Apologies ahead of time for the repeat question. I just have various questions about this.
For context, LO is two months old (9 weeks tomorrow). He mostly contact naps on me throughout the day. He does the classic crying not long after being put down. I don’t go back to work until the end of July (WFH job but my stepmom will be helping 2-3 days a week), so I’d like to start transitioning him to independent naps. He sleeps just fine in the bassinet at night in our room even though I wish he’d sleep longer stretches, averaging between 2-4 hours.
Up until now, I’ve rarely swaddled him during the day as to teach him the difference between day and night. Now I’m reading he should be swaddled for days naps… so I’ve tried doing a swaddle and putting him down either in the pack and play or in the bassinet. He slept for 20-40 minutes, but he’ll nap for hours on me. Do we just need to work up to the longer naps?
Should he still nap with me in the living room as per sleep safe guidelines or can I put him upstairs with or without a monitor? I can hear him cry without one downstairs, but I’d prefer to have visuals on him. Even so, does this go against safe sleep?
I feel he’s still too young to have a bedtime routine. We just try to put him down between 8:30-10 depending on a final feeding around that time. I don’t do baths every night and I haven’t attempted a bedtime story yet.
What sleepy cues do you look for? He was a nightmare last night, and I know it was because he was overtired from a busy day. I tried putting him down for a nap when we got home, but he wasn’t having it. He was also harder to settle for bed than usual.
For naps, should I skip the pack and play and bassinet entirely and go straight to the crib to start that familiarity? He’s never slept in it.
Thank you in advance for all your insights, tips, and tricks!
@sarnmere Hi. My dude is four months but we were previously where you’re at.
He has transitioned out of the swaddle to a sleep sack. We find that it’s a really helpful cue for him when we’re trying to do a crib nap. If he’s in the swing or on me he doesn’t need it.
For crib naps he’s upstairs with an audio monitor (overnight he’s in the bassinet in our room).
We suck at routines and also don’t bathe him nightly. The routine is just associations by happenstance—getting a change of diaper, change into PJs, put on sleep sack. The one thing we try to do is have his dad sit by me and read him Goodnight Moon.
We literally will count three yawns lol. Otherwise he’s just too awake. I almost feel he does better over tired than under tired, at least for getting daytime crib naps.
We’ve been doing naps in the crib to get him used to the nursery, yeah.
Also I feel like I should note that most of his crib nap progress has been after 15 weeks. I also t think it’s easier for his dad to put him down for crib naps because he sees me and I think he’s like “I could just sleep on you!”
Editing to add that we have found the Huckleberry sweet spot nap predictor to be generally helpful.
I started using the Huckleberry app for the past few days, and I agree. It’s been mostly spot on for the naps which have been a big help. Before, I was just keeping him on me all the time, and he’d fall asleep whenever. Now, I know it’s time to put him down upstairs, and it may take a bit to get him to sleep, but he does sleep!
@sarnmere I only say what worked for us, which may not work for every baby...
We always swaddled. Our baby only liked napping in the bassinet downstairs during the day and would only sleep in his crib at night. We transitioned to crib for all naps and sleep around 10 weeks because he outgrew the bassinet. However around then he also started napping shorter lengths (40 mins) so once or twice a day when he wanted to keep sleeping, we'd allow a longer nap on us after the first stretch capping all naps at 2 hours max. We will wake him up to eat so he gets enough during the day to drop night feeds.
I'm pretty sure if you follow the safe sleep guidelines you don't need to watch them. We had our bub in his crib at nights alone starting at 2 weeks because he slept better, but that's what was best for us. Our ped was cool with it.
Our bedtime routine started around 10 weeks, but was inconsistent. At minimum, we had a last feed/dessert, sometimes bath, diaper and pj, swaddle, hug from mom and dad, rock/feed to sleep. Sometimes this was all of 5 minutes. It's a good time to practice.
What we found more important was timing his last nap to end a long wake window before our attempted bedtime. Our 4 mo is up from his last nap between 5:30-6 for a bedtime of 7:30-8. He'll wine around that time which means he wants to go upstairs to his room.
Depends on the end goals. Do you plan to use a bassinet or pack and play at night or do you want to go straight to crib nights?
