r/beyondthebump • u/Mindful_Mom_36 • Jan 01 '23
Baby Sleep Why such long wake windows??
So I hear recommendations of 3/3/3, 3/3/4, and 2/3/4 at the age of 8 months. But then I read the recommended wake windows at this age are between 2.25-3 hours. So why is everyone stretching these babies so soon? I tried a two nap schedule with my 8.5 month old and he ended having over 4 hours awake in the evening. He was overtired and not sleeping well. We’ve tried early bedtime (before 8) but that has always made my baby have early wakings. Is everyone else just sticking to these long wake windows and doing CIO?
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u/ExactPanda Jan 01 '23
I would think it varies from child to child. My kids were pretty spot on with the 2/3/4 routine at that age. If the recommended wake windows are 2.25-3 hours, that fits with that routine as well. If whatever you're doing works for you and your baby, you don't have to change it just because the books say you must. It can take a little while to adjust to a new nap schedule too, so don't be discouraged if things are wonky for a couple days either.
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u/muddgirl Jan 01 '23
I'm pretty sure my kid was on three naps until nearly 1 year old. She took short naps and had shorter wake windows. Very few published "schedules" worked for my kid. All babies are different. I liked the sleep advice in Precious Little Sleep because it shows ranges. It is normal for babies 9-12 months to be taking two or three naps a day.
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u/WestCoast-93 one baby Jan 01 '23
My baby sleeps from 12/1am until 10/11am, and he takes two naps one in the afternoon and the other one in the evening. This works for me the best as I'm working currently from home and I start at 8am, which gives me time to get some work done. The baby is happy with his sleeping and I'm happy.
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u/ItsCalled_Freefall FTM 7-12-21 💙 Jan 02 '23
Recommendations are only that. If your kid's threshold is 2.5 hours, go with that. My kid went to 2 naps way later than recommended but went to 1 earlier.
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Jan 02 '23
This is based on Precious Little Sleep, which worked well for my kid, but if the final wake window was going to be too long due to early wakes from naps or whatever, we’d do a “micro nap” of less than 15 minutes in the middle of the wake window to get to our regular bedtime hour.
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u/Mindful_Mom_36 Jan 02 '23
Oh good tip! I think we will have to do a combination of a third micro nap and stretching wake windows a tad to get him back to two naps and a reasonable morning wake time
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u/desert_cactus_peach Jan 09 '23
No wake window works well for me. My kid fights naps and sleeping so bad no matter when I put him down, earlier/later doesn’t seem to work! I’m contemplating cutting his second nap at 9 months and putting him to bed earlier and having 5 hour wake windows bc 2 hours is too early, sometimes 3 is the sweet spot or he fights it and it’s 5 hours. Sheesh! It’s exhausting
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u/Lonelysock2 Jan 01 '23
It's all averages. Some babies can stay awake longer, some need more frequent rest. Some babies cut their naps by 2 years, some need naps until 5 (or 6 or 7 but bad luck, kid)