Baby’s nap routine by month age

Different children have different nap routines and these routines keep changing as your baby gets older. My baby has changed his nap routine so many times within the first year that sometimes even I got confused! Here’s what happened with him and how his sleep cycle changed with age.

During his first three months, my baby slept for almost the whole day. Gradually he developed a cycle of sleep. After his birth, very soon I realized that a proper sleep circle was essential for his development.

When he was a few months old, my baby slept for 14-17 hours a day. I was also accustomed to it. But he was very sensitive to noises, especially in the daytime. So we tried to ensure a noise free experience for him.

After 3 months my baby had a major change in his routine. He was no longer sleeping for long periods in the day, in fact, his daytime sleep reduced to 4-5 hours. Even this was not continuous, rather he took several breaks between naps.

After sleeping for one or two hours he would wake up and start laughing, playing, sometimes even crying. Then I tried to build his habit of taking a long nap after lunch. Even during three months of age, he slept for almost 10 hours at night, I just had to feed a couple of times during his nighttime nap. When my baby was 6 months old, his sleep reduced even further during daytime. He at best slept for three hours a day. As he was always super-active, he did not want to sleep during the day. However, we made sure he had a sound sleep at night. We tried to ensure a sleeping friendly environment with optimum light. Through this, he also figured out that night time meant it was time to sleep. So when I sang lullabies he went to sleep soon.

My baby had a more or less consistent routine from 6 months to one year. He slept for two or three hours during the day and for 10 hours at night. At that age, he usually slept for one hour around 11 am, 1-2 hours after taking a noon meal and then slept early at night. He started to recognize people, so I had to be around during his sleeping time. Sometimes he cried randomly at night. I had to keep him calm then and again put him to bed.

One thing I made sure I never did was put my baby to bed when he wasn’t ready for sleep. Rather I tried to ensure a proper sleeping environment for him. At the same time, I tried to adjust my routine so that I could do some household chores while he was sleeping. I believe this helped me to maintain my well being too and if you try this, it will help you too.