Sleep begets sleep... or does it?

[mikesmiles]

Baby is currently 9 weeks old.

He's never slept well since he was born (you may have seen my post on him fighting sleep here).

We were always told that the better he naps during the day, the better his nighttime sleep would be, so we made sure to make him have his naps during the day, which was a huge effort for us.

That being said, I was going through his stats in Hackleberry the other day and I noticed a trend. He sleeps between 12.30 and 13h daily, every single day (which I realise is below average but clearly his thing if he's been doing it consistently for 3 weeks now?).

And it looks like no matter what we do nap-wise, he will sleep 13h max. So I noticed the following trend:

• 6.5h of naps = 6.5h of nighttime sleep
• 4.5h of naps = 8.5h of nighttime sleep

Not sure if this is relevant, his "night" is set to 10pm-7.30am in the app, but we don't have a consistent bedtime hour yet.

Should I stop bothering about forcing naps on him during the day to promote more nighttime sleep?

Any thoughts on this?

 

[lemuel]

@mikesmiles I think the phrase is misleading - there’s clearly a point where too much day sleep is going to affect night sleep. I definitely wouldn’t force naps, if your baby is giving you 13 hours whatever happens, I’d be aiming to keep more of those at night than in the day! Do what works for you and your baby!

 

[lostandinsecure]

@mikesmiles Im curious how long is he awake before you try to put him to sleep for a nap?

 

[mikesmiles]

@lostandinsecure We try to follow a mix of his sleepy cues and the Sweet Spot in Hackleberry. 1-1.5h at the moment before he gets cranky.

 

[lostandinsecure]

@mikesmiles I would err on the shorter side of that window.... the average sleep needs of a baby under three months is 14-17 hours. Of course, there are those that fall outside of that range.

 

[mikesmiles]

@lostandinsecure We tried that too, but the problem with our baby is that he fights every single nap, no matter what we do. You can read about this in the post I linked, if you're interested. We tried many, many things that are listed there.

I'm probably missing something I your comments since it's 5am where I live, but following your suggestions and adding more naps would simply reduce the amount of time he sleeps at night, so that it caps at 13h total.

 

[lostandinsecure]

@mikesmiles I commented on your last post asking about a pacifier.

I mean.... if baby seems happy, then it could be enough sleep. But for context, my babies weren't happy on 13 hours until they were almost 1 year old.

At the end of the day, you have to do whatever is best for you and your family.

 

[abfarn]

@mikesmiles I don’t know if sleep begets sleep, but I think optimizing night sleep first promotes good sleep all around. And the key to good night sleep starts with a consistent bedtime, usually +/- 15 mins of the desired time. Does he wake at a consistent time regardless of bed time? If so then your goal should be moving up bedtime to lengthen night sleep. 13 hours per day is actually a healthy total, but making night sleep at least 9 hours might be helpful in increasing overall sleep.

 

[mikesmiles]

@abfarn Just so I understand correctly, if he wakes up at 7am, his bedtime should be 10pm? This is roughly what we do.

 

[abfarn]

@mikesmiles If you can get him to consistently sleep from
10pm to 7am, and to nap for 3-4hours during the day, AND he is generally content and healthy, AND you and your family is ok with it, I believe that’s all there is to do.

If, on the other hand, for example, you would like more time to yourself at night, or you feel that baby is actually cranky because he needs more sleep but is just not getting it, you can keep pushing bedtime up, say 15 mins every few days and see if he will go down anyway. Just make sure to stop the last nap 2ish hours before bedtime, and have a consistent routine.