired but naps has saved both of our sanity 😂