distinct nap times

how old were your babies before they started having distinct wake/nap times? did you do anything to encourage a daily routine or did you let them grow into their own? also, were your babies premie or term?

 

My boys were born at 32 weeks and we were on a nice schedule at about 6 months actual with 3 pretty predictable naps a day. They pretty much got up at the same time each day and they were not STTN at that point.

 

My girls were born 6 weeks early (a few days before 34 weeks) and we STILL do not have a schedule. Our day is generally the same, but there are no set nap times as of yet. It could be my fault though b/c I don't wake them at the same time everyday. I keep hoping they'll sleep in, but they currently get up between 6-6:30, so if they sleep in until 7:00, I'm not waking them up earlier than that!! We are also not sleeping through the night, if we were, that might change my wake up time. Anyways, I'm sorry I don't think I helped much.

 

No set schedule here either.... still going with the flow and putting them down when they're tired/letting them nap as long as they want.

 

My boys were about 5 weeks early and I stuck to a feeding schedule since the day I brought them home from the hospital. We got a predictable nap schedule since about 7 weeks.

I am a huge schedule person and i really believe that as the parent we should be the one to dictate our child's day - not the other way around. So, I think the boys got into a good routine because I made that happen from the get-go. I fed at the same time mostly every day and I layed them down after every feeding (and hour or so after).

Now at 4 months we are in a schedule that is predictable by the minute - I love it! It is so nice to know when they are going to be tired and when they are going to be hungry!

 

I'd say for sure at 6 months we had a solid routine down.

 

I don't go by clock time for naps b/c I don't wake the boys up at the same time each day - I let them wake up when they wake up - but I can consistently count on them going down for a nap approx. 2 hours after waking up in the morning, 2 hours after waking up from their first nap, and back down again in 2 hours for their last nap of the day.

Finally at 7.5 months (they were born 5 weeks early) I can usually count on the a.m. nap being 45 min - 1 hour, the afternoon nap being 1.5 - 2 hours, and the late afternoon nap being 30 mins. Prior to this age their naps were totally unpredictable and ranged from 15 minutes to 1 hour tops.

 

Mine were born at 37 weeks and 4 days. We started to get a nap routine around 4 months. I made sure they have no more than 2 hours of wake time, but they can only usually handle 1 1/2 hours.

 

Now at almost 7months I can on most days say that they will wake up at around 630am, go down for their first nap at around 830am, second nap around 1145am, and third nap around 3pm, then bedtime at 530pm. The times vary a little bit depending on what we did during their playtime and how worn out they got. I am schedule person tho, so I was happy to finally have some predictability to my days. This started only at about 6.5mnths.
The two first naps of the day are at least 1.5hrs long (because I don't allow anyone out of their crib until 90min has passed) and then the last nap is anywhere from 30-60min long.

 

Mine were born at 36 weeks. At 3 months they had 2 reliable naps at 10 and 2 (give or take a 1/2 hour). We started it at 3 month, because that is when they started sleeping 12-13 hours at night.