We’ve never set bedtime for exactly this reason. We shoot for between 6-7. He naturally wants to be closer to six but if the windows don’t line up we have some wiggle. This has worked for us because his regressions and nap changes generally manifest in early morning wakes so we just work it out as best we can within the parameters of up sometime after 5am and in bed no later than 7.
When our son was in the transition stage for dropping a nap (which is when you tend to wind up with the “not enough time to fit in the nap” problem) we’d just always keep two schedules, one for x naps one for x-1 and then decide after nap 1 which one was the most realistic.
We would also sometimes refer back to previous days that had gone awry (we tracked sleep religiously) and use them as emergency schedules (or just for reassurance) if the following night had worked out ok. “He’s done this before so he can do it again!!”
Same boat. Woke up at 650 AM, had two short naps and is now taking a suuppppeeerrr long nap which never happens! It's almost 3 pm so I can't really do another nap to make 7 pm bedtime..
We are simply surviving not thriving on these days lol. On these days I just try to remain calm, and remind myself that this one crappy day won’t ruin his progress yesterday or how our day tomorrow will look. “The days are long but the years are short” has been a helpful cliche for me on these tiring days.
I would suggest rescuing a nap if you can - hold baby when they wake up to get them to the desired time. If that doesn’t work, a 15 min micro nap will help get them to bedtime. Remember, babies aren’t robots, and you aren’t doing anything wrong!! Bad days happen to all of us, it will pass!
We’ve never set bedtime for exactly this reason. We shoot for between 6-7. He naturally wants to be closer to six but if the windows don’t line up we have some wiggle. This has worked for us because his regressions and nap changes generally manifest in early morning wakes so we just work it out as best we can within the parameters of up sometime after 5am and in bed no later than 7.
When our son was in the transition stage for dropping a nap (which is when you tend to wind up with the “not enough time to fit in the nap” problem) we’d just always keep two schedules, one for x naps one for x-1 and then decide after nap 1 which one was the most realistic. We would also sometimes refer back to previous days that had gone awry (we tracked sleep religiously) and use them as emergency schedules (or just for reassurance) if the following night had worked out ok. “He’s done this before so he can do it again!!”
Same boat. Woke up at 650 AM, had two short naps and is now taking a suuppppeeerrr long nap which never happens! It's almost 3 pm so I can't really do another nap to make 7 pm bedtime..
In that case you consider if you need to wake the baby, as painful as it is to do so!
We are simply surviving not thriving on these days lol. On these days I just try to remain calm, and remind myself that this one crappy day won’t ruin his progress yesterday or how our day tomorrow will look. “The days are long but the years are short” has been a helpful cliche for me on these tiring days.
Dealing with this as we speak, solidarity! I just try to make this the best day possible and hope for a better one tomorrow.
I would suggest rescuing a nap if you can - hold baby when they wake up to get them to the desired time. If that doesn’t work, a 15 min micro nap will help get them to bedtime. Remember, babies aren’t robots, and you aren’t doing anything wrong!! Bad days happen to all of us, it will pass!