Hi @MAW, thank you for writing to us and congratulations on your little one. Hang in there, it is a wild transition to a sweet baby and you’ll find your groove eventually, even if it doesn’t look like you thought it would. We would love to help though! First off, you are right that there could be long terms effects if you continued this, but you have a bit of time before you have to worry about that (usually the bad habits are tougher to get rid of around 4 months) and you can certainly start implementing things now, but know you have time and don’t have to do it all at once. 🙂 Here is a link to a free guide with tips for new parents that should help: https://www.babysleepsite.com/15-free-baby-sleep-facts-new-parents-must-know/
If you want more information we also have an ebook all about newborn sleep through the first year. You can read more about that here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/essential-keys-to-your-newborns-sleep/
I hope this helps! Enjoy all those sweet newborn cuddles. 🙂

I’m just not sure what I should be starting with, like, which issue to tackle first, or can I do it all together?
We have a lovely expensive bassinet that she’s never slept more than 5 minutes in. I never thought I’d get here, but the past 3 weeks she has co slept with me in bed (with bolsters and an Owlet Monitor, but still, not what I wanted) because I hadn’t slept more than an hour at a time since she was born.
I just feel like if I let this keep going it will become a bigger issue, but I can’t bear to have her cry… is there anything I can do?

Hey @Vanessa, I am sorry to hear you are struggling with your daughter’s naps! Here is a link to download a free ebook with some nap tips that may help: https://www.babysleepsite.com/free-baby-nap-guide/
If you continue to have issues with her fighting you on it, you may find working with a sleep consultant can do wonders for your nap time! They can help with the schedule all around, or whatever areas you are having problems with, and then if you need any other help down the road (nap transitions, new sibling, sleep regression, etc) you already have that relationship. To learn more about our different options, you can visit our site here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services/
I hope this helps! Hang in there!

@Stephanie – Thank you for reading and for sharing with us. Managing naps can definitely be a challenge but it sounds like you’re working very hard to ensure she gets enough daytime sleep. Getting the schedule right can be tricky since quality and timing of night sleep, nap timing, feeding and environment all play into getting a decent nap. We do find that most toddlers are ready for 1 nap between 15-18 months, and many, many, many times with this 2-1 nap transition, though, they will take quite some time so consistency with whatever you’re doing is key. If you’re interested in weaning her away from nursing to sleep, you can do this gently, with as few tears as possible, in an effort for longer stretches during the day as well. If you’d like more support, you should consider one of our consulting options listed here:https://www.babysleepsite.com/services One of our consultants will definitely be able to walk you through this process. Hang in there, and good luck!

Hi @ Megan – Thank you for writing! It sounds like you’re working hard on your daughter’s naps! I would guess that she is going through the 4 month sleep regression – short naps are a very common occurrence with this regression.
Here is a link to our recommend schedules:
https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-feeding-schedules/?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=schedules
You might find this helpful to use the 4 month schedule while her naps are still short. Adding an extra nap may help, and giving her a little time to fall back to sleep/encouraging her to fall back to sleep will not hurt! Short naps often lengthen at around 6 months, so if they remain short after 1-2 months, you may want to consider working more aggressively on lengthening them at that time.

I hope that this information helps, but if you find that it is not helping enough, please contact us!

@Han – Thank you for your sharing. Your little guy sounds like, overall, he’s doing well with his sleep! Perhaps you can try to work on keeping his nap times a bit consistent and ensuring he gets 2-3 hours of awake time before attempting a nap again. Here’s a sample schedule you can use as a loose guideline – https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/9-month-old-baby-schedule/

If you feel his schedule is working fine and/or you’ve given this a try, please also remember that babies go through a huge developmental leap between 8-10 months old that is widely known to disrupt naps and/or night sleep majorly for a little while. You can read more about that here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-patterns/8-9-10-month-old-baby-sleep-regression/ If that’s his case, you’ll just want to be sure not to create a long-term habit for this short-term phase as he goes through this important milestone.

If, after a few weeks you’re still not seeing results or if you find you want more support right now, please consider one of our consultation packages, which you can read more about here: http://www.babysleepsite.com/services so that one of our consultants can work one on one with your family to get your little guy back on track with his naps!

Hang in there, Han, and thank you again for reading and commenting!