Nava Sleep Consulting

A "wake window" is a fancy term for how long your kiddo should be awake in-between naps and before bed. These are averages so, some babies might fall perfectly within these time frames and others may not. It's always good practice to balance out wake windows with sleepy cues. Be sure to save this so you can refer back to it when needed!

"Choices, wait, what? - I thought we needed a predictable bedtime routine?!" - YES, but within that predictable bedtime routine, ensure that your little one gets to make some choices about how their bedtime goes. Toddlers LOVE to have their voices heard and know that their opinions matter. Give them some choices around:

👉🏽which books to read
👉🏽which PJs to wear
👉🏽which parent puts them to bed if there are 2 at home
👉🏽which animal / stuffy to take to bed
👉🏽which song to sing

This will help them feel independent while still having the security of good boundaries and consistency. 😊

What does your baby's night look like and what's happening?

Most babies naturally go to bed between 6:30pm - 8pm, depending on their age and wake windows. Sometimes, about 45 minutes later, baby might wake up. This is usually caused by baby being under tired or overtired at bedtime or being too drowsy at bedtime. So, if this is a struggle, play with the wake windows or if baby is getting too drowsy during their feed, try moving it towards the start of their bedtime routine.

Once they are asleep, they go into a deep sleep, often lasting around 3 hours. It's unlikely baby will wake up during this time. Once that stage is over, they are back into lighter sleep and may have several wakings usually around 2 hours apart. If they are independent sleepers, they will fall back asleep usually within about 10 minutes.

4-6am is the lightest stage of nighttime sleep and baby can wake very easily during this time as their melatonin drops. Any light or sound has a good chance of waking baby up. Blackout blinds and noise machines are very helpful to keep light and sound from waking up baby. It's also a naturally cool time of night so ensuring the temperature is just right for baby will help.

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