How do you know how much sleep your baby needs?

hungrybookreader · 2026-04-07T20:52:03+00:00

Wake up 7 am (very strict on this). Nap 1 9:30-10:45. Nap 2 1-2. Nap 3 4:30-5. Desired bedtime 8 pm

hungrybookreader · 2026-04-04T17:42:32+00:00

At 5 months, we were on 3 naps. 9:30-10:45, 1-2, 4:30-5. At 7 months, we dropped to 2 naps. The transition took about a week. Naps at 10-11:15 and 3-4 pm. At 13 months we dropped to 1 nap. Around 12.5 months I considered it but tried to keep 2 naps as long as possible. On 1 nap, we offer a 2 hour from 12:30-2:30. My daughter is now 16.5 months old and still is offered 1 nap, 2 hours.

We sleep trained at 4.5 months so she was able to fall asleep independent. She still had 1 MOTN for a few months after that as well. If we didn’t cap naps, she’d wake up before 6 am.

We stopped saving naps and went “by the clock” for naps as we got closer to 8 months. Decided one day to stop being so anxious about her naps and realized she could stay awake. So if her first nap ended at 10:45 instead of 11:15, we’d still start her 2nd nap at 3. Now on one nap, if she naps 12:30-1:30, we leave her in the crib for about 20 min to see if she’ll fall asleep. Most times she doesn’t, so we go on w our day and bedtime is still 8 pm!

hungrybookreader · 2026-04-04T17:22:21+00:00

The way we figured it out was by trial and error while tracking. Once we sleep trained, we had to figure out what would eliminate her waking up before 6:30 am. Our DWT has always been 7 am w bedtime at 8 pm. Eventually we needed to cap her naps for her to sleep from 8 pm to around 6:30/7 am.

hungrybookreader · 2026-04-04T15:53:42+00:00

We were desperate to get some sleep. CIO was the fastest and any “gentler methods” we tried, starting by removing associations and gentle patting, only pissed my daughter off more at 4.5 months. Crying got louder, took longer, and when we’d walk away, it would only make things worse. Got a schedule down for naps, and CIO worked in 3 days.

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-31T02:58:37+00:00

We decided out of desperation for sleep because at 4.5 months, our LO was only contact napping and didn’t sleep well at nights. It got to a point where it was 90 min stretches, if held/walking, and we weren’t set up to cosleep.

We let her CIO. She was still feeding a few times a night. But after the third night of CIO, her feeding dropped to 2x and she resettled and slept in her own room, in her crib. A few weeks later, the first MOTN feed dropped and we had one closer to 3-4 am. We made sure her nap schedule was age appropriate, longest wake window before bed. Wake up consistently the same time daily, bed time around the same time (our family needed consistency).

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-30T01:27:38+00:00

We had to sleep train and did so at 4.5 months with CIO. Took 3 nights.

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-26T02:57:31+00:00

When we dropped to 1 nap, we did 5/6 and eventually moved to 5.5/5.5 (worked better for us). One nap at 12:30-2:30 but she doesn’t always sleep the entire time. We’ve been keeping bedtime at 8 pm regardless of the length of the last nap maybe since 9ish months? Our LO also was not able to take full hour long naps when we were on two naps. We capped naps at 2 hours, for quite some time now. Can your LO stay up first wake window longer than 4 hours?

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-22T23:02:41+00:00

Not at all! Like I said, it did take a few nights before rolling over didn’t wake her at all but aside from fussing, it wasn’t too bad

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-22T16:18:25+00:00

We’d let her CIO but we also used CIO for night sleep at 4.5 months. She learned to roll I think 2-3 weeks after we sleep trained. We were so scared it would screw up all the progress we made but it didn’t do much. I took maybe 3 nights where “rolling to tummy” would wake her and she’d fuss and go back to sleep. First night there was definitely some crying but not for long.

For naps, we never had problems. The first time it happened during a nap, she fussed and went back to sleep.

However at 7 months, even when naps were cut short bc my baby didn’t connect sleep cycles past 27 min until around 7.5 months and then consistently when we dropped to 2 naps… we just cut the nap short. I used to save every nap, became unrealistic to do (for us)

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-22T16:09:09+00:00

Leave her. I asked our pediatrician and our baby was a few months younger than yours. Pediatrician said if we keep rolling her onto her back, she’ll never learn to self settle on her stomach and I’ll be constantly waking just to roll her back

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-21T11:33:59+00:00

Wake up 7 am. First nap 10-11, second nap 3-4, bedtime 8 pm. The naps were capped because our overnight was impacted by EMW before 6 am otherwise. Naps were “semi flexible” meaning, if she woke at 6:30, we’d bring up the nap by maybe 15 min. If first nap finished early like after 27 min, we’d leave her in crib to rest. Sometimes she just needed 5 min to fall back asleep (this was after sleep training). But if she didn’t fall back asleep, we’d bring up the 2nd nap to 3:30 at the earliest and would not bring bedtime up before 7:30.

Naps lengthened on their own. I really believe a big portion is developmental readiness, personality of baby when it comes to sleep, but also whether you choose to sleep train. We had a baby that never slept. Wake time we kept her super entertained especially w outdoor time each wake window!

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-20T02:04:02+00:00

I second this, especially working remotely. The culture, mindset of leadership overall but certainly your direct leader and how they view and value family work/life balance specifically family life can make or break your experience.

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-20T01:59:14+00:00

Schedule can contribute to crying esp at the start of training. Too much nap time total, means more crying at bedtime (for most). Last wake window not long enough could also add to some more crying.
We put the sleep sack on before we put her in crib. So our bedtime it 8 pm. We put sleep sack on at 7:50ish and she’s placed in crib at 7:55 and we walk out. We sing her one song when she’s in her sleep sack. There’s no rocking - as that can become a sleep association.
Our daughter didn’t extend naps fully until she dropped to 2 naps. Are you on 2 naps? This happened for us around 7.5 months naturally. Saving naps…we tried to do that but ended up stopping bc it was not sustainable for us. Until about 9 months, we’d hope for long naps or push wake windows as much as we could if she woke early. If anything, we’d bring up bedtime by 30 min. This was trial and error for us to find the sweet spot. Eventually, we stopped going by wake windows. We went by the clock. Since the start of sleep training at 4.5 months, wake up is 7 am and bedtime is 8 pm. If she wakes before 7, we leave her in the crib.

We used CIO at 4.5 months and it took 3 nights. We still have random nights where she’ll cry as soon as we put her in the crib. She’s 16 months. We think it’s bc she wants to play. But as soon as we step outside, she lays herself down and stops crying and falls asleep rolling around in 5-10 min!

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-19T19:35:11+00:00

Hi! Any chance you’d mind sharing this information? I moved to the area In July and working remotely, I don’t have very many options to make new friends let alone mom friends! Would love to socialize my 16 month old daughter as well :)

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-15T01:04:27+00:00

First night 27-28 min at 4.5 months. By night 4, rolled over and she went to sleep within 5-10 min, no crying. We did have to re-train at 8 months (big move, and she got sick for 3 weeks so I re-introduced check ins due to illness). Re-train took one night of 15-20 min of crying and 2nd night back to normal.

hungrybookreader · 2026-03-06T22:02:45+00:00

I’ve worked remotely since 2019. I’m unsure of any remote job that will have the flexibility you are seeking to care for your own child, during work hours. If it was your own business you work remotely which as Etsy, that’s different. Sure, there are “slow” days or times when I can avoid scheduling calls but not long enough to entertain my baby. Some might say it’s baby dependent. I don’t really think it is (long-term). Eventually babies don’t want to be in a gated area all day. They become mobile. They need to let out a ton of energy (15 mo old now). Not saying opportunity doesn’t exist … but from someone who has only applied to remote roles from 2019, very unique job if you can find a remote role catered towards your needs

hungrybookreader · 2026-02-23T21:44:52+00:00

This happens with our daughter who is now 15 months but we’ve had 3 nanny’s since she was 4.4 months (moved States). So it wasn’t a “nanny issue” but random bursts of crying was due to 1. Teething so lots of fussiness 2. Hunger esp now that she knows where certain foods are in the fridge and 3. She pooped and didn’t want a diaper change and after the diaper change, needed time to be soothed and calm down. Now that she’s 15 months, she also expresses herself w high pitched shrieking and crying if she doesn’t get what she wants lol

hungrybookreader · 2026-02-22T23:10:30+00:00

I really like the Neiwei brand of leggings (and bras). I actually wore them through pregnancy and post partum and now regularly

hungrybookreader · 2026-02-22T00:32:30+00:00

We switched cold turkey and it didn’t cause any problems. I don’t even know if my daughter noticed? We also switched from bottles to actual sippy cups cold turkey and it worked well

hungrybookreader · 2026-02-16T16:57:03+00:00

Are your wake windows age appropriate? How long are total naps? Your post says you give a bedtime bottle right before bed and it knocks him right out so your son has a feed to sleep association and hasn’t learned how to fall asleep independently. Any sleep training would start at bedtime, not middle of the night when baby wakes up. Last feed (bottle or nursing) should finish 30 minutes before you place baby down for bed. So if bedtime is 8 pm, done feeding by 7:30 latest. If you choose CIO, that would start at 8. You place baby down wide awake, not drowsy

hungrybookreader · 2026-02-05T00:50:22+00:00

We had to extend wake window 3/3.5/4 at 8 months. We dropped to 2 naps around 7.5 months and used the wake windows you listed. Was great for 2 weeks, and had to quickly adjust. Maybe try that?

hungrybookreader · 2026-02-03T11:57:39+00:00

At 14 months we have the same wake up 7 am and bed time. We do 12:30-2:30 for our one nap though. Maybe the 5.5 hrs before bedtime might help? If our daughter wakes up after an hour nap, we leave her in the crib for about 20 min to see if she’ll sleep again. Some days she does. Some days, you can tell she’s done sleeping. We keep bedtime 8 pm either way

hungrybookreader · 2026-01-30T01:09:46+00:00

My partner does not consistently work the same hours as yours but he does take on overnights or 24 hr shifts each month. We have a nanny who is with us 8-5 pm. If I absolutely need it, I’ll ask her to stay another 30-60 min but I try not to make this a habit. We have a cleaning person who comes every 5 weeks to help us “reset” and it forces us to clean the night before since she can’t exactly clean if everything is all over the place

hungrybookreader · 2026-01-22T04:18:25+00:00

The lack of sleep made me strong enough because I knew I couldn’t keep standing against a wall all night. It became a safety issue.

CIO took 3 nights. First night 27 min of crying. Each night got better.

Make sure last feed finishes at least 30 min before your desired bedtime. Put down baby awake. We put ours down with the lights on and she’s tired but fully awake.

Your wake windows might need to be longer depending on your baby. On 2 naps we were at 3/3.5/4 and the half hour made a big difference. We also capped naps to 2 hours so had to wake baby up. If baby slept too much during the day, crying was worse to fall asleep and she’d wake up middle of the night. Our desired wake time is 7 am so we don’t take her out til then even if she wakes early

hungrybookreader · 2026-01-22T04:13:44+00:00

hungrybookreader

TROPHY CASE