Naptime Vs. Bedtime with The Caperberry Collective

We've teamed up with our friends at The Caperberry Collective to discuss Naptime vs. Bedtime. Does your baby sleep better during the day or night? Either way sleep is always needed...

As so many mamas out there will agree, one very prevalent topic of motherhood is sleep (or lack of!). To put it simply, sleep is gold. If baby sleeps well, mama sleeps well. It’s a fact of life.

If you’re anything like us (or your mini me is anything like Max), each time you think you’ve nailed bedtime, naps, and dare I say it sleeping through the night and do a little victory dance you’ve already spoken too soon. Suddenly, there’s a four-month sleep regression to deal with, not to mention teething, growth spurts and the occasional cold!

Do they sleep better at night if they nap during the day? But napping after 5 o’clock for a 7 o’clock bedtime is bad, right? Black-out curtains or daylight? No noise, white noise or normal daily noise? To swaddle or not to swaddle? With so many questions surrounding babies and their sleep, no wonder so many of us are a little frazzled about the whole thing.

Max has just turned 7 months and here’s what we’ve learnt about those precious zzz’s…

Early days 

Generally speaking, newborns need a lot of sleep, a lot of feeds and it takes a few weeks for them to realise there’s a difference between day and night. All I can say is - despite feeling like you’re in a blur of hourly feeds and being told to ‘sleep when the baby sleeps’ (which is easier said than done), soak up every little moment you can, the newborn stage is so fleeting.

Nap schedules

Max seemed to naturally slot into having a ‘before lunch’ nap and an ‘after lunch’ nap. Every family’s weekly schedule is different, but this works for us. By keeping things fairly flexible, we can still go swimming on a Wednesday afternoon, mid-morning playdates and brunch aren’t out of the question and falling asleep in the car (him not me!) isn’t a problem any time of the day.

Bath, book and bed

I guess this is more for my benefit than his at this stage. I love a good children’s book and while Max would rather be chewing on said books, it’s a nice way to end the day. If it’s not books, it’s toys. After his tea – we have a little playtime (trying to keep excitement levels low!) and perhaps a bath and then it’s time for bed. For a lot of mama’s, bedtime routines work well. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible. Oh, and expect routines to change, there’ll be more ‘stages and phases’ than you can imagine.

No phones

While soaking up the sleepy baby cuddles, don’t get distracted by returning texts or scrolling through Instagram, babies need to wind down just like we do and the light from your screen is stimulating for all parties.

Feeding to sleep

There is a lot to be said about not letting your baby solely rely on you to actually fall asleep. Some suggest a particular toy or white noise, but like everything ‘baby’ sometimes this is easier said than done and quite often the easy route (whether that be feeding, rocking or singing to sleep) seems like the best option.

Finally, you do you

This is how my little family does bedtimes and naptimes, but I think that motherhood is all about trusting your gut and doing what works for you and your babes.

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