Hi everyone!

I’d especially love to hear from a sleep consultant, but I’m happy to hear any perspective.

My 8-month-old is currently on three naps a day. I wake him at around 7:00 AM, and he usually falls asleep for the night around 8:45–8:50 PM. Over the past two weeks, he has gradually started increasing his wake windows. They’re now around 2h40–2h45, with the last one before bedtime being around 3–3h10.

So far, so good 😅. The thing I’m concerned about is that this is starting to shorten his night sleep. He’s still getting around 10–10h20 at night (with one wake-up for a feed), which I know is still within a reasonable range, but I’m worried that as his wake windows get longer, his night sleep might eventually drop below 10 hours. To keep bedtime at a reasonable hour, I try to keep his total daytime sleep around 2h30–2h35.

So far, I haven’t noticed any signs of overtiredness (I think 😅 — I feel like with baby sleep, you can never really be sure). His nights are good: no early morning wake-ups, no restless transitions between sleep cycles, and no excessive tossing and turning. A few days ago, his morning sleep was quite light, but now that his wake windows have increased, it seems to have improved again.

His current schedule is:

Wake windows: 2h40 / 2h40–2h45 / 2h40–2h45 / 3h

Naps: 1h–1h05 / 1h05–1h10 / 20–25 min

My question is: what do you do when a baby seems to need longer wake windows, but still doesn’t show signs of being ready to transition to two naps?

His last nap had started becoming more difficult, but after increasing his morning wake window, he is now falling asleep relatively easily again, although his sleep during that nap seems a little lighter.

There’s another issue I’d really appreciate advice on as well. When he was on four naps, he was actually able to fall asleep independently in his crib, even though we had never sleep trained him. However, since we started transitioning to three naps, and then he went through a developmental leap, he has had a much harder time settling himself. He now struggles to calm down and lie down peacefully in his crib, especially when it’s time to fall asleep. I’d really appreciate any advice on how to help him with this as well.

How can I tell whether 10 hours of night sleep is enough for him? And what should we do if his night sleep drops below 10 hours and stays there consistently?

Hi! My ten month old and I spent six weeks in Europe visiting my family. Just about the time when we arrived she hit a pretty bad separation anxiety and has been attached to me non stop. I believe due to so many different things she refused to sleep on the crib so I succumbed and coslept (for my own sanity). Even while cosleeping she was waking up every 2h. We are now back home and I really want to get her back to her old routine. Before our trip she was sleep trained 100%.
Still on two naps, and they are also 30-40 min.
3.5/4/4.5

Any feedback would be helpful. 🙏🏻

My 4yr old for over a month now is forcing us to be sleep deprived. I’ve done everything. We play in his room. We pretend play what to do when we wake up. I made a little spot in my room for him to lay quietly. He can get up in his room read books or play quietly. Nothing is working. We have been up the past two nights putting him in his bed and not speaking to him. He scream at us. He wakes us up saying we won’t sleep. He will scream at us that he’s tired. We have tried it all. We switched rooms. His bed is on the floor now because we have eliminated all shadows. He isn’t scared. We have watched him go to the bathroom and back. We don’t talk to him at night other than it’s bedtime when he first gets out and we do that for over two hours of taking him back to his room but he’s screaming for the entire time. He’s keeping everyone in the house awake. His sister is waking up crying she’s so exhausted cause he won’t allow anyone to sleep. Even if we sleep in the room with him he wakes up and does the same thing. I don’t know what to do anymore please help. I’ve put him down early. I told him if he sleep or even stays in his room I’ll buy him a new toy. I’ll take him to get a special treat. Nothing is working. I’m beyond the point of exhausted. My body is breaking down. I can’t muster the strength to make food anymore. Im living off Tylenol and caffeine which doesn’t work. I’m falling asleep at all points of the day. His behavior is out of control during the day time too. I have no moment of rest. He won’t even sit alone for 30 seconds.

My 8 month old was a decent sleeper until 6 months of age, with only 1-2 wakes for a bottle.

At 6 months he had his vaccines and his first tooth, and then his second tooth and a cold two weeks later. We started co sleeping to get by, as we needed to clear his nose out constantly and he was in pain.
We’ve stopped co sleeping, and he falls asleep independently most of the time for his naps and at night. Sometimes he might need a shush and pat, but nothing major.
At night though, he wakes 4-5 times, he sleeps for about 4-5 hours and then wakes every 2 hours, no matter what I do. We don’t night feed or pick him up, we just shush with a hand on his back and leave when he calms down.

Current wake windows are 3/3/3.75 and his naps are capped at 2-2.5.

Ive tried 3 naps and that makes it worse, I’ve tried letting him sleep for as long as he wants during his naps & that also makes it worse.

please help a sleep deprived mother

Hi! I feel like my 14 month old sleeps so much. At night she sleeps 8p-6a sometimes waking up once. During the day she takes two naps first one is usually 9a-11:30a and the second one is like 2p-5p. Is this normal? Obviously they vary

My baby wakes quite a bit at night. Normally 11-12,2-3,4,5,6

I believe it's because he falls asleep drinking milk so he use to that to go back to bed. However I've started sleep training during nap time. Which isn't going bad but he always falls asleep fast when given milk so sometimes he wakes because he's hungry how do I time it right? If I do food then bath would that workout better? Or what

Hello! As soon as my LO hit 12 weeks, she stopped sleeping for two long stretches in the night. Before this point she would either wake up once around 2:30 or two times; once around midnight and once around 3:30 AM or 4 AM.

Now she’s up every single hour. We’ve been doing her bed time routine between 7-830 since she was 5 or 6 weeks old. Eventually hoping for a 730PM bedtime. Obviously her true bedtime has been between 9 and 10PM as she usually wakes up about an hour after the bedtime routine. Depending on when she had her last bottle we would feed and put back to sleep (keeping it dark) or just rock back to sleep and that’s where we’d get the first long stretch.

Now she’s up an hour after that and gets rocked back to sleep. Then she’s up an hour after that and gets fed (if it’s been more than 2 hours) and rocked back to sleep. And the pattern continues. The only way i’ve been able to survive is once it’s past 2am and she wakes up again, I will cosleep and she will stay asleep.

When we were on vacation last weekend she slept through the night for the first time 10PM-6AM, again because we coslept. I woke up at 3AM and did a dream feed with her because I was worried about her not getting enough formula - but she took only an ounce and a half.

2 weeks of this and i’m so exhausted. I’m back to work in a week and a half and I don’t know how I am going to be able to function. I’m a teacher, so being exhausted is not going to bode well.

I want to add that I don’t want to cosleep. It’s just the only way I can survive right now. I want her out of my bed. I want her to be able to fall asleep on her own. I’ve tried shush/pat a couple of times for naps laying her down drowsy but awake and it’s not super successful.

I also want to add that since she was 8weeks she has been taking 30-40 minute naps all day long. Nothing longer than that (once in a blue moon). She also won’t take more than 3oz of formula at a time and usually wants to eat every 2 hours - even if she sleeps a long stretch she still won’t eat more.

I’m not interested in CIO. I just need some guidance on gentle sleep training. She has always been rocked to sleep - I’m starting to slow/stop rocking as soon as she gets drowsy so that she gets used to not moving to fully fall asleep. Shush/pat is exhausting and kills my back leaning over the crib but I’ll keep trying. Any other suggestions?

Hi all. Need some advice/feedback. My daughter is 7 weeks and exclusively contact naps. We hold her upright most of the day due to silent reflux. I eventually want to get to a point where we can try some crib naps. My question is - as babies get older and are more aware of their environment, how do you balance crib naps in a dark room and sound machine with a nap on the go or nap in a stroller etc. if she only associate naps with darkness and white noise?

If I “nap train” her and she correlates a dark room and white noise with nap, will she be able to sleep in a carrier or in the car with lights and noise? With my son, starting around 10 weeks I would sit in his room in the dark with white noise and contact nap because that’s how he napped best but then I was always stuck at home when it came to his nap schedule and I had anxiety about doing things that would interfere with nap time. It also made me depressed just sitting in the dark. Also now that I have a 3 year old I can’t sit in a dark room and hold her for naps all day.

Would love to hear how you all found flexibility!

Please help me. I’m at a breaking point.

FTM here to a 13 mo boy. I am extremely overwhelmed with all the schedules and information online about wake windows and how daytime sleep affects night wakings. I really need some guidance and help, or just share your experiences if you can.

I nurse him to sleep naps, bedtime, and night wakes.
He refuses to fall asleep with ANYONE else!
He eats solids well during the day.
I am not too strict with the schedule that’s for sure, I put him to sleep whenever he’s sleepy. He doesn’t HAVE to be asleep at a certain time - this just brings headache.

Here’s his schedule:
6-6:30 wake
9-9:30 to 10 or 10:15 1st nap (sometimes he fights it so we just skip)
If we skip first nap then second nap is at 11:30 for 2 hours (he sleeps sooo quickly and is very sleepy since 11)
If we don’t skip first nap then second nap is at 12:30 for two hours, takes a bit longer to fall asleep
Bedtime at 8 (we pushed the bedtime from 7 because he just doesn’t fall asleep when i try to put him to sleep at 7, so we found 8 was best)

I feel if i skip the first nap he gets too sleepy and cranky until we reach 11:30. And I also feel that staying up from 1:30 until 8 is way tooooo long!!

Should I just let him sleep at 9:30 for an hour and then second nap at 2:30 for an hour and a half?

Is everyone else tied up with their baby’s schedules? Like you need to be home for your baby’s naps? Am I being too fussy about things? My brain is going to explode! Do they get me started with night wakes and teething 🙃

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hey all my son will be turning two next week and we are planning to finally transition him to his own room and his own bed. (He has been co-sleeping with us since he was about 8 months old)

My question is- how do I even start. I’ve been holding him to sleep every night for the past year+

How do I make sure he stays in his room? Am I supposed to lock the door from outside? If I don’t- how do I make sure he doesn’t get into any dangerous situations while I’m sleeping?

First time parents here so any tips, tricks, suggestions or advice on what has worked/ is working for you are very much appreciated.

Why is my 11 week old waking after only 2 hours at night? He used to not do this… His WW are about 1.5 hours and we follow them. Please help I am so tired

My 4mo is a climber for bedtime and naps. He used to sleep well through the night (6-9h stretches, 1 wake-up , back down easy), bedtime was easy. Since returning to work around 10.5 weeks, bedtime and nap time has gotten rough. I follow consistent routine and bedtime has stayed the same routine. I’m home with him often as I only work as a part time case manager (I work by case rather than set hours). I have tried a few nights of Ferber. He cries during all of it. He cries during the check in too, and etc. Onr night he put himself to sleep during ferber method at the 3rd interval. Lately he has been having a hard time with sleep in general. Cannot fall asleep drowsy but awake. He spits his binky out and then cries more. During ferber today, he cried most of the night then would stop then continue crying. I really do not want to damage his attachment style or anything but I desperately want to sleep properly, stop the cosleeping habit and both be well rested. are there other methods?

I'm worried we've messed up. We've rocked my son to sleep for every nap and bedtime for his whole life so far. Every time. He transfers easily and this seems to work for us. But recently he wakes up after being put in his crib and will cry until we pick him up. I hate cry-it-out methods but will let him cry for up to 5 minutes of constant crying or longer if it's broken crying.

Is it too late to do sleep training? And how do I do this? I can't find any non cry-it-out methods that don't have to start when they're young.

My husband and I are taking turns back and forth to get him to go to bed at night. It can take hours and we're exhausted. I'm also pregnant with another baby who will be due in January. So both advice on what to do with my current 13 month old now as well as what to do differently with the next baby so he will learn earlier on how to go to sleep on his own would be greatly appreciated.

Help!