Nap *schedules*

[Strong Mama]

Are they really necessary? I do not have one for my 4 month old twins. They sleep when they want, where they want, for how long they want. Sometimes, this is not good because they will not get enough naptime in and by 5pm are super cranky. They go to bed at 7pm and wake at about 7am. They do not wake up in the night at all, so thats good. But they usually only nap about 30 mins at a time randomly during the day at various times. I read so much about nap routines, I am starting to wonder should I do one? If so, what would it look like for 4 month olds? Thanks!

[osker]

Do they sleep at the same time?  How are their attitudes? How's your attitude? Do you have help and a break at any time during the day?

I would say that if you're feeling like something should change, maybe it should.. If not, no worries. There's nothing that says that they have to be on a schedule.. but you don't want to be overtired and cranky yourself, so you'll want to keep an eye on that.

 It seemed that, for us, we could tell when something wasn't work and needed to change. Until it NEEDS to change, don't worry about it.

[expat-mama]

My LO didn't have a real schedule until about 3 months- this was just due to my utter cluelessness about everything until then! But I found that he started to set his very own rigid schedule and when I followed it he was sooooo much happier! And I could plan out my day more. I was not really the schedule type AT ALL before my DS- now we have set times for EVERYTHING and it works so well. I do now believe that most kids really do thrive with set schedules and routines- I definitely saw evidence of this as a teacher and now I know it to be true with my son too.

Especially now that he is older it is so easy for me to get him ready to do the things that we normally do at certain times of the day- time to go to the park, time to brush teeth, time to read stories, snack time etc. He often knows what comes next and I think it is comforting for him.

Your little ones are still  young, but just from my own experience I say try to follow their lead and see if they set a schedule for naps and alert/play times- you may find it really helpful!

At 4 months, they should still be napping every 2-3 hrs. My boy was really consistent with needing to nap after about 2.5 hrs of awake time at that age and maybe a little longer awake time before bed. I loved the mornings when he was that age- he would wake up and be really cuddly and we'd read and nurse in bed and we'd go back to sleep after about an hour or 1.5 hrs. Then his every 2.5 hrs naps would start after that.

FWIW, my LO didn't often nap for longer than 40 mins until he was 6-7 months old. Rarely, he would go down for maybe an hour- that was his longest nap. Now naptimes are GREAT- he goes down by himself for 1.5 hours twice a day like clockwork!

[Ola_]

My DD is almost 3 months old.  We didn't do many naps during the day at first and I think it really contributed to the crankiness we saw at times.  Now she seems to have an every-3-hrs feeding schedule most of the time and I try to get her to nap in each of those 3 hr cycles if I can.  Usually she'll eat, hang out on her play mat while I grab some food or fold some laundry beside her, and eventually she'll get fussy and that's my cue to try and get her to fall asleep.  If we get 2 hrs into our 3 hr cycle and she hasn't napped yet I'll rock her or walk around with her a bit to see if she'll sleep - she usually does but not always.  This seems to keep her much more content throughout the day I've found.  Her naps aren't very long, 30-45 min usually.

So I guess I'd call that more of a routine than a schedule.  It helps that she only fusses when she's hungry or tired, makes it easier for me to figure out.

[gemasita]

My DS is 4 months old and he usually wakes around 9am, naps from 10:30-12 or 11-12:30, then again from 2-4 or 2:30-4:30. He also take a cat nap on my lap from around 6-6:30.  Bedtime is 8:30 - 9.  I read the No Cry Nap Solution and one thing I took from it is to get to know your babies' signs of tiredness (for my baby, it's yawning, rubbing his eyes, and fussiness) and to put them down for a nap RIGHT when you see this.  DS does do better when I put him down right away and don't wait, except to change his diaper if I haven't already but I usually change it ahead of time since he's fairly predictable.  He does worse when I stall.  When it's time for a nap, we have a little routine:  swaddle, close the blinds, turn on the white noise and the same music, and put him in the swing.  Granted, this is what is working right NOW...no telling how long it will last!

In the NCSS, she says babies 4 months old are usually only going 2-3 hours awake before they need to nap again.  For DS, that is definitely true.  It's sometimes even less 1:5 - 2 hours.  I pay more attention to when he woke up than to the clock.  Then I count forward 1.5 - 2 hours.  I don't make him sleep when he is not tired but I am amazed at how predictable he is.

[SeattleRain]

Originally Posted by expat-mama 

My LO didn't have a real schedule until about 3 months- this was just due to my utter cluelessness about everything until then! But I found that he started to set his very own rigid schedule and when I followed it he was sooooo much happier! And I could plan out my day more. I was not really the schedule type AT ALL before my DS- now we have set times for EVERYTHING and it works so well. I do now believe that most kids really do thrive with set schedules and routines- I definitely saw evidence of this as a teacher and now I know it to be true with my son too.

Especially now that he is older it is so easy for me to get him ready to do the things that we normally do at certain times of the day- time to go to the park, time to brush teeth, time to read stories, snack time etc. He often knows what comes next and I think it is comforting for him.

Your little ones are still  young, but just from my own experience I say try to follow their lead and see if they set a schedule for naps and alert/play times- you may find it really helpful!

At 4 months, they should still be napping every 2-3 hrs. My boy was really consistent with needing to nap after about 2.5 hrs of awake time at that age and maybe a little longer awake time before bed. I loved the mornings when he was that age- he would wake up and be really cuddly and we'd read and nurse in bed and we'd go back to sleep after about an hour or 1.5 hrs. Then his every 2.5 hrs naps would start after that.

FWIW, my LO didn't often nap for longer than 40 mins until he was 6-7 months old. Rarely, he would go down for maybe an hour- that was his longest nap. Now naptimes are GREAT- he goes down by himself for 1.5 hours twice a day like clockwork!

I agree with all of this. I think you'll find that if you pay attention to when they wake up, they'll probably start winding down at around 9-10am. If you catch them when they start to feel sleepy, they'll probably be receptive to a nice nap around then. The same goes for anytime around 12-2pm and possibly again at 4pm. At 4 months, Daniel still needed 3 naps, one at 9am, one at 1pm and one at 4pm. The last nap was more of a short nap then a real nap, and sometimes he took that one in the car. For the most part though, Daniel napped in his crib. We swaddled him and used white noise and dark shades. Sometimes it was hard enforcing the schedule, because there was other stuff going on in our lives and it was hard to always be close to "homebase" so he could have a good crib nap, but it's been totally worth it. Daniel is a great sleeper for the most part, he sleeps 12 hours a night in his crib and easily take 3 hours worth of naps during the day, for the most part putting him self to sleep. 

[mckittre]

No schedule can work fine too, at least for little ones.  My 5 month old has no schedule at all.  Partly this is because we're not schedule people, and are doing different things every day.  Partly this is because she has an unpredictable 2 year old brother who wakes her up at random times anyway.  So we just go about our day, and if she gets tired and fussy, she gets nursed down on my lap or popped into the wrap on my back.  If she gets woken up 10 min into a nap, she usually plays happily for a short time, then wants to sleep again.  She's a very happy baby and sleeps fine at night.  For her older brother, we didn't worry about schedules at all until he was old enough that a too-late nap kept him up forever - then we tried to make sure he got his nap in early.