Tiny Sleepers Big Dreamers
911 Help Us Sleep Blvd Markham, ON, Canada

Understanding infant sleep can be confusing. Why do some babies sleep long periods and others don’t. When and why does it change? One thing that does happen is the development change around 4 months. This can happen as early as 3 months and as late as 5 months. It’s often called the 4 month sleep regression. During this development change, babies go from their infant like sleep cycles, to their adult like sleep cycles. This is when sleep cycles begin to connect themselves... (or not!) and babies can often wake up every 45 minutes (an average sleep cycle). This is also the stage where they begin to need less sleep than a ‘newborn’. As they are evolving, babies begin to look around and notice more in their surroundings. So, why does that matter? Well, when babies are coached into their first sleep cycle by means of a prop, when they wake up after 1-2 sleep cycles and are unable to get back to sleep, they are looking for that prop to help them get back to sleep. They are now learning something helped them to sleep. Now, if that prop has been working for you, great, keep using it. But if not, here are some changes you can make to help: Make sure wake windows are age appropriate. Make sure they are eating enough during the day. Lay your baby in their crib 100% awake. Avoid having them get drowsy during their routines. Make sure their room is optimal for sleep. Give them some time to fall back to sleep. Don’t go rushing in the minute they open their eyes. Don’t use a set bedtime. Follow wake windows from last nap to an appropriate bedtime between 6-8:30pm (for this age) White noise will help cue their body for sleep and cut out any distraction noise between sleep cycles. Avoid adding in more sleep props if you don’t want to continue using them. Ask for help. It’s ok to seek the advice of a sleep consultant who has experience coaching younger babies for sleep. #tinysleepersbigdreamers #4monthsleepregression #3monthsold #4monthsold #5monthsold #infantsleep #babysleep #babysleeping #infantsleeptips #infantsleepconsultant #infantsleeptraining #sleepcoaching #sleepconsultant #developmentalchanges

Early risings are one of the most common issues that families reach out to us to solve. Early risings are defined as any waking before 6:00am. There are a few strategies you can use to adjust that morning waking, but here are a few things you can work on first: 1. Too late of a bedtime. This does NOT mean that by the clock it’s too late but rather by the wake time. Is the window from last nap to bedtime too long for your child’s age? 2. Are they getting too much day sleep, ...or not enough? Children have a total amount of sleep that is needed in a 24 hour period. This HAS to be determined so that you can re-establish where to put sleep within a 24 hour period, which may help push out that early morning. 3. How did they fall asleep at bedtime? While some children have no issue falling asleep AND staying asleep with a sleep association, other children’s sleep association can cause difficultly for them getting back to sleep in the early morning. 4. FEEDS!!! Nutrition has to trump sleep. End of story. Just cause your child is 14lbs and 4 months old does NOT mean your child needs to eliminate night feeds. Some children require night feeds well into a 2-nap schedule. There is nothing wrong with keeping night feeds both for your child’s needs and YOURS. This should always be your choice to eliminate, not that of your sleep consultant. 5. Room environment and sleep attire are key! Cool and dark room. Sound machine to help mask out-of-room environmental noises. Breathable jammies and a sleep sac to help keep them warm and cozy. 6. Developmental. If they are waking to practice their new skill, be sure to give them lots of day time practice so they can master it during the day. 7. Strategic nap place is also KEY! If you have an early riser and your timing is spot on, it might be time to shake up their circadian rhythm to help push out that early morning.

A big shout out to the Markham Public Library for offering another virtual Sleep Seminar for Toddlers! Thank you for spending part of your day with me and I hope you all took some useful information away from it A big shout out to the Markham Public Library for offering another virtual Sleep Seminar for Toddlers! Thank you for spending part of your day with me and I hope you all took some useful information away from it

Tonight is the night!!! http://tinysleepersbigdreamers.ca/fall-time-change/

It’s that time of year and maybe you’ve forgotten, maybe you haven’t. Either way it’s not too late to start shifting. This may be a little more difficult if your child is in daycare but if not here what you can do to help the shifting. Every 1-2 days, shift the day ahead by 15 mins for naps and bedtime. ... Example: if nap is 9am, do 9:15. Which should help shift next nap by 15 mins and so on. If your child is not napping, shift bedtime by 15 mins. As long as we see the morning wake up shift and NOT become earlier, then you are safe to push it again the next day by 15 mins. Even if you get to a 30 min shift come Saturday night, that still helps. I’ll post on Sunday how to handle this change if you didn’t have time to shift.

I agree 1,000,000%