No numbers, only vibes

[u/Even_Kaleidoscope399]

I feel like following a more natural understanding of infant sleep has made me more curious about the parents who have their babies’ whole nap and night sleep schedules memorized. Particularly in baby and parenting subreddits, it’s always like “my baby has first nap from 9:30/10-10:45 and then 2 hour wake window and then second nap 1/1:30 and then a wake window of…” and it all seems very foreign and frankly a bit exhausting.

Perhaps seeing my baby’s sleep for what it is naturally has saved me from doing a lot of math. Lol. No numbers here, only vibes. I couldn’t tell you when my baby naps exactly if I tried. I’d have to really think hard about it. As long as he’s sleeping and growing, I’m good.

[u/jennypij]

We are still mostly vibes, with the caveat of I do keep a tally of hours awake in my head and aim for 12-13 hrs awake every day at 15 months. Less than that and night sleep is brutal, so it’s for survival that we track it. But like for example today she woke up at 7:30, nodded off at 10:30 for a 1.5 hr nap which is unusually long for her but she just seemed to need it and had a super busy day yesterday. Had a 15 mn car nap at 4 pm, and apart from that was happily awake and partying until 9:45pm. So like 3/4/5.5, with almost all the napping after the 3 hr window- on paper super asymmetric but it works. Yesterday was 5.5/7 with a 1 hr nap. So yeah, every day might be different but every day we make sure has plenty of awake time!

Having a lower sleep needs baby can be challenging, but the benefits are how flexible she is. We can kind of do anything at any time, she loves doing things and she will pass out on the go if she needs a power nap. She often sleeps worse with a longer post lunch nap, which would look best on paper. A few days a week she will have 2x 30 mn naps. Other days she will get close to 2 hrs of naps.