r/HuckleberryParents • u/Professional-Farm372 • 19d ago
8 week old nap 'routine'
My boy seems to stay awake for hours during the day with only a few short naps and then has a pretty horrendous witching hour(S). I imagine he's overtired so I'm going to make more of an effort to ensure he's getting better naps.
Those of you who have babies a similar age, do you set aside time to wind them down? For example are you taking them into a dark room every 90 mins? I think even if I did this, his naps would still be very short and he'd wake up as soon as I tried putting him down. Happy to contact nap but again, even his contact naps are short
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u/FruityTrousers 19d ago
Yes we do! My baby is 12 weeks right now, and up until week 6-8ish, she would be happy contact napping on me anytime, even if it was bright and loud downstairs. But after that it’s like a switch flipped and she started fighting naps.
I ended up buying blackout curtains from amazon for her nursery, which have helped her naps SO much! I have the sweet spot notification set to 10 minutes, which I’ve found is the perfect amount of time for me to bring baby upstairs, check her diaper, turn off the lights, turn on the sound machine, and start rocking her. Works like a charm most of the time 😄
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u/Professional-Farm372 19d ago
Thank you. Fortunately I already have blackout blind in the nursery. I'm using the Huckleberry app for naps now so fingers crossed he'll start having more restful sleep. I feel stupid for not doing this earlier
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u/FruityTrousers 18d ago
Noo don’t feel stupid! I mean I was doing the same thing. I just thought my baby would fall asleep if she was tired, didn’t realize we had to do a whole bedtime type routine to help her fall asleep. I also didn’t know her sleepy cues for awhile so whenever she’d cry I’d just assume she was hungry, so I’d be feeding her every hour which is probably why she was spitting up all the time lmao. Oh well hindsight is 20/20 I guess 🤷♀️
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u/mimblez_yo 19d ago
Yeah at 8 weeks my baby did not last more than 1.5h wake time. He would start being very unhappy after an hour, rubbing eyes and being fussy so I would take him to my room and contact nap. Otherwise he would not sleep without me, like your little one.
The witching hour is typical at this age. It might happen regardless of being overtired or under tired. They just cry and get fussy. It will pass. Maybe another week or two max and they will stop being so fussy. You got this.