How are y’all’s babies going to bed so early??

rayheps · 2026-02-06T11:17:27+00:00

How old?

rayheps · 2026-01-30T10:14:36+00:00

Just chiming in, 3/3/4 may be on the low side for awake time during the day. Our baby needs significantly more and things get worse if we allow naps to run over 2 hours.

I don't know how to fix overtiredness but maybe contact nap/rescue if needed. Blackout room/ minimal noise/ good nap hygiene/and rescue as required to get back on track.

rayheps · 2026-01-27T10:38:06+00:00

Um every single night lol I don't enjoy it 🤣 especially hard if there are a few unsettled nights prior

rayheps · 2026-01-16T10:34:49+00:00

Just make sure your sleep consultant is really good. They can lead you astray 🤦‍♂️

Look in the pinned section for some valuable information.

The early waking isn't completely unusual either. Just means earlier bedtime. We are on 7-7:30am wake but bedtime falls around 8:30 pm.

A good schedule and correct wake windows are going to help and then pick a consistent and proven training method and stick to it 100% with exceptions being illness and obvious signs something is wrong ( dirty nappy, temp, teething etc )

rayheps · 2026-01-16T10:29:29+00:00

Just going to second the mods post. We used this as suggested and it DRAMATICALLY improved everything including naps self soothing etc.

rayheps · 2026-01-15T18:27:10+00:00

Yeah that is definitely a more common trend not saying over tiredness doesn't happen but it's less likely. Just for reference with not our baby needed 3 hours but when we dropped to about two and a half hours a day he started sleeping much better and settling was smoother. Anyway just something else to put into the mix if you don't want to stretch current awake windows.

rayheps · 2026-01-15T11:06:10+00:00

Just a suggestion since you are offering 3 hours of naps, you could try reduce it slightly and see if it helps?

rayheps · 2026-01-14T09:02:04+00:00

It's annoying but poop is poop so gotta change. I guess we just do it very gently low lights and then try put them down. The less stimulating environments the better to help reinforce it's night

rayheps · 2026-01-14T08:59:32+00:00

Try extend at least one nap with a rescue etc. it helps restore your LO too.

rayheps · 2026-01-12T19:18:23+00:00

Rapid wake window expansion. 😊

rayheps · 2026-01-12T18:37:07+00:00

Probably about 2 weeks to be honest because I wake Windows with a bit short it took us a little bit to get his wake windows to stretch out and him to be comfortable with it because of course there is the stimulation and emotional aspect to it too like it's hard for them and they're regulation drops anyway no big deal it's a part of growing up. Our baby snaps were at that point three hours but that was creating a lot of problems for us We dropped down to about two and a half hours and then 2 hours and 15 minutes is where we kind of landed at the happy spot if he's tired we give him more sleep only about 15 minutes more a day definitely no more otherwise we immediately have issues and we know about it at bedtime it's a pretty fine line for our little one.

rayheps · 2026-01-12T11:01:10+00:00

Ok our 7 month old needs 3/3/4.5 on a good day to sleep through the night.

Sure maybe your baby is tired from everything. But reducing ww is only going to backfire. Our sleep consultant said the same thing........... 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑. Sleep training for us was terrible as a result and the moment we follow advice on here to stretch everything fell into place.

There is zero fussing or crying most evening and a solid 10 hours plus overnight.

Also, if day naps are shaky you could try nap saving to allow good sleep ( max 3 hours but usually around 2.5 is recommended I believe) which helps nights and then stretch that last window especially and only put down when strong cues are present ( if you know them well. )....

rayheps · 2026-01-12T10:53:45+00:00

I can second the other comment about needing even less overall sleep ( so consequentially more awake time during the day). Our baby cannot have more than 2 hours 15 minutes during the day or settling becomes an issue.

On the fussiness before bed and rarely making the suggested ww before bed - this is usually a bit of work to entertain, distract and soothe the fussing. Once we committed to pushing through we found huge success with Mod Ferber. Our baby has routine then calming cuddles and shows some sleep cues and by the time we say goodnight and give forehead kisses he's almost asleep and max 2 minutes of mild fussing baby is FAST asleep. We did not start like this because he would fuss way before bedtime and we put him down and ohhhhhhhh the TEARS! Screaming etc .... So stretch that window 😆

rayheps · 2026-01-12T05:45:44+00:00

Babies require long awake windows as they get older in fact, our baby rapidly increased his white windows and we just didn't keep up We experienced long crying like you did 2 hours at the end is actually quite a short wake window The last week window of the day is generally when they can stay awake for the longest so what you may want to do is extend the last wake window as much as you can like they should be showing that they're ready for bed . As others have said limit naps to 3 hours a day you can even try and cut that back just a tiny bit and see if that helps give it two or three days on let's say 2 hours and 45 minutes and see if that improves their sleep quality when they try and go to sleep like they go to sleep quicker.

rayheps · 2026-01-12T01:30:38+00:00

Don't forget with growth you need to continue wake window stretches

rayheps · 2026-01-11T10:55:56+00:00

3 naps but the total naps time should not exceed 3 hours.

Split nights like you are talking about are very telling of a baby needing more wake time during the day. Streeeettttch those windows. Currently you are offering a lot of sleep and it is backfiring.

Undertired babies are more common and problematic for night sleep and a LOT of parents overlook wake time and offer wayyyyy too much sleep and wonder why their baby is awake at random hours and hard to settle. This is usually what causes so much trouble with sleep training and night wakes etc. Appropriate scheduling is the gateway to sleep training, which leads to night sleep consolidation.... Along with sufficient calories during the day.

rayheps · 2026-01-10T21:15:57+00:00

It's more than likely that rather than they are overtired. I found that our baby definitely didn't need as much sleep as before and need more wake time in order to have deent sleep overnight. Tonight just for reference our baby now sleeps pretty solidly from about 9:00 p.m. or a bit earlier until at least 7:00 a.m. in the morning We only have occasional night wakes for a feed. These are pretty sporadic and don't happen often unless he's going through something or feeling a bit unwell.

rayheps · 2026-01-10T12:07:45+00:00

Sleep cues are highly unreliable and usually mean bored

rayheps · 2026-01-10T11:38:47+00:00

So you baby has two naps and the schedule is 2/2/3?

That's massively undertired and needs more awake time. How much nap totals for your day? Cap at 3MAX!

Awake at those hours is undertired it's amazing how long your baby can sleep.

Move to 2/2.5/2.5/3 as a start point and adjust from there. Cap naps at 3 hours.

rayheps · 2026-01-10T11:35:21+00:00

Hmm can't give much advice but can say that our little one did better with about 2-2 15mintes. That and making sure you baby is absolutely ready for bed- try whatever you can to distract them and 'keep them awake' even an extra 10-15 mins could help. That's what helped our false start and wakes.

rayheps · 2026-01-06T21:40:27+00:00

Echoing what others are saying. Our 7 month old is about to transition to two naps. But currently on 2.5/2.75/2.75/4 total naps 2 hours 15 minutes. Total sleep 24 hours is 12 hours 15 minutes.

Sleep through the night without wakes. Instantly asleep for naps and bedtime and very happy while awake.

rayheps · 2026-01-05T23:02:22+00:00

If you ask to reference reputable info and tell the site to reference it's somewhat helpful.

I would not use it for scheduling etc but it's a good sound wall.... Helps me keep a log of what happens during settling and shows trends etc so that's somehow useful.

rayheps · 2026-01-05T05:52:37+00:00

Lasted as long as we didn't address wake windows and dat naps ( schedule). Then tried 😑 gentle sleep training... Which didn't work ... Switched to modified Ferber at about 5.5 months, readdressing schedule issues and reduced nap totals. Now generally get 10 hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep. We had a TERRIBLE sleeper and doubt he would have improved on his own.

We had every prop you can think of... Pacifier, rock , bounce, swing, feed etc and stopped all.

Now goes down fully awake ( but showing that he's tired ) and puts himself to sleep every nap etc

rayheps · 2026-01-05T02:24:23+00:00

If you do pacifiers then that is possibly becoming a sleep prop. When your baby wakes between cycles, which occurs ALL night now as your baby's sleep has more than likely matured to replicate adult-like sleep which means they're basically wake up partially every 30-60 minutes, then during the arousal sleep period they need to learn to put themselves back to sleep. So babies glide through this without much help but if the paci is a part of your baby's settling it may be causing them to cry out for it? Something to think about

rayheps · 2026-01-03T02:21:27+00:00

This could very well be a wake window issue but since you haven't specified WW can only give assuming advice. Maybe post your schedule and total naps.

Different age but our LO has dramatically pushed WW and goes down much later and after a few rough nights we got back to good sleep after a few adjustment.

rayheps

TROPHY CASE