Daytime sleep solutions for older babies and toddlers
Does my baby need to sleep for longer during the
day?
There are some babies who will only ever sleep for one sleep
cycle, regardless of what you do!
If your baby sleeps for 45 minutes per sleep,and wakes up
cheerful, and does not show any signs of tiredness until their next
sleep, then try not to stress about the length of his day sleeps.
It is likely the sleeps will increase as time goes on, and he
becomes more active during the day.
But if your baby wakes up tired, grizzling or screaming after 45
minutes, it is much more likely that your baby is crying from
tiredness rather than hunger, so try to resettle him for another
sleep cycle and then feed him when he wakes.
The following tips should help you increase the length of your
babies day sleeps:
Teaching your baby to self settle:
If your baby can't settle himself to sleep, it will be hard for
him to resettle at the end of a 45 minutes sleep cycle in the day.
So if you are helping your baby fall asleep with feeding or
rocking, for either day sleeps or bedtime, this is a good place to
start working on to improve day sleeps.
Learning to self settle doesn't have to mean
leaving your baby to cry, it just means you need to start a process
where you wean your baby off needing you to fall asleep.
Use very firm wrapping:
This is one of the most effective ways to increase the length of
day sleeps, even if you don't wrap your baby at night. Give it a
try, you may well be surprised and delighted at the effect on your
baby's day sleeping!
Depending on the age of your baby, you may want to wrap with one
or both arms in.
If your baby is interested in using his hands/fingers to soothe
himself, then wrap with one arm out. One arm out is also good if
you want him to be able to hold a comfort blankie or put his dummy
back in.
We recommend using a stretch cotton wrap at least 1.2 x 1.2m .
If you don't yet have a wrap large enough, try wrapping your baby
in a cot sheet.
If you are taking your baby for a walk to help him sleep longer,
we recommend you wrap your baby before putting him in the
pushchair, or SwaddleMe can be bucked into your pushchair
harness.
Use white noise:
Using white noise can be one of the most effective ways to help
both newborns and older babies to sleep longer and resettle during
the day.
With newborns, white noise reminds them of the swooshing and
gurgling noises they heard inside the womb for 9 months. It was
never quiet inside you, so it makes sense that babies find it hard
to settle in a quiet room!
With babies over 4 months, white noise can still be very
effective for helping with settling and longer sleeps. Older
babies can hear that you are outside their room, doing things more
enjoyable than falling asleep, and they may well want to be part of
that! So using white noise can mask distracting sounds and provide
a strong cue that it is sleep time.
Also as babies get older, they are more and more awake and alert
prior to sleep time, and white noise can help with the winding down
needed to fall asleep. (It is also very effective with adults who
find it hard to fall asleep for the same reason!).
Play your white noise at the start of the sleep and on repeat
through the sleep. Play it louder than your baby is crying, so he
can hear it. You can use radio static, vacuum cleaner, dehumidifier
or buy a white noise CD.
You can also use soothing lullaby music for the same effect with
older babies and toddlers. Music for Dreaming is a great choice for
this, and has been developed after considerable research into the
effect of music on baby's sleep.
Dark room
Close your baby's curtains and make his room nice and dark.
Bright light can be stimulating to a baby, and also highlights all
the other fun things there are to do other than sleeping.
Invest in blackout lining on your curtains, or pin a blanket or
black polythene over the windows to see if that helps.
Sleeping bags
Do try wrapping your baby for day sleeps to see if that improves
their day sleep.
But if that has no effect, or you are not keen to try wrapping
again, then definitely use your baby's sleeping bag for all their
day sleeps. It is a strong cue to your baby that it is sleep time,
and also ensures he doesn't kick off the covers.
You can also combine one armed wrapping with a sleeping
bag.
Opportunity to resettle
We recommend that you give your baby the opportunity to resettle
by himself if he wakes at the 45 minutes mark. If you always rush
in as soon as he makes a little noise, he learns he needs you to
help him back to sleep, and he never gets the chance to practice
going back to sleep.
Many babies grizzle or cry for a few minutes as they stir, wake
and resettle back to sleep. This is quite normal and doesn't mean
your baby is upset or ready to get up. For many babies it is jsut
what they do in the middle of their day sleeps.
How long you give your baby to resettle is completely up to you,
how hard your baby is crying and how old they are. However a good
rule of thumb would be to give your baby about 10 minutes to see if
they can go back to sleep.
What happens next
There are a number of options you can use if your baby doesn't
resettle after you have given him 10 minutes opportunity:
Pop his dummy in if he uses one.
Try some sssshing or patting until he has calmed down. Try to then
leave him to fall back to sleep, so he eventually learns he can go
back to sleep.
Leave him swaddled, put him flat in the pushchair, and with his
dummy if you use one, and go for a walk to help him back to
sleep.
Avoiding falling asleep in the car:
With babies over the age of 4 months, we recommend that you
avoid letting your baby fall asleep in the car, as this reinforces
cat napping habits.
For example, your baby may fall asleep 10 minutes before you get
home, and think he has had his sleep. That means he then won't
settle for another sleep in his cot, your routine will get
completely out of whack and you will have a baby that will be
really over-tired later in the day.
I find it works best to either go out after your baby's morning
sleep or to go out early and put baby into his pushchair for his
morning sleep when you get to your destination (wrapped or in
sleeping bag, whatever you do at home).
Routine
If your baby (over 4 months old) is finding it hard to settle
for day sleeps or waking after 45 minutes, we recommend getting
your baby into a structured routine.
This will help your baby's body clock get set to sleep at
certain times, will mean you can plan your day for the best times
to go out and also help you with when to feed & give
solids.
For babies over 12 weeks try sleep times at 9am, 1pm and 4.30pm.
Once your baby of over 9 months, move the day sleeps to 9.30am and
1.30pm.
If you aren't keen to try a structured routine just yet, then
ensure you use the feed/play/sleep, as this will help with
structuring your day, learn when your baby is likely to be tired or
hungry, and also help with learning to self settle.
www.thesleepstore.co.nz
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