Timing Sleep with Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

I always think it is funny scheduling someone who can't tell time. :)

I don't know if it will work for you but I just figured out their schedule and worked around it. My first one slept like clock work and the second gave up any nap at nine months. Third and fourth were different too. One thing they were always consistent in was sleeping through the night. Yeah at first the night was from 11 till 6 but I'll take it. :)

Everyone I know personally who claimed to schedule their child always seemed miserable and sleep deprived. Maybe the schedule is why.

I've had long chats with a number of moms over the years who try to schedule naps and bedtimes. It appears, from long observation, that some littles take to scheduling very, very well. Most can be nudged in the direction of a dependable routine, but it doesn't really 'take' until they are several months old. And Some Babies Do Not Schedule. Ever. Or at least until they are well into toddlerhood. They can not help this – they are pushed and pulled by irrestistable inner tides, well beyond their own control. These are sometimes called High Needs Babies.

If you're mothering one of the Non-Schedulers, and have in your mind that you 'should' be able to get her into a dependable routine, you will feel frustrated, perhaps even see yourself as a failure. You're not a failure, unless you persist in trying to make the impossible happen.

The moms I've known who do the best with it don't think that way. They realize that this baby is simply requiring them to be more flexible. Many of them make peace with it, and begin to discover the joys of spontaneous, in-the-moment living, and the ways that approach can actually be filled with fun and discovery. They must, of necessity, learn to observe and 'read' their baby's signals, which can result in enhanced closeness as the baby grows older.

Seem from that direction, it can be a gift. Every option comes with trade-offs, and when we recognize that, we can make the most of the silver linings.

Wishing you well!

instead of the 2 hrs after she wakes up, and the 1 and 1/2 or 2 and 1/2 after she wakes up from that first nap, have you ever just seen her rub her eyes/rub her ears or yawn? i would actually just watch for that sign before watching the clock. Also, when she wakes up after 40 minutes, are you letting her fussy for a few minutes? Mine sometimes would surprise me and fall back asleep. I'd work on breaking the swaddle before you work on a schedule.

My son put himself on a schedule somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5 months. I would look for the cues that she is tired and then work from there. She will probably get more set with the times soon, and then you can try slowly adjusting it to what you would like it to be. At that age, my son would also wake up from his 2nd nap around 2pm, and his 3rd was around 3:30 or so. I never let him sleep past 4:30 (at the very latest) and he would be in bed between 6:30 and 7, and woke up at a random time to eat in the middle of the night, went back to sleep and woke up for the day between 6:30 and 7am. So the timing was about 1.5 hours in between the 2nd and 3rd nap and 2-2.5 hours between nap and bedtime. He slept for about 12 hours at night, and from what I have read, they need between 10-12 hours at night. I don't know what time she is going to bed, but you might want to switch up her bedtime and see what happens. As for the swaddle thing, I had major issues with weaning my son from it, but the best thing for us was the Halo sleep sack. Once we got him used to being swaddled with his arms free, we had a hard time getting rid of the swaddle completely, but the sleep sack gave my son something that he could kick at safely (which is just what he wanted).