So do you recommend not implementing the standard awake times to be able to fit naps in more around the family's schedule? I should encourage more set times of the day rather than basing the first nap after 2 hours of whenever LO woke up?
A couple of things I can think of here:
- you can shift the morning WU time if you want or need to - so that the suitable A time can be fitted in around the family needs (eg school run), you literally just wake LO up at a set time every day and LO learns this and begins to wake naturally at this time (you might adjust BT or the whole days routine to allow for this). I recommend being prepared to wake LO at the same time on the weekends to keep the routine consistent and to have the most success during the week
- if you are planning a CN rather than a long nap for nap 1 then the A time doesn't need to be full length, LOs are often lulled to sleep in the car or pram much earlier than the full A time and you can use this to your advantage to fit with the family needs of routine. Again trying to aim for the same thing every day will be more successful. A short first A time and a short CN can be followed with a full A time and a long nap for example.
- babies don't fit the book times. Every baby and every family is different and the whole beauty of EASY and teh BW methods is that the routine is respectful to all members of the family. Everyone might need to compromise somewhere (maybe LO1 gives up a sport until LO2 is older? just as example) but on the whole everyone should be relatively well cared for and well slept.
- it is possible to work some of the WU/S times on variable A times whilst others are on "set" times. This might not be easy to see how this can work so I'll describe my own routine with my DS:
We had a set appointment I could not move twice per week so instead of 2 long naps and a CN mine had:
WU
A based on his need of A time which was longer than the guidance A time for his age
S long 2 hr nap in cot at home
A for a while based on A time
S timed leaving the house to ensure nap started in the car at the right time
this sometimes meant I had to leave the house very early for my appointment to allow for the nap
as the A time lengthened I left later but it meant his nap had to be shorter as my appointment started at a set time. He wasn't particularly happy about it but he still had a nap and he got used to it. This ended up a "set nap time" starting 40 min before the appointment and in the car.
A too long for his needs/age due to the appointment
S appointment ended, car nap. This was a "set nap time" because he had to hold out for it.
with age as sleep needs changed this nap ended up getting longer meaning his CN was in the middle of the day instead of the end of the day.
Mine still had 3 naps when other LOs would drop to 2 naps because naps 2 and 3 were short (nap 1 still long at home in cot).
When he dropped to 2 naps it was nap 2 we dropped not nap 3 which is "normal".
And this saw us up to around 11months old when he dropped to 1 nap.
I hope that makes some sense and doesn't confuse you further. Of course I'm not saying you should follow a routine the same as I had, but that we had a non-conventional EASY with some A times and some set nap times and it still worked.
I warn you though - I did find that on the weekend I wanted to stay home and chill out and my DS demanded to be taken out for his nap 2, he'd refused to take nap 2 in the cot because he was used to it being in the car. Consistent routines are very helpful but can also be a bit of a pain too.
