Hi. I’m Dana. Welcome to this week’s video. Today I want to talk about striking a balance between baby’s nap needs and mom’s needs. I get a lot of questions from mom saying, well, now that I’ve got her on a great nap schedule, I feel like I can never leave the house. That’s extra challenging if you’ve got a toddler as well, because we know that toddlers are going to go stir crazy if you have to stay inside all day. How do you keep the needs of the baby in mind and also your needs to get out and go for coffee or get groceries or all those things that have to happen in a day? That’s a great question.

If you’ve just started the program, I always ask people to clear their schedules as much as they can for two weeks. Try to minimize outings, cancel that swim class, make sure that you’re making this your number one priority, because once you’ve laid a really good foundation for naps and you’ve got the schedule in place, then you can experiment with going out for one or seeing if she’ll sleep in the car seat or the stroller for one and go with the flow, once you’ve got things established.

After the two weeks, and you’ve got a good schedule in place and baby is doing pretty good with her naps, then I suggest people follow an 80/20 rule around this. Most of the time she should be napping in her crib. A, because that’s the best quality sleep she is going to get. We know that car seat sleep and stroller sleep are not the same quality. Our body doesn’t let us go into the deep stage three as often or for as long if there is motion or movement. It’s not the greatest, but it’s better than nothing, absolutely. She’s going to sleep longer if she’s in her crib, as well. Motion sleep, again, is so light that little things will wake her and then 20 minutes of nap time and it’s over.

Again, you need to get out, so if you’re going to plan your day, my advice is stick with the first nap of the day at home in the crib, because that’s always the best nap of the day usually anyway. The longest, she goes down for it the best. The last nap of the day tends to be the more problematic of all the naps. If you’ve got a child on a three nap schedule, then that last nap of the day you can plan for that to be out and about. She’ll sleep in the car or she’ll sleep in the stroller or she might even sleep in the carrier if that’s an option. Again, it’s not the best, but it’s better than nothing and that’s livable.

One thing to keep in mind around baby’s needs is make sure that when you’re looking for activities, that you see what time they’re taking place. I can remember being frustrated as a mom with little ones, because swim class or the play group or even a doctor’s appointment was really hard to fit in around the child’s nap schedule, but I kept looking because I knew that their naps were as equally important as anything else that went on in their day. Dig a little. You have to dig a little bit to find those activities that fit in around nap time. Then, once baby’s nap is over, you’re ready to go. You do a quick feed, you’re out the door and hopefully you’re back in time for the next nap.

Now, if you’re in the car and it’s getting close to nap time, there is a chance that your baby is going to fall asleep there. What do you do if that happens? A, first try to avoid it, okay, as best you can, avoid this. Car nap, even for a minute or two is something I call nap sabotage. It will ruin the nap. Even a minute of sleep in the car will ruin the nap.

If it does happen, because life’s life and it’s going to happen now and then, you have two choices essentially. One, you either keep driving and call it nap, right? Drive for another half hour, go through the drive through. I don’t know what you’re going to do, but keep driving so that she sleeps and call that the nap or get her home and try to transfer her as gently as you can or even just bring the car seat in and put it in her bedroom and don’t move her out of that. I don’t know a lot of babies who are awesome at being transferred, but it’s worth a try. If you can’t do it though, baby won’t transfer, she wakes up, then wait about an hour before you try for the nap. Same thing if she falls asleep for two or five minutes in the car, no point in going straight into nap because it’s not going to happen. Give it about an hour and then try for the nap. All right?

I hope that helps a little. I get it. There’s things you have to … You have to be a really good planner, right? There’s not a lot of spontaneity when you’re a new mom, but that’s okay, because it’s all in the name of good sleep. Thanks for watching today. Sleep well.