Hi Emma,

We are now teething second set of molars which seems to be making Rohan even more tired! Can I check when you say nap at 12, do you mean lay down in cot at 12 or aim asleep at 12?

Can I also ask what your generic recommendation is for a child of 22 months with sleep schedule? There seems to be a lot of information out there not to go…

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No worries.

Let me know how you go! And we can tweak things as needed.

Hi Emma. Thanks a lot for all the suggestions. We’ll give it a shot!!!

Regards,

Santiago

Hi Santiago,

Thank you for sharing all those details! Here are my thoughts and suggestions:

Overnight sleep

The pattern you’ve described – a longer 3-4 hour stretch of sleep, followed by shorter stretches as the night goes on – is very typical for this age. Over time, that first stretch of sleep at the start of the night will gradually…

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Hi again!

1. Her general mood during the day.

There´s times where she´s satisfied and is able to stay on her own for a bit, but most times it´s hard to even get a toilet break. If you play with her she´s pretty engaged and smiles a lot for a bit, but after maybe 30 mins she gets uncomfortable (squirming and becoming vocal) and we start wondering…

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Hi Santiago,

I’m so sorry for my delayed response! I somehow missed your post.

Before I provide some suggestions, I’ve got a few questions. You’ve given a lot of helpful information already, but there are a few more details I’d love to understand so I can give you the best advice.

1. Her general mood during the day. You mentioned she escalates…

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Hi Emma!

My daughter, is currently 14 weeks old and was born at 37 and a half weeks (so she´s technically 11 and a half). She is exclusively breastfed.

From early on, she has been quite fussy, and she started using a pacifier around day 3 (hospital staff couldn´t think of any other way to help us get her to sleep, we were exhausted). Currently,…

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Hi Paven,

Your plan sounds good. From what you have said, it does sound like with the new wake window length at the end of the day, he seems to be generally happier and settling to sleep slightly quicker.
I would try and keep this pattern for a week and then review it, as it can take them a little while to adjust.

Keen to hear how it goes.

Emma

Hi Emma,

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your time. We have had issues with long latency for weeks if not months (at bedtime). Figuring out whether it is under or overtired has been a problem as Rohan is mostly not upset during the time he is trying to sleep but recently I have felt it is overtiredness as he is not himself on waking and…

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Hi Pav!

It’s great to hear from you again.

It sounds like Roh had a few rough weeks with illness, then the vaccine, and then that developmental leap on top.

Has the change in behaviour continued, or if it has started to settle down? Often, when illness and vaccines happen, their sleep can disrupt for a little while, but it tends to settle back…

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Hi Emma, not sure if this is useful information. I decreased the second wake window by 30 minutes to 5 hours 15 and he took 70 minutes to fall asleep. He was trying to sleep – I could see he is sucking on his sleep sack as usual and changing position, by 50 minutes he started crying so i went in and gave him a cuddle for a few minutes as crying…

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Hi Emma,

I hope you are keeping well. I am wondering if you can help us as I think we have ended up in an overtired cycle. Rohan has been sick back to back then vaccines then travelling and now having a huge developmental leap saying new words every day, walking up and down steps independently etc.

I found the clock based sometimes pushed…

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HI Cherry,

Wow, 12 weeks already! Time really does fly!

Your approach to settling her for naps sounds really great. Doing your nap routine, putting her in the crib, placing your hand on her chest for a count of ten, then taking it away and moving away from her and letting her drift off by herself – is a bit like your own modified settling…

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Hi Emma,

Hope you are doing well! My baby is now 12 weeks (time pass by fast!) and I’ve gently started to use the pyramid with her. She is responding to things I’ve tried, sometimes well some times not so much.

For her first couple of naps of the day, she usually is very easy to put to bed in the crib, I just have to rock her a couple minutes and…

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Hi Lizzie,

Wow, 3.5 months – she’s growing up so fast!

From what you’ve described, it does sound like the dummy might be causing those more frequent night wakings. So I do think it might be time to let it go, and it’s absolutely fine to start now rather than waiting until four months. That said, if you’d prefer to wait, that’s okay too. Just…

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Hi Emma,

I think the time might have come to wean my baby from the dummy! She’s 3.5 months now and goes to sleep generally pretty well with it in – I can put her in the cot awake with dummy and often will settle by herself, or need me to put the dummy back in a few times. But she’s now waking every hour (or more) overnight from about 10:30pm…

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No worries at all.

Thanks Emma. I was following this advice as it seemed more logical. And, I haven’t been too strict about the distance; I just put the speaker on the other side of the room.

Thanks for your confirmation

Hi Kateryna,

Before I give you specific advice on transitioning away from rocking, I’d love to get a clearer picture of where things are at. So when you have time can you please answer the questions below?

His routine

• Does he have a consistent wake-up time each morning (within about a 30-minute window)? If so, what time does he usually…

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Hi Benjamin,

You’re right, the advice out there can be confusing!

The second piece of advice is the one that aligns with current safety guidance. The goal is to keep the sound level at your baby’s ears within a safe range, not just to limit what the machine is set to. So it’s the volume where your baby is sleeping that matters most.

The…

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My 3-month-old will only fall asleep during the day with rocking (often bouncing on an exercise ball). If I don’t rock him, he cries for a long time, becomes overtired, and it’s even harder for him to settle.

He doesn’t show clear sleep cues, so I usually try to put him down about 1.5 hours after waking, but it can still take 10–45 minutes of…

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I have seen conflicting advice out there re the 55db limit on using these.

One set of advice says that the machine should be set to no more than 55db AND the baby should be 2m away.

OR

Another set pf advice says that the level should be no more than 55db where the baby is (at least 2m away from the machine) and that you can check this with an app…

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Hi Patrick,

Thanks for sharing all of that!

So when little ones get sick, it can definitely set their sleep back a little and the reason for that is pretty straightforward. When they’re unwell, uncomfortable, or in pain, we naturally do more to help soothe them. And once they get used to that extra input to help them fall asleep, they start…

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Hi Emma, thanks for your quick and thourough reply. Your descriptions make perfect sense, during the day she is often waking up during her naps after 30 minutes and we have to rock her back to sleep otherwise her nap is finished after 30 minutes instead of 90. Maybe this is another useful information for you: When our daughter was around 6…

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Hi Jessica,

It sounds like your baby’s sleep space is great in terms of being conducive to sleep, and it’s fantastic that you’ve been able to adopt a consistent wake-up time and bedtime.

Before I can give you some strategies to lengthen your little one’s naps, I have a few questions. When you have some time, can you please answer the…

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Hi Emma,

Just wondering how I can best support my baby. There’s a few things going on with sleep currently.

Daytime: naps are around 30-45 minutes at the moment. They were more like an hour and have recently got shorter. She then can stay awake for 1.5 – 2 hours before getting grizzly. But seems a bit more quick to moan then when she was sleeping…

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Hi Patrick!

It sounds like your little one has learned to fall asleep using movement, and is then relying on that same movement to link her sleep cycles.

Here’s what’s happening:

During the day, when she stirs between sleep cycles (around that 30-minute mark), you’re naturally rocking, shushing, or moving to help her resettle which links her into…

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Hi Tatsiana,

Given that your little one has recently started the medication and the side effect is gassiness and the wakings at night have only recently started, they could be due to the medication.

But the other thing it could be is that your little one is going through the 4-month sleep regression. It’s not really a regression; it’s more like…

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Dear Emma!

Even though our daughter is already 8 months old, we’ve still decided to buy your course because her uninterrupted sleep Windows during the night are still really short (1.5-2 hours maximum) which is taking a huge toll on our family life.

I don’t know where we took the wrong path because the first 3 months were rather easy going…

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Emma, one detail. We started esomeprazole little mote than 1 week ago for the acid reflux. Its side effect is gasiness.

Hi Emma,

My daughter is 3moand 13 days now. Something has changed and i cannot figure it out. First I’ll say that we’ve been working on falling for a night sleep at earlier time instead of 10pm, so far unsuccessful. I’ve been waking her up earlier now and shifting it to earlier slowly by 15min every 3 days. I am much more strict with her day…

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No worries at all. I hope it helps a little

Thank you! Did not get to the pyramid yet 🙂

Hi Tatsiana,

You’re right that I generally recommend swaddling babies while they’re awake, as part of the settling routine. The reasoning is that even though they may protest at first, they usually calm down and being already swaddled makes the transfer from your arms into the cot easier. From there, you can use the Settling Pyramid to help…

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No worries at all, Erin. Just let me know how it goes, and we can make things if needed.

Emma

Hi, from what I see on the videos it looks like swaddling should happen when baby is still awake. My bay is 3mo old. It seems almost impossible for me to do because I know my baby will fight the swaddle if she’s awake. What I usually do is holding her until she’s in a deep sleep then swaddle and move to her bed. Please advise on that.

Yes that all sounds good and we will give it a try! I appreciate the plan.

Hey Erin,

Thanks so much for getting back to me with all of that detail!

It sounds like you’ve built a really solid foundation with a consistent wake-up time, a predictable nap routine, and he’s now able to settle to sleep in your arms without any movement. That’s great progress!

I understand that moving through the full settling pyramid…

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Thank you for the quick reply! We will try what you have suggested for the short naps at home and otherwise just go with the short nap if he seems happy enough to be awake.

To answer your follow up questions:

Morning wake: typically between 5:45-6:15. If he is not up by then, we will wake him up so he has time to eat and we have time to get…

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Hi Erin,

It’s great to hear that you’ve been able to get your little one napping in his crib, and that you’ve picked up some helpful tips from the forum!

About the short naps

Short naps are really common at this age, anywhere around 30 minutes or less. This happens because, sometime between 3 to 5 months, your baby’s sleep matures and they…

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Hi Yanet,

If that’s the case, then you might need to take it a little bit slower, the strategies should still work though, so let me know how you go in a week or two.
Emma

Thank you for the opportunity to seek advice outside of the video series! I have been searching the forum and have found some great advice that has helped our baby to sleep in his crib for naps without needing a contact nap, but we are having some issues now with short (approximately 30 minute) naps in his crib, plus significant…

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Yeah so initially I thought going to sleep meant fully asleep but she would already have her eyes closed by the time she lets us stop rocking, so she actually has never fallen asleep without motion at all, except nursed to sleep which works sometimes but often she wakes up within 5–10 minutes of seemingly being asleep when nursed to sleep, she…

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Hi Yanet,

Sorry, I’m just a little confused. I thought you mentioned she was falling asleep without motion most of the time. Does that mean you’re now using motion every time to get her to sleep?

If so, still pop on her sleeping bag and do the walking around part while you’re outside of the bedroom, and then when she is calm going into the…

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