As a parent of a newborn, you’re definitely grateful for any amount of time that your baby is sleeping, however, when your child is sleeping restlessly or sleeping for only 30 to 45 minutes at a time between wake windows, then there may be another issue at hand. Short naps are very common during the infancy period, so don’t be worried about that! Their little brains are still getting used to putting together the perfect sleep cycle that will help them rejuvenate and stay rested. It is our job to help babies learn to connect these sleep cycles, which occur in 30 to 45 minute intervals which will help them feel better and get more restorative rest. Yes, over time they will be able to connect them by themselves naturally, but do you really want to wait months and months for this to happen on its own, all the while you are only getting 30 to 45 minute nap breaks at a time? In today’s article, we’re going to break down some best practices for helping your baby take longer naps and connect their sleep cycles together.
If you have experience in this area, please sound off in the comments and let us know what has worked or didn’t work for you and your baby. We’d love to hear from you. Also, don’t forget to share this article on your social feed if you think that it may be useful to a friend or family member. Thanks for reading!
How To Help Set Your Baby Up For Success When Napping, Especially When You Feel That Their Naps Are Generally Too Short
There are as many reasons as there are stars in the sky, as to why your baby isn’t sleeping as well or as long as you’d like. We thought we would stick with a few of the most controllable and most common:
- More Food = More Sleep
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- Make sure your baby is getting enough food in, especially right before naps. If not, it’s near impossible for cycles to be linked together naturally.
- Try to top your baby off before putting them down at night as well.
- Many times, if your baby suddenly wakes up without another obvious reason present, it is because they are hungry and their tummy is waking them up to eat.
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- They May Be Overtired
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- If your baby is overtired, then their nap can get cut tragically short as well.
- Make sure their wake window is consistent and isn’t too long before naps.
- If you think they may be overtired, then shorten their wake windows by about a half an hour, at the next nap cycle.
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- They May Be Overstimulated
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- Creating a soothing onboarding routine for your child’s nap can help them recover from stimuli in a noisy or chaotic environment.
- Bring your child to a warm, quiet, dark room about 15 minutes before their scheduled nap time. Hold them or allow some quiet baby led play to help them relax. Playing soothing music or white noise to help get them prepared to try to sleep will also help.
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- Try Holding Them During A Nap
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- Sometimes a child will wake early from a nap because they get startled or too cold or because they can’t feel a parent’s presence. Help your child sleep longer by holding them through their entire nap next time to see if this helps them sleep longer and connect those valuable sleep cycles.
Before You Go
We hope you enjoyed learning about tips for dealing with your baby’s short naps in the first few months. If you would like to know more about this, our sleep programs or any of our excellent newborn care services, we are happy to help. Just contact us and we can go over your options and help you find the best path for your little one. We hope these tips have helped you along your journey. If you have any questions about helping your baby to sleep better, or about your baby in general, please reach out to us HERE. We are experts in all things baby and sleep and would love to help!
If you have questions about your child, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We would love to help. Please reach out to us here! We always look forward to hearing from you.
