A baby’s first year of life is filled with constant growth and changes. As a pediatric sleep consultant here in Northern Virginia, I help parents navigate these changes while keeping sleep intact. Everything from developmental milestones to illness can make your baby’s sleep take a turn for the worse, but one of the biggest culprits is simply that your baby has outgrown their current sleep schedule.

So how do you know it is time to change things up? Here are the 4 clearest signs.

1. Your baby is taking longer than 15 minutes to fall asleep for a nap.

This is a key indicator that your baby needs more sleep pressure! As the weeks and months go by, they need more and more time awake to build sleep pressure. This free awake window chart is a really helpful guide to determine if you are on an age-appropriate schedule.

2. Your baby takes good naps, but then is taking a long time to fall asleep at bedtime.

Again, reference the awake window chart. It is also important to note that as the day goes on, babies need increasingly more time awake. For example, an 8-month-old may need only 2.5 hours of time awake before their first nap, but 3.5 hours of awake time before bedtime. I always ask my clients to keep baby up without getting drowsy for a very specific time before bed, as this is the most important awake window for a good night’s rest!

3. Baby sleeps well for naps and goes down easily at bedtime, but then wakes up at 5am!

This is also another sign you may be ready to drop a nap or increase the time that your baby is awake before bedtime (which naturally pushes out a nap). An ideal bedtime is between 7-8pm, if your baby woke up at 3pm from their second nap, and needs 4 hours awake before bedtime, this would naturally kick out a third nap! If you are putting down a baby for bedtime with not enough time awake, they may go to sleep easily, but they won’t have enough sleep pressure to carry them through the night, and thus that pesky 5am wake up!

4. Your baby falls asleep in under 5 minutes

This is another sign that your baby may be on the wrong schedule. In this case, baby was overtired and needed to be laid down earlier. The problem with having a child go to sleep overtired is that this releases the hormone cortisol into the brain. This is the hormone the body uses to actually wake us up. So here is what happens- around 3-4am the body stops producing melatonin and starts producing cortisol. If your body has an access of cortisol from going to sleep overtired, you will be awake earlier.

I hope these tips are helpful in helping your family navigate sleep changes. If you think you are in need of a nap transition head over to my blog post and read my guide for transitioning from 3 to 2 naps, 2 to 1, and finally, dropping the nap.

If a schedule seems impossible to follow because your baby takes short naps or is awake all night, schedule a call today to learn how I can help your family in just 2 weeks!

Sweet Dreams,

Stephanie