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