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It is OK to CUDDLE your baby to sleep at nap time?
Let’s start with clarifying that a nap is just one sleep cycle or less, where as an actual sleep is more than one sleep cycle on the Save Our Sleep routines – normally 3 sleep cycles making it a 2 hour sleep for a young baby.
Cuddle Nap
Is a Cuddle Nap OK?
Of course! Skin to Skin is very important in those early weeks. It is also so nice to cuddle your new baby and breathe in every bit of the love you feel for her. If you feel you would like an extra cuddle once or twice a week the 4.30 pm pram nap time on the routine is a good cuddle time.
If your baby settles herself to sleep at all the other sleep times, it will do no harm to sit and cuddle your baby to sleep at this nap time. Be sure you are wide awake and alert and if you feel yourself getting sleepy, pop your baby down in a safe place to finish her nap and go and have a lie down yourself.
You will have heard me say with a sleep you must put your baby to sleep in the place they will wake and need to resettle between sleep cycles however this is not the same rule for a nap, a nap can be in any safe place because when baby wakes you do not expect them to go back to sleep.
Safe nap places include:
In the buggy or pram while you walk and if so baby needs his or her bedding and needs to be wrapped, have bedding and have a comforter.
In the baby carrier while you walk, sit or even do jobs. But make sure the carrier is safe and you follow the instructions of how to use it.
How much sleep does a baby need?
Every baby is different in the amount of sleep they need but the table following gives you an idea of what is average; some babies will sleep a lot more and others slightly less.
Note: A sleep is when a baby sleeps for more than one sleep cycle (usually longer than 40 minutes), but a nap is one sleep cycle or less.
It is also worth noting that both larger babies and babies who have slept well from day one often need less day sleep than smaller babies or babies coming to Save Our Sleep after a few weeks or months of poor sleep.
For more sleep advice consider SAVE OUR SLEEP. A parents’ guide towards happy, sleeping babies from birth to two years.
