Our perfectly, imperfect daycare sleep schedule.

As mentioned previously, both of my kids were horrible sleepers. This included both at home, and at daycare. My oldest, William was slightly better than my daughter, but with her, we are sometimes lucky if she will get a full 30-60 minutes of sleep the entire day at daycare.

Now let me remind you, she is 8 months old so she needs a total of ~14-14.5 hours of sleep per day. Just over 3 of those hours are supposed to come from naps throughout the day. She's been sleeping through the night independently and putting herself to sleep for naps since she was 4 months old. So what's the problem?

Quiet simply, she is out of her element! Now, this is no one's fault specifically - and let me just say that I absolutely love our daycare! I know they do their best. But, because Claire is an infant, she's in the infant room. That means she is with babies ages 6 weeks to 12 months old. A 10-week old baby is going to have a much different nap schedule and different sleep needs than a 10-month old, and so on. This makes it almost impossible to ensure that she will have a longer stretch of time where all babies will be content and happy enough for her sleep soundly. In addition to noise, it is not realistic to keep the room dark at all times (they do have several hours of the day in the afternoon dedicated to quiet nap time so blinds are closed at that time). Because they are a licensed daycare center with the state, there are rules and regulations they need to follow that do not always align with the most ideal napping conditions for sleep. They legally do have to attempt a certain amount of naps per day with child, and let me assure you they always do! This is where her short contact, crib or swing naps take place. So how do I not let my "Type-A" personality freak out?

Early bedtimes, and my favorite - contact naps when we have plans after work/daycare pick up. Early bedtimes can legit sometimes look like falling asleep on the car ride home at 4:30pm, waking up for a bottle at 5:00pm, and putting her right to bed until it is time to wake up in the morning for at 6:30am. And let me tell you, she sleeps the ENTIRE time. Every once in a while she might wake up ~4:00am for a bottle, but then she is put back down and is able to get another couple hours of sleep. The math still doesn't work out perfectly sometimes, but we then catch up a little more on weekends.

Does it make me sad that this means I get less time with Claire after work? Of course. But I know in order to keep her happy & healthy, she needs the sleep. And I know that this is just a small phase of her life.

Some parents may worry that contact naps, swing or bouncy chair naps might ruin the hard work they did to get their child to fall asleep independently. While these are not the type of naps we prefer, your baby is smarter than you might think. They know that daycare isn't the same as at home - that is part of the problem after all! Once they learn the skill of independent sleep, they quickly learn what situations or environments is best to use that skill in. Most of the time, falling asleep independently will stay their preferred way of sleeping, because it allows them to sleep more restfully and longer stretches at a time without any interruption.

So for those struggling with naps at daycare... hang in there. Cut your daycare teachers some slack. And enjoy all the baby cuddles whenever you can.

Sincerely,

Your "Type-A Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant, Full-time PT, mamma of 2"