This is a beyond doubt coarse request and it is always a great idea to know what to anticipate and how you are going to cope these transitions. I understand that while we know our children may need two sleeps a day (at colse to 6 to 12 months of age), they take up much of the day and can make appointments, activities and the school run for older children quite tricky. It is sensible however to remember that while two sleeps may be sometimes inconvenient, your baby will make you pay if they are overtired or miss out on the sleep they need. That is why I love car capsules (for flexible transfers between the car and other locations for newborns) and encourage background noise on at home during sleeps, to enable your child to sleep through noise covering the home.
So, how do we know when our 12 month old babies are ready to go from 2 sleeps to 1?
*Baby will start to refuse one or both day sleeps but not cope all day until the night sleep.
*or reduce both sleeps to colse to 30-45 minutes.
Once you can see this happening for about a week and you are convinced they are ready for 1 sleep, try the following:
*Decide on a sleep time and lock it in place. I suggest 12 md. Remember you need to keep the sleep in the middle of the day so the baby can cope before and after the sleep until bedtime at colse to 7-7.30pm.
*Once you determine to turn to 1 sleep, it is prominent to keep one sleep and not swap between 1 sleep sometimes and 2 sleeps at other times. Your baby's body clock needs time to adjust and needs consistency for this to happen.
*Even though you may have been convinced that your baby was ready for 1 sleep, they will whinge in the morning at colse to 9-10am when they used to have a morning sleep and appear tired. I call this a 'hump' that you need to distract your baby through (outside is best for fresh air) until they get their second wind and can stay up until 12 md.
*Your baby may whinge at 'hump' time for a few weeks to a few months until their body clock adjusts to the 1 sleep. Remember that if you allow 2 sleeps to creep in sometimes you will delay the baby coping with the morning and not whinging.
*Baby will probably have lunch at 11.30am.
*Avoid 'power naps' of a minimum of 10 minutes sleep when travelling in the car or the stroller if at all inherent in the mornings. A power nap will prevent your baby sleeping at lunchtime and create a monster to deal with until bedtime.
Tip: Remember that your baby needs to earn their sleep with bodily activity, No Tv in the morning and great healthy family meals. Your baby should be so tired that they are begging you to go to sleep! If not, they haven't earned their sleep and have spent too much time sitting in something (a stroller, play pen, swing, shopping trolley, walker).
(c) 2008 Natalie Ebrill. All ownership Reserved Worldwide.
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