Dana Obelman: Hi, I’m Dana Obelman. Welcome to this week’s video chat.
Today, our question comes from Maria. She writes, “I did the program. It worked like a charm.” That’s good to hear.
“Only now she won’t fall asleep when we’re out and about. She needs to be in her crib to sleep. Any suggestions?”
Maria, there’s going to be a lot of people watching here that are very jealous at the moment because your baby’s sleeping so well. But it is a concern. I understand where you’re coming from. It’s one that I get asked often. I have to be totally honest with you.
If there’s any downside to having a baby who sleeps great, it’s that they sleep great in their own bed. That’s just a fact. If you look at adults, we are exactly the same. We don’t sleep well when we’re at a hotel or at our mother‑in‑law’s house. We like our own bed. That’s my favorite thing about coming home from a trip is my own bed. She will always sleep better in her crib.
That doesn’t mean you can never leave the house. I know how that feels, especially, if you have more than one child, you need to get out, play, and explore the world. I understand that. You just need to keep some structure to your day. My advice is, always keep the first nap of the day at home.
That is always the best nap. You really don’t want to mess around with that one. That’s where the length is the best, they go down the easiest. Stick to the first nap of the day. Then, if you’ve got a child who’s on a three‑nap schedule, I suggest that the late afternoon nap can be out and about, but you need to plan for it. You cannot expect a toddler or a baby to fall asleep anywhere.
You have to have some sort of structure, whether it’s a stroller that you’ve got, a cover over so you can block out some of the environmental sounds and lights, or take your pack‑and‑play along with you. If you’re at a friend’s house, you can go set that up, put the baby down for her scheduled nap when you’re out. That will help, absolutely.
If the third nap of the day is in the stroller or even the car, it’s not the same quality of sleep that your baby would get in the crib, but it’s better than nothing. Like you said, you do need to get out of the house, now and then. The good news here, too, Maria, is that as your baby gets older, they have more stamina.
When they have more stamina, they can go longer between naps. My advice to mums is always be ready to go as soon as your baby wakes up. Have the diaper bag prepared. Have the car seat ready and waiting. As soon as she wakes up, you give her a quick feed and you’re out the door.
Hopefully, you can get your errands done in the time‑frame and be back in the house before the next nap. One little piece of advice around going out for the day is that if your baby falls asleep in the car seat, that can be nap sabotage, I call it. Even if it’s only for two minutes on the very last stretch of the road to get to your home, and she falls asleep for two minutes, it can then be impossible to get her to go down for her nap.
My rule of thumb around car sleep is you either hang in there and you make her stay awake until the minute you get home, or you call that the nap. You either keep driving around for half‑an‑hour, or you transfer her into the house as carefully as possible so not to wake her. Because anything else is most likely going to cause a total write‑off to the afternoon nap.
We love to hear your comments. If you’ve got a really clever strategy for getting out of the house with your baby and back in time for nap, we’d love to hear it. Or, if you have questions about your own child’s sleep, please chat within our blog, and hopefully, we’ll get a chance to talk more soon. Thanks so much. Sleep well.
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Dana: If you are looking for even more advice on your baby’s sleep, head over to sleepsense.net to answer five easy questions and get a free sleep evaluation for your child.
Transcription by CastingWords
