The Babywise Mom Nap Guide: How to establish successful naps from birth through the preschool years

The Babywise Mom Nap Guide: How to establish successful naps from birth through the preschool years.

Baby sleeping

Of all of the questions I get on my Babywise Mom blog, the topic most frequently inquired of is naps. How to get baby to take a nap? Why won’t baby nap? Why does baby wake up after 45 minutes? How can I get baby to sleep?

The Babywise Mom Nap Guide how to get baby to take naps

 

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The Babywise Mom Nap Guide

Because of this, I bring to you The Babywise Mom Nap Guide: How to establish successful naps from birth through the preschool years. In this eBook, I discuss the following:

  • Nap goals (what your goals should be for naps)
  • Waketime length (common optimal waketime lengths for all ages and how to calculate it)
  • Growth spurts (when they typically happen and what to do when they do)
  • Short naps (how to solve those short nap issues and what to do when baby wakes early)
  • Sleep totals (how much sleep your child should be getting by age, baby through teen)
  • Sleep transitions (understanding what a sleep transition is and when they happen)
  • Dropping naps (everything you need to know about dropping naps from baby naps on to rest time for your preschooler)
  • Sleep cues (understanding sleep cues)
  • Sleep routines (what to include in your sleep routine)
  • Sleep regressions (when sleep regressions happen and what to do when they happen)
  • Sleep props (what is a sleep prop, what isn’t, and when it is okay to use a sleep prop)

You can find tons of nap information on this blog. What the book does for you is consolidate the information and put everything you need to know about naps in one place. This way you don’t have to search through the entire blog and bounce around looking for the information you need.

Reviews

Gary Ezzo, author of On Becoming Babywise, said: “Whether it is talking about establishing good nap behavior or offering solutions to sleep disruptions, this is a resource that Dr. Robert Bucknam and I trust. The book is well laid out and answers just about every question a new or seasoned mom might have about babies, toddlers and sleep. We view this as more than a nap guided; it is a resource of encouragement that comes with compassion.”

Fatima said: “You can’t imagine how this book and your website really changed my twin daughters’ lives and certainly mine. I knew that I wanted to go the babywise way but had no practical guidance how to do so and your book helped immensely with that. Until today, and my daughters are about ten months old, I use your book as a reference even sections that I didn’t understand before or didn’t know the value until today. Words can’t express my gratitude as it has been really tough as a newly mom of two. I have read several books and websites and really your book should be distributed as a key reference to new moms. I had no sleep for the first three months after my daughters were born until I discovered babywise and importantly your website; since then my daughters have been sleeping beautifully for about 10-11 hours every night.

So big THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, and hope you keep rescuing all the mothers out there. “
 
Veronica said: “The Babywise Nap Guide was a survival tool for me in my early days of Babywise. I was a late starter (my son was 7 weeks old) and we had done a previous program that advocated nap times that were far too long for a baby his age so by the time we switched to Babywise his naps were a mess and I was an anxious and stressed out Mum who had no idea how long he actually should be awake.
 
The first point that helped me greatly was realising that other Mum’s had the same issue of 45 minute naps AND SURVIVED! It wasn’t the end of the schedule, I wasn’t ‘messing up’ as a Mum and I hadn’t ruined my son’s sleep patterns for life – there was hope! 
 
Even now, at 23 weeks, I am still constantly referring back to the guide for assistance on extending wake times, checking optimal wake times and, most recently, dropping a nap. 
 
The information is easily understood, succinctly written and enables quick over views for time poor Mum’s who are desperate for a quick answer. “
 

Purchase Your Copy

You can buy it here and get an instant download. By making a purchase, you are agreeing to my privacy policy.

 

The Babywise Mom Nap Guide how to get baby to take naps

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The Babywise Mom Nap Guide
Morning Routine Cards
Ultimate Back to School Planner
Overcoming the Mental Load of Motherhood
Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Book of Logs
The Babywise Mom Nap Guide
Morning Routine Cards
Ultimate Back to School Planner
Overcoming the Mental Load of Motherhood
Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Book of Logs
The Babywise Mom Nap Guide

6 thoughts on “The Babywise Mom Nap Guide: How to establish successful naps from birth through the preschool years”

  1. My baby is 3 weeks tomorrow. I’m trying to establish proper naps and sleep. But I think I’ve been through every post and I can’t get her to nap without someone holding her. I’m starting to get really upset, probably due some to lack of sleep and postpartum. We struggle to stay awake for full feedings. She takes big gulps for about 3-5 minutes and then it’s usually a struggle to keep her awake. It takes almost 45 min to an hour to feed her with a diaper change, burp, and trying to keep her awake to feed. Am I trying to early? That’s what people were saying in a BW Facebook group, but I read you started from the beginning with your last two. I want to set her up for good sleep as soon as possible but I don’t know what else to do. I’ve tried swaddling, putting her in her bassinet in our bedroom which is where she sleeps at night, a sound machine, I’ve tried a Dock a Tot while I’m monitoring, tried putting her in her crib in the nursery, a bouncer. I’ve even tried putting her down while she’s asleep, which I know isn’t recommended. She’ll sleep for a few minutes and then she’s crying again. I’ve tried letting her cry it out but that’s only lasted 15 minutes at most. It doesn’t help that my husband and mom don’t understand BW so no ones on the same page. Evenings are rough, she wants to feed constantly for 2 hours or more. She’ll fall asleep and I’ll try to put her in her bassinet swaddled but she wakes and cries. Eventually she’ll finally fall asleep after about 2 hours. I’m a FTM and don’t have any friends who’ve done BW. I’m just lost and would appreciate any help/advice you’d be willing to give.

    Reply
    • Hi Kirstin,

      I am sorry you are having struggles! It is no fun. I wonder if she might have reflux or a tongue-tie? I would check those things.

      It isn’t too early at all.

      Do not stress about keeping her fully awake for every wake time right now. Start by focusing on just one a day. Focus on her taking full feedings for each feeding. If she naps throughout a feeding, she won’t be able to sleep as well during nap time.

      Hang in there! It will come.

      Reply
  2. Hello,
    I have just recently found your website. I am familiar with the babywise method, but also have been using other methods to help my little one fall asleep independently. She is 9 weeks old. I have spent hours reading your blog posts on naps, as this is our biggest struggle. She will only sleep about 40 minutes (on the dot) at a time (if I get her to nap at all). I have shortened her waketime to about 40-45 minutes. She will go to sleep within a few minutes usually without fussing too much. However, she will NOT sleep for more than 40 minutes. I try to go in and give her paci, even rock her for a bit. She will not go back to sleep. I’ve tried letting her cry it out. She will cry for hours (because, I think, she is overtired). If I extend her waketime, she will not fall asleep at all. I had been waiting on sleepy cues, but I’ve figured out that by the time she shows those, she is overtired (yay). She will sleep in the swing or car seat for hours at a time, I usually have to wake her to feed. I feel as though I have tried everything. I am so frustrated and have been brought to tears. I’m at a loss for what else to do. I’ve read this is developmentally appropriate, but the thing is she can transition through her sleep cycles at night. She sleeps a consistent 6 – 7 hours for her first stretch. She also has an excellent nap in the evening before her bedtime routine. We will put her down for her last nap anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30 and she will sleep for 1.5 hrs without fuss.

    Any advice would be so greatly appreciated.

    Reply
  3. Hi Valerie, first of all, thank you!! We are so grateful for all of your wisdom and guidance that you’ve shared online – we have already been blessed by it as we raised up our two beautiful daughters (age 3.5 and 10.5 months)! We found out about baby wise late. Our daughter Noah was only 10 months. I’ve read hours and hours of your blog and we’ve been diligent about following your system for the past 10 days. (Before babywise, Noah would sometimes take one good daytime nap 1.5-3 hours) but wasn’t sleeping through the night and wasn’t on a consistent schedule. Now that I know better, both of my girls are on a schedule and doing GREAT. Noah’s first 6 days were incredible, sleeping through the night, loving the dream feed, paying attention to optimal wake times … but day 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 (10 is today..) she regressed on her naps. She went from two predictable optimal naps 1.5-2.5 hours each just like you said, now she’s screaming and fighting going down way more than initially and hasn’t slept more than 35 min for a nap in 4+ days, and obviously, is tired and fussy 😫 (still doing good overnight though). Is this normal? Is there something I’m missing? We’re not sure what to do with her schedule because you say to keep her schedule the same (wake at 8 am, nap at 10 am for example, lunch at 12 pm etc) but also you recommend keeping wake times the same but what do we do when she’s all of sudden not napping more than 30 min? As you know this throws off the schedule (she’s waking up from first nap at 1030 for example, way too early for lunch, etc.) and if I follow optimal wake time (about 2- 2.5 hours) then she’s going down again at 1230-1 pm, which is supposed to be her lunch, her second nap is supposed to be 3 pm… so does she nap three times on a day like this? i was so excited when we had such a strong start and Im not giving up! but i want to ask for your expertise here, if you’re willing… thank you you so much.

    Reply

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