You have all heard it! The saying goes:
Don't wake a sleeping baby
That is, if they don't wake themselves up with all the moving about they do. Arms going everywhere, hitting themselves in the face, grabbing their ears, rubbing their heads, banging their legs, ramming their fists into their mouths, pulling their hair.
They are their own worst enemies it seems!!
So what should a napping baby look like?
Well it doesn't look like the image that you saw on Instagram or the one you imagined in your head.
That looks like this:
I find that lots of parents will worry about their babies and the noises they make, as it appears they may not really be asleep at all.
I'm sure you all know the newborn grimace face that they do when they are asleep - the one that looks like they are laughing but Aunty Nora will tell you "they have gas" MOST of the time they are involuntary movements in light sleep.
Older children ( like 8 or 9 ) will more likely stay in one position and make less noises than babies. Babies can be very fitful in their sleep and they make a lot of commotion: grunting, farting, yelping.
This is due to the blockade of motor impulses not being fully developed, more impulses get through to the muscles and as a result, jerking, grimacing, twitching, kicking and those sounds are all normal.
Most babies will outgrow this as they mature.
So, if your baby is moving around a lot during a nap, it's not a big concern, instead focus your concern on how they fell to sleep at the beginning of the nap - this is crucial to good sleep overall.
Stuck with a baby who is only napping 20 minutes?
One thing I do want you to be aware of is, that obtaining and securing GOOD NAPS comes only ONCE a baby can sleep through the night.
Spending hours and days on working on naps, if you little one is not sleeping through the night will result in the naps going sideways when you DO work on the over nights.
The process of making changes to sleep goes like this:
1. Teach your baby how to fall to sleep at bedtime WITHOUT props.
2.Teach your baby to sleep through the night.
3. Teach your baby to sleep through the 5-6am stretch.
4. Teach your baby how to fall to sleep at nap time without props
5. Teach your baby how to lengthen the nap
For the record - YES !
If your baby is sleeping too much in the day it CAN take away from night time sleep.
Same as if a baby takes a long later nap and you want an earlier bedtime, then YES you would wake them up.
Need help to figure out what to do?
Contact Dawn today!
OR....
Join my Facebook community - FREE Baby & Toddler Sleep Support.
👉 Topics will be easy to find and broken down by age
👉 Weekly live sessions covering common sleep hurdles
👉 Stay on top of changes by reading about the different ages and stages in advance
👉 Friendly - non judgmental environment
See you in there!
DW
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