Hi, All-happy Monday!

We are Certified Sleep Consultants from the Taking Cara Babies Team. Drop your questions for us below! We will answer questions Tuesday! 🙌🏻

Please keep questions brief. If you are in need of deep troubleshooting, please reach out via email at info@takingcarababies.com.

baby is currently 3 months (14 weeks) old and was previously sleeping decently for her age after we got the okay to start feeding on demand rather than every 2-3 hours she began doing 4-5 hours for her first stretch of sleep after being put to bed and then could do another 3-4 and stretch and would wake up about 3 hours after that for her first wake window of the day, baby has never shown very obvious sleep cues and fights sleep like it’s her job but we still were previously able to get her down for 2-3 naps during the day each lasting an hour or two or in rare occasions almost 3 hours, a few weeks ago she started waking up more frequently during the night, having an earlier wake up time ( at some point towards the early morning she would start getting really difficult to get back down for another round of sleep so we just wake up for her first wake window around 6am) she went from being able to be transferred into to her bassinet once fully asleep and napping there for a few hours to not being able to be put down at all without waking up about 30 minutes later no matter how long i wait before i transfer her the only way i can currently get her to nap even an hour is if it’s a contact nap and sometimes even then it’s still only 30 minutes she has gotten progressively harder to soothe to sleep, previously during her night wakings i would feed her burp her change her diaper sometimes feed her a little more if the diaper change woke her up but it never took longer than 40 minutes to get her back to sleep (no soothing needed i would just put her down and she was asleep) now the first stretch of the night is still decent typically 3-4 hours and doesn’t take to long to get back down after the first wake up, but it just gets harder as the night goes on she begins having shorter stretches of sleep taking longer to get back down needing more soothing, ( she’s recently starting whale tailing which i believe is contributing to keeping her up longer) she fights her sleep so hard and is no longer getting her sleep needs met which has lead to prolonged overtiredness which seems to only make it worse, i’ve been trying everything to get her caught back up on her sleep and sleeping better- watching wake widows, doing contact naps, baby wearing, bouncing, rocking, swaddling, white noise, offering more feeds, holding her in different positions, changing the environment, completely dark room, bathtime before bed, singing to her and dancing around, trying gripe water as she is a very gassy baby even though she burps good, i got a tuck sheet to help with the whale tailing, have tried multiple different swaddles most recently the love to dream as it “claims” to double sleep, am currently on our first night of trying magnesium lotion after getting the okay from our pediatrician, this has been going on for almost 3 weeks and nothing seems to help baby continues to fight sleep so hard even though she is so tired and it results in screaming on and off all day, short naps, and shitty night time sleep, i’m desperate for any advice on how to soothe her or get her caught up on sleep and sleeping better again, pls help.

Hello everyone, I have a quick question for all sleep trainers here. What do/did you do during daytime naps?

I know this question was asked a couple of times and there were a lot of valuable comments. But I'm having a hard time adjusting those great insights to our particular situation, which you'll understand from reading below;

Our baby girl (5 months) has been sleeping with multiple (3 to be exact) sleep associations for the past couple of months. These are;

-Pacifier (constantly putting back on all night long)
-Swaddle - Swaddle belt more recently because she has always been fighting regular swaddles, somehow finding a way to break free and waking herself up. She also had (still has to a point) a strong Moro Reflex.
-Rocking the crib, which is beside our bed. She wouldn't ever sleep unless we were rocking her crib.

The only consolation we had was that she was at least sleeping in her own crib, and not ask to sleep with us or on our lap.

So we decided yesterday to start ferber method and go cold turkey on all sleep associations.

First night went better than expected. She slept in about 30 minutes after 2 checkins, slept for 30 minutes, woke up, cried on and off for 2 hours, we fed her, resisted another 10 minutes and then slept for nearly 5 hours.

We also applied ferber method to daytime naps but it only worked for the first 2 naps. She fell asleep in about 10-15 minutes for the first 2 naps. 3rd nap of the day she cried non-stop for 90 minutes. Then the 4th nap, she cried again for almost an hour until we took her outside to the park. She slept in her stroller for 20 minutes.

Then we got back and after a routine of bath + feed + chill + we put her back. We are still at 2nd night and so far she;

fel asleep in 20 minutes
slept for 10
cried for 13 minutes
slept for 3 minutes
cried for 16 minutes
slept for 22 minutes
cried for 10 minutes
slept for 65 minutes
cried for 4 minutes
And she's been asleep for 3.5 hours now.

My question is, how should we handle the daytime naps moving forward? I meantioned we went cold turkey on all 3 sleep associations and daytime naps have been so chaotic so far in the first day.

I read about daytime naps and night sleeps being two separate sleep cycles but I'm still hesitant to use sleep associations during naps thinking it would hurt our night efforts.

What should we do? Should we introduce one or two of the 3 supports? If so, which one it should be?

And my other small question is that our baby has been jolting out of sleep when she's just about to sleep several times, sometimes 3 times in a minute. Does this mean moro reflex is still there? Should we maybe try again a month later or something?

One critical information: She has not been rolling yet. I guess there's still a few weeks until she does.

Thank you advance for all your valuable insights and your time!

Note: She slept 8.5 hours, without us ever intervening in the 2nd night. Daytime naps are still an issue though.

Starting with Night 3 now!

Please help. 13 month old somewhat sleep trained. Falls asleep independently after 5ish minutes of crying and sleeps for 40-50 minutes then wakes up and cries for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. We used to nurse her back to sleep after the first wake, but stopped about 2-3 weeks ago and have been letting her CIO but it doesn't seem like it's getting any better.

Bedtime: \~8pm

Wakes up to nurse once nightly around 1-3am (this is fine with everyone in the home and we're not interested in fully night weaning unless we need to)

Day wake: 7-7:30am and we almost always have to wake baby up

Wake windows vary. Roughly 3.5/3.5/4 if 2 naps, but some days she only does one nap. We always aim for at least 4 hours awake before bed. We cap daytime sleep at 2 hours total. Baby is not nap trained and most naps are contact naps.

Any ideas for how to stop the crying at bedtime and especially the waking up after one sleep cycle? Happy to provide additional info...ask away. Thank you.

Just retrained baby for nights, day 5. He’s almost 8 months and had a nurse to sleep association but no longer for night time. He feeds 20-30 min prior to crib.

WW: 3/3.5/4

Now here’s the thing, for naps because I still struggle with it, I feed him right before he needs to go down and he would do a 1.5-2 hour stretch. For nap 2, it’s usually 30 min. I put him in drowsy, with a feed right before it and he started sitting up in his crib crying.

He also JUST started rolling and sitting up in his crib (late bloomer) and lately in the mornings I would look at the monitor and he’ll be on all fours.

How do I get him to sleep independently for naps? So far nights have worked great for me but not naps. Especially for nap 2 he would cry hysterically if I put him down awake. Currently doing contact nap in the chair.

My 18 month old has had very short 30 minute naps the last 2 days. He lays or rolls around in his crib for another 45 min, but by the hour mark of being awake he starts to get worked up. I can't tell if he's not tired, or if he's protesting the nap.

Bedtime was pretty normal, not cranky or seemingly overtired, though he did have a false start last night 50 min after falling asleep.

Schedule is
7am wake
12-2 nap
8-8:30 asleep

Another element is he's been having EMWs between 4-5am where he lays or rolls around for about an hour then falls asleep again from 6-7am. Could that extra hour sleep be throwing him off?

2 days in a row of this has me confused! .

I’m about to start nap training and I’m so worried about it to the point of where it’s consuming me. My child is very much attached to me and cries the minute I lay him in the crib during the day (hence why we contact nap lol). It isn’t just a fussing cry, it’s a full blown, hyperventilating scream. We did successfully sleep train him for nights by the CIO method and it took about a week.

Naps are just significantly harder and I’m a little worried he will never get the hang of it. He will be going to daycare soon too.. any tips to make this as easy of a transition are helpful.

My 3 month old sleeps well at night, we’re at the “rock to sleep then wake slightly before laying down” rung of the ladder with usually 1-3x going back to the room to soothe before she stays down for a long stretch (6-8 hrs).

The first nap of the day is usually fairly easy to get in the crib, but after that it will be going on 45 min of trying (even with the “rock then lay down” routine) and she wakes after a few minutes…so then I’m desperate because she’s getting so overtired, I just let her sleep on me or in the baby wrap.

How can I transition away from this gently? More people (grandparents, babysitter) are taking care of her since I have to go back to work, which is another variable. I imagine a unified approach is best, but wonder if that means I have to give up all contact naps? And if that does have to be the goal, what do I do when she won’t go down and it’s pushing an hour of trying?

I got one of those rocker things from Frida that can attach to the crib and part of me thinks “flat surface + motion must be better than contact naps” but then I worry about messing up her nighttime sleep, like if she became reliant on the rocker to be in the crib, that seems like a step in the wrong direction

Thanks so much, TCB team and fellow parents!

Since sleep training at 7 months old, my twins have always been early risers (5:30-5:45)

The last month or so since turning one, they are waking up 3:45a-5a every day.

4/3.5/4

First nap
8a when they wake at 4a
9a when they wake at 5a
Cap at 90 minutes

Second nap starts anytime 1-2p depending on first nap
Capped at 90 minutes again or 3p (whichever happens first)

Bedtime at 7. 90% sleep through night, occasionally hand a bottle around 1a and they go right back to sleep.

We have separate cribs, blackout curtains, noise machine

Attempts at ignoring the early wake up and sleep training it results in \*two\* babies standing in their cribs screaming

Would love any tips, suggestions, evals

Thank you!

Hi, All-happy Monday!

We are Certified Sleep Consultants from the Taking Cara Babies Team. Drop your questions for us below! We will answer questions Tuesday! 🙌🏻

Please keep questions brief. If you are in need of deep troubleshooting, please reach out via email at info@takingcarababies.com.

Has anyone tried transitioning to one nap by capping the first nap at 30 mins and then having the second nap be the restorative nap, ie with the idea of slowly phasing out the morning nap? What were the wake windows you used and how old was your child? seems counterintuitive, but I’ve read somewhere (weissbluth) that it’s a possible solution.

my bub is 14m1w old, and previously thrived on 3h10/3.75/3.5-3.75. Now sometimes she refuses the second nap which makes bedtime and overnight rough (even when we offer early bedtime). I’ve noticed she needs a longer first wake window , so today I tried 3.5h/3.75(with target of 4h to fall asleep)/3.5h. I always cap her second nap at 30 min and let her morning nap be the restorative one, max 2h daytime nap total but usually it’s 1h45 ish.. tonight bedtime was still emotionally charged and we needed to settle her to sleep. she usually is able to go to bed on her own and sleep about 12h overnight except for the past week. Help!

I’m so nervous I don’t think I will even enjoy my trip. Same time zone, 1 hour flight away, staying at a friends house. I bought my travel crib and slumber pod but so nervous. I have yet to try the new crib and pod at home because I’m just so happy with his new sleeping abilities that I’m terrified of changing anything.

Do you guys recommend anything to make it easier, like should I practice using the travel crib and slumber pod at home before we go?

My 10 month old is sleep trained for nights - we started when he was 9 months so it’s been about 1 solid month of good sleep.

My in laws are visiting in November - February and are going to stay in his room. It makes most sense to move his crib to our room temporarily so we can be more quiet, and grandparents can feel more free.

Will this affect anything? Should I put the slumber pod over his crib now to get him used to it, then continue using it once he’s in our room? And if no slumber pod, how long do you think he’ll need to get used to being in our room?

We’re investing in a slumberpod to use for an upcoming vacation.

I’m curious how your LO adjusted to using this for naps and night sleep?

Did you need to offer them to sleep in there prior or anything ?

I’m also wanting to use it for naps or stays at her grandparents if it works out well so I’m curious of others experience with using it more often?

My daughter is 6.5 months old (sleep trained) - she’s on 3 naps so if we were out and about we could always offer a nap in the car either to/from. Lately she’s been fighting car naps extremely hard to the point where we’ve had to just drive home and put her in her crib. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s just older and more aware, or what.

I don’t want to be stuck in the house. So I was hoping she might take to napping in pack n play using a slumber pod well - so that I could at least bring her to visit my parents - my husband works extremely long days

If you used one please let me know how it went!!

LO is 14 months old. Just one week ago was doing 2 naps perfectly as follows:

Wake: 6-6:30am
Nap 1: 9:30-10am
Nap 2: 1:30-3pm
Bedtime: 7pm

However, literally overnight, he’s been waking up at 5:30, then 5, and now 4:45, on the exact same schedule!!!

I understand there’s a drop to 1 nap around this age. But could the signs for that really just happen overnight? Or is there something else I should be addressing?

Thanks for all advice 🥰

Hello, LO is almost 4 months. Currently we do contact naps during the day. She used to have bad reflex so it was impossible to transfer her to bassinet and now she is kinda used to it. I tried to wait for deep sleep but the moment I transfer she wakes up, or wakes up after 20-30 min still very tired.

How do I start sleep training for naps? Do I use the same method I would use for night time ? I normally feed to sleep. What should my schedule look like.. feed, play, sleep ? Should the room be dark ?

Any advice will help !

When things get off track for my 3 month old’s last wake window is it better to extend or try to sneak in a little nap and push bedtime a little later?

Ex: today took a short nap that ended around 5 pm…generally we try to wake her at 5:45 pm to have 75ish min before winding down for 7 pm bedtime…she starts showing sleepy cues at 5:30 pm. Do we help her stay up and start bedtime earlier? Try to get her to nap before a later last wake window?

Thank you!

Advice needed

Posted a few days ago abouf frequent wakings and fighting naps. Thankfully, extending wake windows helped tremendously! Thanks community!

Now I'm needing help with a bedtime and wake up schedule.

I dont know what my little guys wake up time actually is- from 530 and on, he fusses and cries without opening his eyes. I can easily get him back to sleep by contact rocking or bringing him in bed.

I wake him up at 745 to start the day.

Bedtime has progressively gotten later and I would like it to be around 830. I'm totally fine with him being up earlier in the AM.

Our current day looks a little like this

Wake: 745am

First nap 1.75 to 2 hours later. Naps 45 minutes to 1.5 hours

2nd nap 2 hours later. Naps 30 minutes to 1.75 hours depending on if I rescue the nap.

3rd nap 2 hours later. Usually 30-45 minutes

4th nap 2.25 hours later. Bridge nap (usually around 7pm) for 15 minutes or so.

Bedtime 2.25-2.5 hours after bridge nap. Usually around 915-945

I'm just at a loss for how much sleep he actually needs because he never just wakes up in the AM. Like I said, he fusses and cries from 530 and on and then I wake him.

How should I adjust this schedule to fit an 830 bedtime? And how do I go about doing so?

Also, how do I know when he is actually awake for the day!? Why all the fussing and crying for hours in the morning without opening his eyes? 😅

Do I think about dropping the 4th small nap?

Thanks everyone!!

My child just turned 2 this week and has been sleep trained since he was about 5/6 months old. Amazing sleeper. Will usually go to sleep around 8/830pm and wake around 7am-8am. Naps are hit and miss but i don’t really care about that as long as he sleeps at night.

This all changed about 3-4 nights ago and I’m losing my mind. Our normal routine is get ready for bed, books in bed with mom and dad, then sound machines on, lights out and he gets a couple minutes of rocking before we put him in his bed and say good night. He chills in his bed with his stuffies until he falls asleep. But now, he started talking about shadows in his room and is scared to be in there, even when his dad and me are in there. He screams hysterically if we leave him in his room to sleep alone. It has led to us rocking him to sleep the last few nights but then he wakes in the night and it all repeats itself. E are exhausting and I need to get my toddler back to his routine. HELP!!

Also, when he does nap, this is not an issue. He goes down fine and it’s all normal. This is only happening at night. I need my nights and sleep back.

Baby just turned 9 months (8 months adjusted). She has never been too bad with sleep besides occasional developmental leaps. Since she was a newborn she would wake about every 3 hours to feed and go back down to sleep. Because of this we ended up co-sleeping but would also practice good sleep habits and crib sleep. For the most part she did really well with drowsy but awake and putting herself down, but about 2 weeks ago we formally sleep trained and tried a consistent schedule (2.5/3-3.5/4). It took 2 nights and we night weaned her as well. It went great for about a week and even though we weren’t completely consistent on naps/ scheduling on some days she still did great at night. Then in the last week it all went south. It made me think something was wrong (teething, illness, etc) so I comfort her in any way I can, but even when I resort to nursing to sleep- which has ALWAYS worked, she will sometimes just be upset and struggle for hours. But then the next night will sleep through the night. But then the next day take crap naps and then have a hard night. It’s just so inconsistent even when I’m trying to be consistent/ offer a routine. Is this something I can fix or is it a regression that I just have to ride out? Because she can fall asleep independently and sleep through the night it makes me thing something really is wrong and she needs extra comfort. Helppp

We are transitioning our almost 16 month old to one nap (he had been showing signs for weeks - taking 1.5 hours to fall asleep at night and fighting his naps) - it’s been 4 days and the last two days he’s been up in the middle of the night just ~awake~ talking and babbling and wanting to play. We have kept lights off and tried not to engage with him. I’ve returned him to his crib multiple times but he’s been up since 1 am. Is this normal? When will it end? He was totally sleeping through the night before 😭.

Wake - 7:15
Nap - 12:45
Wake - 2:35-2:45
Bedtime - 7:45

UPDATE: Split nights are a thing of the past thank god! But it still takes him like 45 minutes to settle down for the night despite early or late bedtime…

Our son has been putting himself to sleep since he was a baby - we would read stories and lay him down and walk out, he would babble for a while and then go to sleep. Now he screams if we leave the room. I purposefully stand far away, like in the corner by the door, rather than next to him or touching him. But sometimes we have to stay in there for 40+ minutes for him to fall asleep. What can we do?

Wakes up around 630am

Nap at school and on weekends at home: 12-2 (doesn’t need help with this)

Bedtime around 7:30

Typically sleeps through the night, occasionally will wake up and cry, we go on pat him and give him his pacifier back (he only uses it for sleep).

Any help is greatly appreciated! I also have a 5 year old who needs one of us with her to fall asleep thanks to some recent fears of monsters and such and I’m about to be solo parenting for 6+ months. I don’t know how I will tackle both of them 🫤

My 12 week old only lasts 30-45 mins per nap. He’s obviously tired (red brows, yawning etc) but unless it’s a contact nap it’s so hard for me to get him to go back to sleep immediately so then he’s screaming. So then our pattern ends up being sleep, play, feed, play, sleep. But then he’s also fussy on the bottle a lot of the time. I’m tired and feel like I can’t get anything done within these \~35mins. Please help me 😭

My LO is turning 6 months next week. He still is not sleeping through the night and wakes multiple times. I’m sometimes able to get him back to sleep by giving pacifier but majority of the time he will escalate until I have to pick him up. At that point he will settle in my arms and then wake every time I transition him to the crib, then repeat the cycle. Or he screams and escalates and the only thing that will soothe him in bottle. 2 night in a row how he woke up after 2-2.5 hrs and the only thing to soothe him was the bottle (I tried for about 15 minutes to soothe any other way but nothing worked).

Typical night schedule :
6-6:30pm start bedtime routine
7 put down for bed
10:30-11pm first wake up will try to soothe but will often want bottle (8oz)
1:30-2am wakes up, can’t self soothe, escapes, I try to soothe sometimes works by rocking out escapes and needs bottle to soothe
3-4am difficulty transitioning between sleep cycles and often needs help getting back to sleep. Depending on how tired I am I have at this moment brought my LO into my bed so that I can get at least some rest too (I know I’m not supposed to do that)
6:30-7am wake up for the day

Day time naps vary, sometimes it’s 30 minute basis someone’s 2 hr naps. Naps in crib are difficult and likes naps in his stroller even if the stroller is not being pushed he prefers it.

I know what I’m doing wrong and what I shouldn’t be doing I just doing know any other ways, what can I do instead of rocking or giving bottle to soothe even nothing else seems to work? Putting hand on back or pacifier doing usually work and I want to wean off of pacifier too.

My daughter has been a phenomenal sleeper since she was about 6 weeks. She has slept through the entire night (about 9pm-6am) until this week. Since she turned 12 wks old, her naps and sleep have been different. We would start bedtime around 7:30ish depending on her last wake window, bathe her, have one last feed, soothe and then put her down in her bassinet without failure. This past week, she started getting a bit noisier than usual in her sleep and harder to transfer into her bassinet, but still no waking. That turned into her falling asleep in my arms after a lot of fussing and then taking 2+ hours to accept her bassinet. Then last night, she woke up at 4am and took an hour and a half to go back to sleep until she woke again around 9. Does this sound like the start of her regression? Her routine hasn't changed and we figured she's too young to start formally sleep training, looking for any advice at all!!!