u/T00thd0c23

Hi all! New to this sub. I recently became interested in the idea of floor bed so ofc my feed is suddenly filled with floor bed ads. Something that caught my attention though is in my area, a lot of people on FB marketplace are selling floor bed frames and the caption usually says something like “barely used, LO never slept here”. Granted I don’t know the context but it makes me wonder why it didn’t work out for them? Did they introduce it too soon? Did they end up co-sleeping? What’s their alternative? What should I consider when making the transition? My LO currently sleeps fine in a crib but moves a lot around.

Hi all! So as the title says, this is yet another post about early morning wakes. I went back to every EMW-related post here for some ideas but I can’t seem to figure this one out. LO is 20 weeks old. He has been waking up at 5:50am for almost 2 weeks now. Prior to this, he has waking up at 6:20 for over 2 weeks. But before all this, LO was doing 12 hrs stretches anywhere from 7-8pm to 7-8am.

Here is our current schedule:
Wake: 5:50
Nap 1: 8-8:30 or 8-9
Nap 2: 10:30-12 or 11-12
Nap 3: 2-3
Nap 4: 5-5:30
Bedtime: 7:30

WW: 2/2/2/2/2
Total nap time: 3.5hrs though there have been days where it’s 3hrs or under, still wakes up at 5:50.

There were also nights we had to do bedtime at 7 or at 8, still wakes up at 5:50.

It’s important to note that LO is not fussing at all when he wakes up early. He starts doing half rolls and babbles in his crib then proceeds to suck this thumb until I pick him up at 7am. He does not seem to be hungry as he can’t even finish his bottle most mornings. He does seem to want to go back to sleep but is unsuccessful (moves around a lot while thumbsucking, eyes wide open).

This morning, it seemed like he really wanted to go back to sleep. He was sucking his thumb and kicking his legs like crazy and seemingly getting frustrated in the process. I ended up contact napping him from 6:30-7am.

I’m trying to see if the sleeping environment has anything to do with it. This has been his set-up since newborn days. We use black out curtains in his nursery but light seems to peak through around the curtains but does not directly hit the direction of the crib. Last night we used a black crib cover like this https://a.co/d/09pWeSBV but LO still woke up at 5:50. I can try to block the light some more but my gut tells me it’s not this.

I really want to figure this one out as I was hoping to drop the 4th nap. But with a 5:50am wake, it has been impossible to do so. I don’t want to be stuck in a 4 nap schedule. Another observation is LO seems to have a longer WW. For the last 2-3 days I noticed I can push the WW longer than 2hrs and we’re still fine. So for today, I assisted the morning wake by contact napping from 6:30-7am to hopefully implement a 3 nap schedule of 2/2.5/2.5/2.5.

Please, please, if you have any experience with his, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

I guess I should have asked this before but now that we’re in the process of establishing a proper schedule before sleep training, this question is starting to come up more. LO is 18 weeks old.

Total nap time: 3.5hrs.
Overnight sleep: 11ish hrs.
Currently on a 4 nap schedule but wanting to transition to 3.
Wake windows: 1.5/2/2/2/2

He finally started doing the first 2 naps of the day in the crib. Prior to that, all 4 naps were contact naps. Unfortunately, he still has a hard time connecting sleep cycles with 1 cycle being 30 mins long.

What do I actually do if he can’t connect cycles in the crib? Rescue the nap? Sometimes rescuing a nap takes more effort especially if his eyes are wide awake and he’s fighting it. If I let it go, is that the beginning of the next wake window? If, for example, our goal for the first nap is 1.5hrs and he can only do 30 mins, does the next wake window begin when the last nap ended? I find that that messes up the schedule so much that the feeding time doesn’t coincide with wake time. Please help a confused mom out.

I guess I should have asked this before but now that we’re in the process of establishing a proper schedule before sleep training, this question is starting to come up more. LO is 18 weeks old.

Total nap time: 3.5hrs.
Overnight sleep: 11ish hrs.
Currently on a 4 nap schedule but wanting to transition to 3.
Wake windows: 1.5/2/2/2/2

He finally started doing the first 2 naps of the day in the crib. Prior to that, all 4 naps were contact naps. Unfortunately, he still has a hard time connecting sleep cycles with 1 cycle being 30 mins long.

What do I actually do if he can’t connect cycles in the crib? Rescue the nap? Sometimes rescuing a nap takes more effort especially if his eyes are wide awake and he’s fighting it. If I let it go, is that the beginning of the next wake window? If, for example, our goal for the first nap is 1.5hrs and he can only do 30 mins, does the next wake window begin when the last nap ended? I find that that messes up the schedule so much that the feeding time doesn’t coincide with wake time. Please help a confused mom out.

We wanted to hold off till baby is much older before we sleep train but baby has been fighting bedtime the last couple nights so I think we have to do the inevitable. Baby is 4 months old. We can give it another week or two before we commit to this. We may also need to tweak our “schedule”. I say “schedule” cause baby naturally put himself in this routine due to being exclusively bottle fed since week 6 so we just kept doing the feeds every 3 hrs and following an eat->play->sleep routine.

Baby is on a 4 nap schedule.
Total daytime naps 3.5-4hrs (and some change sometimes)
Bedtime is between 7pm-8pm (I suck at crib at transfer so sometimes he wakes up then thumbsucks for up to an hour)
Night sleep: 11-12hrs
Ideal wake time: 7:30am

Wake windows: 1.5/1.5-1.75/1.75/~2/varies (to be explained)

Nap 1: crib nap, 30 mins on the dot, usually ends 1 hr before next feed, very difficult to rescue so I let it be which sometimes moves the next wake window by an hour
Nap 2: contact nap, 2 hrs long (it’s this long since I’m playing catch up from the last nap and I don’t want to move next wake window up)
Nap 3: contact nap, try to keep it at 1.25-1.5hrs
Nap 4: 20-30 mins long, carrier or contact nap (baby is very hard to settle around this time)

The reason why the 5th wake window varies is cause for a while I wasn’t sure how to do the bath&bed routine so what happens is after the 4th nap, either we’re right on time or we wait a little till it’s 6:30pm to begin bath time. Then bottle then book and rocking. I know we need help tweaking this but I just couldn’t figure out how.

The last 2 nights have been a crying fest before he goes to sleep. LO starts crying as we’re putting him in his Merlin magic suit and it goes downhill from there. Prior to that, he fights being put down but with 10-15mins rocking he will give in. Then there’s me who sucks at crib transfer so he ends up slightly waking up but self-soothes. LO can suck his thumb anywhere from 30mins-1hr before truly falling asleep.

I know my baby can do this. In the past he can do ‘drowsy by awake’ for naps plus he can self-soothe now. It’s just that sometimes he needs more comfort or it’s as if he forgets he knows how to self-soothe. 😂

Hi all! LO has been loving his thumb for self soothing and this is the second morning where he’s giving us an almost 12 hour stretch. However, for the last hour, I noticed that he’s just thumb sucking and going in and out of sleep. He’s not stirring one bit and eyes are closed. Do I end the timer and have this be the beginning of the wake window? Or do I let it keep going?

EDIT: there are very brief moments where I notice his eyes are open (through the monitor) then closes them again

Hi all! Just wanting to get some sleep sack brand recommendations that won’t break the bank. I’m looking to transition my baby from the Merlin magic suit. I know Kyte baby and Woolino are very popular but if you know of a good dupe, send them my way.

Hi all! I’m a FTM to a 3.5 month old and new to this sub. So basically my baby who used to nap for 1-1.5 hrs and can even do drowsy buy awake has now only done cat naps since he turned 3 mos. He’s also become fussy everytime I put him down and fussier when I try to rescue the nap so as you may have guessed, all naps are contact naps for the last 2 weeks. Fortunately he’s still sleeping through the night anywhere from 8-10 hrs. Also important to note is we transitioned him to the Merlin magic suit around the same time started doing these cat naps even though he hasn’t rolled yet (he was constantly breaking out of his Sleepea swaddle). We’ve made so much progress that swaddling him back is not an option. I have to go back to work soon and my poor mom cannot contact nap him for all 4 naps. Wake windows are anywhere from 1.25-1.5 hrs. It’s honestly stressing me out so much as I’m trying to hit total nap tile of 3-4 hrs everyday.

I was wondering if sleep training him (when he turns 4 mos, maybe 4.5) will help prolong these cat naps? Seeing how he’s still sleeping through the night (I always feel like the 4 mos regression is right around the corner), do I still need to sleep train him at night first or can I just train him for the naps? Another question I have is, is sleep training limited to one environment? Meaning, if I have to drop him off at grandma for multiple days a week, do I have to sleep train him there too? The two environments are very different. He has a pack n play at grandma’s and it’s a small apartment where you have no control over outside noises sometimes.

Been doing a lot more contact naps lately since LO turned 13 weeks and all crib naps have been 30 mins long. He used to be easy to put down, would even do drowsy but awake but not recently. Truthfully I don’t even attempt to put him on the crib, I go straight to my rocking chair and I’m enjoying this more than I thought I would. I love looking at my baby’s face and studying the little changes that happen. My son looks nothing like me and looks like a photocopy of his dad and that’s alright. I’ve never seen him smile so much while asleep. Makes me wonder what he’s thinking/processing. Another FTM warned me to enjoy this as much as I could cause her baby started rejecting her for contact naps. I think that would really crush me. So here we are. I’m savoring it a lot more since I go back to work soon. I still don’t know what to feel about it. The only thing that gives me comfort is my mom watching him so I know he’ll be in good hands. So everyday I get up grateful that I have the strength to care for my baby. I would contact nap him every chance I get. That is all.

Last week I posted about how I can extend cat naps by rushing to my LO’s room close to the 30 min mark and putting my hand over his chest as soon as I see him move. Well guess what? It stopped working this week! 😭 I would put my hand over his chest but he would open his eyes and give me the biggest grin lol. It’s as if he’s saying “nah uh that ain’t gonna work no more”. I can ride this out if it’s just me but I have to go back to work soon and I’ll be dropping him off at my parents who are both in their 60s. My mom is really good at rocking him to sleep but again, can’t do much if biology dictates for babies to have short naps at this age (3 months). My baby has had some successful “drowsy but awake” naps but not all the time.

To those of you who had to drop off their baby with the grandparents, how do you deal with short naps? Do you instruct them to contact nap? Carrier nap? I genuinely don’t think my mom has the stamina for it, doesn’t help that baby takes 4 naps. How do daycare people do it? I’m genuinely scared.

Can you confidently leave your baby with your husband and trust that baby will be fine? All needs will be met? Can you do this only for a few hours? An entire day? Weekend?

I’m asking cause I finally got a much needed 90 minute massage yesterday and as I’m checking out of the massage place, I get a text from my husband telling me that baby was screaming his lungs out and he wouldn’t settle with him. I thought for once this is the beginning of me finally being able to do things for my own. But I guess not.

For context, husband only took 1 week paid leave. I have been on my own since (baby is 13 weeks). He leaves the house at 8am for work then comes back at almost 6pm. He helps with feeds which have now gone down from 3 feeds to just the bedtime feed since baby has been sleeping through the night. On weekends, he does more feeds but I still end up entertaining little guy. I’ve already accepted that I’m the primary caregiver, that it will never be 50/50, not even 60/40, but I need a day to myself to every once in a while…

EDIT: I didn’t expect to receive so many responses. Thank you all for saying the brutally honest truth and for the words of encouragement. I read through all the responses and the common theme is to give it some time and to gently guide my husband through it.

Hi all! My 11 week old baby has been giving us 4-5 hr stretches since he was 9 weeks old. But I was wondering if there’s anything I can do to extend it a little longer or skip a feed. He consumes 4oz every 2.5-3hrs. Our day usually starts anywhere between 7am-8am and bedtime between 7pm-8pm. After bedtime, the next feed is between midnight to 1am and then again at 4-5am. We actually like these hours but I was wondering if there’s anything we can do to skip the midnight to 1am feed. Dream feed? Wake baby up between 9-10pm for another feed? Will it ever happen naturally that he sleeps through the midnight feed?

Hi all, so for the last week, my 11 week old LO has been breaking out of this Happiest Baby Sleepea swaddle (Velcro + zipper). He’s clearly a little Houdini but does NOT know how to roll yet. I find him wanting to suck his hands through the swaddle, likely for comfort. So in my head he clearly wants his arms out. For daytime naps, I’ve tried one arm out, both arms out, Love to Dream arms up swaddle, Zipadee-zip and other variations of said arms up swaddles but I find that he cannot settle in his bassinet with arms out either one or both. He ends up having a party in his bassinet then ends up fussing and crying. Even worse if he needs a paci and it keeps falling out of his mouth. I’m actually waiting for him to suck his hands for comfort now that his arms are out but I haven’t seen him do it, only if he is completely swaddled. So I’m a little confused. I end up rescuing the nap by putting him back in the Sleepea swaddle. I’m worried I’m inhibiting something developmental but also he gets overtired when his arms are free? I tried the Merlin magic suit (fleece version) but he’s currently swimming in it. How do I proceed?

Hi all, so for the last week, my 11 week old LO has been breaking out of this Sleepea swaddle (Velcro + zipper). He’s clearly a little Houdini but does NOT know how to roll yet. I find him wanting to suck his hands through the swaddle, likely for comfort. So in my head he clearly wants his arms out. I’m I’ve one arm out, both arms out, Love to Dream arms up swaddle, Zipadee-zip and other variations of said arms up swaddles but I find that he cannot settle in his bassinet with arms out either one or both. He ends up having a party in his bassinet then ends up fussing and crying. I’m actually waiting for him to suck his hands for comfort now that his arms are out but I haven’t seen him do it, only if he is completely swaddled. So I’m a little confused. I end up rescuing the nap by putting him back in the Sleepea swaddle. I’m worried I’m inhibiting something developmental but also he gets overtired when his arms are free? I tried the Merlin magic suit (fleece version) but he’s currently swimming in it. How do I proceed?

Hi all! Does anybody know when Happy Baby releases new prints/ patterns or if they restock sold out prints? I really want the OG carrier but I can’t do a solid color linen. I tried going to EBay and Marketplace to see if ppl resell OG carrier with prints/pattern but surprisingly they’re hard to come by.

Curious to find out how daytime naps are going to those of you with unicorn sleepers (6+ hrs). LO is currently 9 weeks old. The longest we’ve gotten so far is a 5 hr stretch and that’s with at least 4 hrs of daytime naps. I’m so worried of my baby being overtired that it will ruin his night sleep.

He got his 2 month vaccines on Friday so we let that one go (was fussing till midnight). But since this weekend, daytime naps would be 20-30 mins). He seems recovered from the shots. I find myself having to rescue the last nap of the day by putting him in a carrier and walking to our local park. I have no problem doing that except I’m still having issues with mg pelvic floor and the groin pain I had since 3rd trimester has not gone away and has in fact been worse.

Any tips on how to rescue these crap naps/ cat naps?