From Contact Naps to Sleeping on Mattress

In the first few months, babies love to contact nap! Here are some tips to help them take some naps on their mattress. This is a big transition and it may take some patience and time! When you make changes to naps, start with the first nap of the day, as it is usually the easiest time for baby to fall asleep. Once baby is asleep, place her on the mattress. You may need to wait a few minutes to make sure baby will stay asleep when you lay them down. Experiment with waiting for different amount of time, as each baby is different.

When you lay her down, keep your hand on her for a little while to make sure she stays asleep. If she wakes up as soon as you lay her down, you may need to take a more gradual approach. Consider how your baby is currently falling asleep. If baby is used to falling asleep on your chest “vertically” with their head on your shoulder, or in the carrier, that is a big change to go from sleeping vertically on you to sleeping horizontally on the mattress. We can break it down in smaller changes to help baby adjust more easily to each step. Here are some examples. Start with helping baby fall asleep in your arms more horizontally. Then, you can have baby fall asleep on your lap a few times. Baby is still on you, but we are teaching baby to sleep on their back–as if they were on a mattress–and further from your chest. Once baby has had a few naps on your lap, then try the mattress.

Once you’ve made some progress with the first nap, use the same approach for the second nap, and so on. Naps tend to become harder as they day goes. The last nap of the day is usually the hardest, and you may need to keep it as a contact nap to make it happen!

Pro Tips:

• When you lay her down asleep, let her bottom touch the mattress first. Then slowly lay 1 shoulder down and then finally lay her on her back. The top of our back is sensitive, and we want it to be the last part of the body to hit the mattress.
• As babies get older, babies become more sensitive to the environment. Offer naps in a dark room with white noise.

Transition to crib

When you are ready to move baby from a bassinet to their crib, start with playing in the crib during the day. When baby is in a good mood and not tired, put baby in the crib with the lights on in the bedroom. We want baby to have “fun” in the crib, so you may need to play with her. Bring a toy, make silly faces, play peek-a-boo, sing a song, etc. Play for 2-5 min, and then get her out. Repeat several times before baby starts to sleep in the crib. Next, start to do some naps in the crib, starting with the first nap of the day. Once you’ve done a few naps, you are ready to do bedtime in the crib!

Pro Tips:

• you can sleep on the crib fitted sheet for a few nights. That way your baby will smell you when they are in the crib!
• If your baby is not rolling yet and the crib feels very big, you can place baby along the short side of the crib so that baby can be close to 3 sides. Being close to 3 sides will feel familiar!

If you have any questions about your child’s sleep and would like more support, head over HERE to learn more about how we can work together to improve sleep or contact me.