Putting Your Baby on a Sleep Schedule
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Integrating Naptime into your Routine
Once you get your bedtime routine down, anything else will seem like a piece of cake. And there comes a time when Mommy realizes that she needs a little break during the day, and baby needs a nap!
Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until Brayden was about 5 or 6 months old. Prior to that, he would take a few little 15 minute cat naps in his swing or while I held him. Based on my own experience, I’d recommend implementing naptimes prior to the age of 5 or 6 months, but if you wait, don’t fret! It can still be done!
So how do you do it? Brayden is a one-nap kind of baby. He always has been. Once I made up my mind that naptime was a necessity, I devised a plan of action. Everyday, after his lunch I would take him to his room, and in order to differentiate naptime from bedtime, I would give him a soft bear, and turn his mobile on (neither of which he gets at night). I would do the same routine if he cried as I do with bedtime – go in, comfort, lay back down. Within a couple of days he was falling asleep before his mobile cycled through and turned off.
Takeaways
Consistency is key when you are implementing a new schedule. Once you have a good foundation, and your baby knows what to expect, you’ll both feel a sense of security. It also will make for a much easier time if Grandma or Grandpa will be keeping baby – they can follow your same routine.
Of course, there will be times when you travel or your schedule is thrown off for whatever reason. Just do your best to make sure your baby still has a sense of familiarity. When we travel, I make sure to take Brayden’s stuffed bear that he naps with. When I lay him down, he associates the bear with naptime, and generally doesn’t have a problem going to sleep. Now that we give him a blanket at bedtime, I take that with us as well, and he knows that means it’s time to go to bed.
The biggest piece of advice I can give you is that what works for one baby doesn’t always work for another. You have to find out what works for your child and adjust the schedule to fit their needs. All babies thrive on routine, so give them a routine that works for your family! The first few days or weeks might be difficult, but the payoff is worth it!
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Just gotta try this Creamy Avocado Dip recipe via Momables.com - love how you can spread it on a sandwich in lieu of Mayo! 
Comment by Kendall on Mar 24 2010 12:24:23:
Great article! I love how you emphasize that what works for one may not work for all.
I have three children, my youngest is just a tad over 3 months and we’re about to instill a naptime routine. I’ve been watching her over the past few days to see if a schedule emerges and while I’m not too fond of the one that is, I can work with it to suit my needs.
She already has a bedtime routine, we implement that starting on the day the baby comes home from the hospital. Right now, it’s not a problem getting her to go to sleep at night and most of the time it’s not a problem for naps either. I just need regular napping times instead of hit or miss.
Comment by Laura on Mar 26 2010 01:13:58:
The best advice I ever got came from two sources – my mom and my OB. When my first was about a week old, I was in for a check up, said something about trying to figure out what I was doing, and my OB said, “What you’ve got to know is that babies are much better at training their parents than parents are at training babies.”
Wow! What a true statement. I realized at that moment that I could get her to do what I wanted even then – all I had to do was show her what that was.
When she was almost a month old, I called my mom and held the phone up in my daughter’s room so that my mom could hear her crying. I wanted to know if her crying was normal and how long I should let her cry before picking her up. My mom assured me that she was just fussing a little, not really crying. Then she said, “Look, as long as she’s been fed, been burped, and has a clean diaper, she should be able to go to sleep. So let her fuss a little (up to 45 min) until she does. If she cries so hard that she sounds like she’s making herself sick, pick her up.”
I followed these two pearls of wisdom closely. When both my children were still newborns, I determined that no particular nap was inviolable – except in extreme cases. In other words, when I thought it was time for them to sleep (based on their cues and time of day, etc.), I would lay my infants down for naps in the living room, with the TV going, visitors over, or vacuum running unless they were sick or just really needed a sound sleep for some reason. I didn’t hesitate to fiddle with them when they were sleeping, either. When I started putting them down in their rooms, I would quietly go in to put away laundry or toys. They both learned to sleep when I put them down, not freak out if they are still awake and see me, and to go back to sleep if I have to get them out of bed to change a diaper or something.
Now don’t get me wrong: I know that I have exceptional sleepers. They come by that honestly. Both kids took 2-hour morning and afternoon naps as babies, and I expect that my son will continue until he’s 18 months old, just like his big sister did.
But what happens when the routine needs to change? My mom gave me another helpful insight for that. For adults, changing, breaking or developing a habit takes 21 days. For babies, it generally takes only 3 to 4. So when it was obvious that my daughter no longer needed 2 naps, I decided what I wanted her new nap time to be and adjusted her schedule over the course of a week. The first couple of days I made mistakes, but by the end of the week, she was down to one nap, reliably an hour and 15 minutes.
All this is to say that you don’t have to be at the mercy of your baby’s whims! Your the adult – take charge and set the tone for how you want your life to be, while considering your child’s needs. Your baby can learn the schedule you set for him easier than you can learn the one he will set for himself. Granted there are exceptions to this rule, but that’s what they are – exceptions. Odds are your kid is not.
Comment by Sarah Martin on Mar 29 2010 01:24:15:
Great article! I love all the tips…so practical but I can see where you might take some of this stuff for granted and forget to do it and/or not stick with it. Here’s hoping I can! Thanks for sharing!
Comment by Wyn on Jan 30 2011 12:35:46:
Great advice! I am pregnant with my 3rd–finally a son! My girls (5&12) are very independent. So independent that I feel as if I am a new mom. I can’t remember how anything was accomplished. One of my great concerns is sleep. I need atleast 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep in order to function. I really needed your post to jog my new parent memory. Thank you!
Comment by Deanna Marie Martin Santos on Mar 15 2012 08:46:14:
I found that giving my baby a bath before bed each night gets him good and sleepy and ready for bed! -Resident Mom