How Many Naps Does Your Baby Need?

Let’s do a Q&A about naps!🎉 🙋🏻‍♀️ Do all babies need naps! 🙌 Yes! When babies are awake, sleep pressure, AKA adenosine, naturally builds up in the brain. When sleepnoressure gets too high, it triggers a release of cortisol initiating baby’s fight/flight/freeze response. A nap clears out most of that adenosine, allowing baby to have a reset and be their best. 🙋🏻‍♀️ Do I need to have a nap routine? 🙌 Nap routines are helpful because they cue baby that it’s time to relax and prepare the brain to sleep. We recommend that a nap routine be 5 minutes: diaper change, into sleep sack, close blackout curtains, sing one song, kiss and lay baby down to initiate their own journey to sleep. 🙋🏻‍♀️ Why do short naps happen? 🙌 A short nap is anywhere between 20-30 minutes. It is often a sign that baby was too tired before they were put to bed. In other words, cortisol is circling around their brain making it difficult for them to stay asleep. 🙋🏻‍♀️ Can I let my baby sleep as long as possible? 🙌 You can, but if the nap is too long you’ll likely be struggling to get baby to sleep at bedtime and start experiencing unusual wakings at night , and early starts to the day. This is because baby had to much day sleep and then compensates with wake ups elsewhere. We have a great resource, our Nap Cheat Sheet, if you want more info or help with your baby’s naps! Let me know in the comments and I’ll send you the link!