Creating A Schedule For Your Baby or Toddler
Are you having a hard time figuring out how to make a schedule for your baby? Not sure when your baby should nap or how long they should be awake?
I will walk you through how to make a great schedule for your baby for their age.
Everyone always talks about proper wake windows, how important it is, but what does it even mean? A wake window is the time from when your child gets out of the crib/or dark room until they go back down to sleep- the time when they are awake. This also includes the time they are nursing or feeding as well. So if your wake windows is 60 minutes for your newborn, and it takes them 30 minutes to nurse, then you only have about 30 minutes before they need to go back down for a nap. Another thing to know about ‘wake windows’ is that the shortest wake window is in the morning and the longest is before bed.
Following age appropriate wake windows will help your child to sleep better for their naps. Children that go down for sleep too early or over-tired are more likely to have short naps, a hard time falling asleep, wake ups in the night and early morning wake ups. That is why creating a schedule with age appropriate wake windows is so important and it will help your child sleep better.
You can use this guide to help you find your child’s sleep windows. If your child is waking up sad and tired then they most likely were overtired when they went down for their nap. Try moving that nap up by 5-10 minutes the next day to see if their behaviour improves. If your child wakes up happy but slept less than 1 hour, then they might not have been tired enough for that nap. Try moving that nap back by 5-10 minutes. Wait a few days before making another new change, things take time. If your child wakes up happy and slept over 1 hour than you hit the sweet spot. Once you have found what time works for your child you need to make a schedule and stick to set nap times.
Waking your child up at the same time every day (with a variance of 15 minutes either way) can help set your child up for success for the day. This means if your child’s designated wake time is 7 am, they can start the day at 6:45am (if they wake up early) or 7:15am at the latest. If you found that your first wake window worked best around 2 hours then the first nap is at 9 am, regardless if they wake up a bit earlier or later that day. Sticking to designated times for wakeup, naps and bedtime will help your child create a good circadian rhythm. This helps their body to release melatonin which will help them to sleep better. This will also help your child to fall asleep faster, and stay asleep longer. Not every child’s ideal wake windows are the same. Finding that sweet spot can be tricky for some children but you can use this guideline to help you get there. Some children need more sleep than others so their wake windows will be shorter and that is okay. You know your child, so do what works for them!
Duration of naps is also important and you’ll have to consider how long your child should be napping at their age. If your child is napping too long or not long enough in the day you will notice them struggling to fall asleep at night, having more wake ups in the night and waking up early. Use this template as a guide to help you find that balance of how much sleep they need in the day so it does not affect their night sleep.
Do I have to wake my child up? No one likes to wake their baby up from a nap. The saying used to be, never wake a sleeping baby. In order to stay on a schedule I recommend waking up your child after a certain amount of time (unless they are sick or teething.) If you let your child sleep too much in the day then they will fight bedtime, take a long time to fall asleep, have more wake ups in the night or wake up early because they got enough sleep. As your child gets older they don’t always need to nap as long in they day. So what worked once might all of a sudden not work anymore and you may need to cut their nap time back. If your child was sleeping great but now struggles with falling asleep or having wake ups, then cut their nap back by 15 minutes every 1-2 days to see if this helps them. If not, itt may be time for a nap transition if they are at that age and it has been going on for more than 2 weeks.
Most children should drop their last nap around 3-4 years old. If your child is having tantrums and outbursts outside of the two hours before bed then they are probably not ready to drop a nap. It is normal for your child to be a bit more cranky two hours before bed as they get tired but if its during the day they are showing you that they still need that nap. If your child will not nap they need at least 1 hour of quiet time in their bed or room to recharge. This should be offered to children until the age of 4 years old. If they will not sit quiet in their bed (hoping they will fall asleep) then they can have quiet independent play with no screen time.
To prevent your child from being over tired, you can move the nap up by 15 minutes and bedtime up by 15-30 minutes. This will help you stay on schedule, while allowing them to not get overtired causing a bad nap or poor night sleep. If your child did not nap long enough in the day, make sure to move that bedtime up a bit even if you think the wake window may be too short. However, keep in mind that even if you move bedtime up by 15-30 minutes, always keep the wake up time (in the morning) the same! They need that extra sleep at night to make up for the daytime sleep that they missed. This allows your child to stay on their schedule, getting used to those set times for naps and bedtime to help their circadian rhythm.
Are you experiencing short naps, wake ups in the night or early morning? It might be time to change those wake windows. In order to do this, start with moving the wake window by 10-15 minutes, even this small adjustment can improve sleep quality.
Message me if you have answer questions about creating a schedule for your child.