Naps - can someone explain what Tracy means by 3 naps at 2 hr intervals?

[carinah]

Hi.

I read interwiew with Tracy and one mum ask's and gets following answer:

Member: My son doesn't sleep much during the day at 3 months. When can I expect that to change?

Hogg: At 3-months-old they should be taking at least three two-hour naps at two-hour intervals. The other end of the scale is three one-and-a-half hour naps at two-hour intervals. On the whole, they have five hours of sleep in the day and a 10 hour night.

Can someone explain to me how that would work if my daughter's dy starts at 7 am with a feed.  When should she be put down for a 1½ hr nap?  After 2 hrs of being awake?  She is on 3 hr routine at moment (being 3 month exactly) so I put her down for nap at 8:15 approx

Thanks
Carina

[magicbelly]

3 hr schedule
 
7.00: Eat
7.30: Activity
8.30: Sleep (1.5hrs) and YOU time.

10.00: Eat
10.30: Activity
11.30: Sleep (1.5hrs) and YOU time.

1.00: Eat
1.30: Activity
2.30: Sleep (1.5hrs) and YOU time.

4.00: Eat
5.00-6.00: Catnap (approx 40min) somewhere at this time to get bub to next feed/ bath

7.00: Eat, bath etc
7.30: Sleep

10/11.00: Dreamfeed.

Remember dont get caught up on the exact times. Bub will wake earlier in the morning some days for a feed, sleep shorter or longer some days. Just follow the schedule generally starting your day at the first morning feed. This could really be 6, 6.30. You will find it all tends to fall into place by the afternoon.

Basically I followed the general rule that always seems to work. A baby can stay awake as long as the last sleep. So if one time your baby only sleeps 45mins and you cant get  her back down, her activity time wont last longer than 45min - watch for tired cues and put her back to bed regardless of the schedule (unless it is EAT time, feed her, keep her up for 10min then back to bed). If she sleeps 2 hrs she should last in Activity for approx 2 hrs (My bub at 3-6 months only lasts 1.5hrs up and 1.5hrs down so you can see the schedule is a general 2hr rule, in reality you will have shorter and longer naps at times).

A 3 month old shouldn't be up longer than 2hrs otherwise you may find you may have trouble getting them back to sleep because they are overtired. Read the cues rather than the clock.

[carinah]

Much appreciated!  That is exactly the routine we follow as its the one in the book, only it got changed a fair bit with S since my baby just went through 3 month growthspurt.  So naps are now 30 min only and I think I need to teach her how to continue sleeping.......

I just got thrown by the 2 hr intervals Tracy was talking about as for me its 3 hrs according to the schedule you have posted below.  So thanks for clarifying!

Carina