do naps need to be on schedule?

[redneckhippy]

I keep reading things about babies naps and how many they have or that they should nhave set nap time. As I mentioned in a previous thread, my LO pretty much is held all day. He just cries if I put him down. Son I have never paid any attention to nap schedules, he just sleeps on me when he sleeps. Is this bad? Do babies need a nap schedule and if so how do I set it up and what age? He is almost 9 weeks now.

 

[Srrme]

I never put any of my babies on a schedule. They napped when they wanted to. I too held them most of the day or wore them.

 

[Bevziibubble]

No not at all. My LO just napped when she was tired and I held her for all naps.
These days I make sure she doesn't nap past a certain time as it affects bedtime so much, but certainly when she was up to around 18 months I let her nap when she wanted.

 

[Larkspur]

I've found with both my kids it has worked better for everyone if I track their natural sleep/wake habits and then develop flexible routines based around the wake times that worked for them.

So for example, my daughter is generally tired around 3 hours after she first wakes up, so she has her first nap starting 9-9.30ish.

I know she will then do a 3.5 hour wake time before she gets tired enough for her second nap and a 4-hour wake time after her last nap, and then she's ready for bed. I also know that if she has accumulated more than 9 hours' sleep in the day (counting from midnight) before bedtime, she will resist bedtime.

So I generally wake her from her first nap at 10.30am, and her second nap at 3pm. This means an ideal day is:

6am wakeup
9am first nap
10.30 wakeup
2pm second nap
3pm wakeup
7pm bed

It works really well for her, and gives more predictability to our days for me.

I didn't start developing a routine till about 5 months though... before that she was like your baby and wanted to be held constantly. She had approximate times when I knew she was likely to sleep, but I generally just went with the flow.

I've found once naps are down to three or two a day, having a baby-led routine is quite easy to develop, and works really well. Before then, it's just too much drama.

 

[Sbmack]

We just let her nap when she wanted. As she grew, we knew approximately what times worked best and tried to have her nap within certain windows. These were large windows though (an hour or so). The times changed as she got older and as she dropped naps. Now at one nap a day its anywhere from 12-1:30 that she will go down. This changes if we are out and about though as she will usually fall asleep in the car.

Good luck, some babies do better with schedules and some do not....it just takes time to fall into place.

 

[violetta21]

I've always believed its important to follow the natural course of naps, not to try to schedule or force them. However, many other reliable resources have said otherwise.

 

[tallybee]

I keep reading things about babies naps and how many they have or that they should nhave set nap time. As I mentioned in a previous thread, my LO pretty much is held all day. He just cries if I put him down. Son I have never paid any attention to nap schedules, he just sleeps on me when he sleeps. Is this bad? Do babies need a nap schedule and if so how do I set it up and what age? He is almost 9 weeks now.

This sounds exactly like my son as a baby, at that age I never saw the point in routining him just wore him all the time! As he got older, he naturally started wanting more independence from being held all the time as he started being able to move on his own and explore things and in tandem with this he became able to self soothe to sleep without holding/nursing.

I don't think there is anything wrong with what you're doing at all some families thrive on routines and others prefer just going with the flow, whatever works for you and your baby is right for your family

 

[SarahBear]

It's good to pay attention to when your child needs a nap so you can anticipate need, but that doesn't mean you need to figure out a "schedule.' Just pay attention to needs and respond accordingly.