Does your baby wake up early? Early morning wake-ups are the death of me (and many, many parents). If you're like me, you plan out your days (especially mornings) by the minute. When my kids wake up before they are "supposed to," it makes me so upset, which isn't a good way to start the day!

Traveling with kids can be really hard. But it can also be fun, exciting, and worth all the stress you were feeling beforehand! I find this post is particularly challenging to write because there are so many unique factors. How old is your baby? Do you have multiple children? Are you flying or driving? Are you room sharing or does everyone get their own room? Hotel, airbnb, or staying with a friend or family? Are you gone for a weekend or a week? There are many different elements to consider when traveling with kids!

Here are some notes about pacifiers and sleep training:

Babies ages 4-7 months: Sleep train without the paci. I know it’s scary. It’s ok. You will NOT regret this.

Babies ages 8 months: Practice A LOT during the day to help strengthen their skill. You can sleep train with the paci IF they can independently put it in.

Babies ages 9 months and up: You can sleep train with the paci but you can only replace it once during the night.

The 2-1 nap transition typically happens between 14-18 months. SOME babies do this at 13 months but I prefer 14 months. Your baby might not be ready until they’re closer to 17-18 months and that’s totally ok. There is a 12-month sleep regression that many babies go through. While some go through it at 11 months, some go through it at 12-13 months. At that point, many families feel like they need to transition to 1 nap. However, the majority of babies are not able to handle those long wake windows at that age (13 months) and changing to 1 nap too soon will be detrimental to their sleep (fighting bedtime, middle of the night wake ups, early rising, etc.). We’re talking about babies going from a 3 hour wake window to a 5 hour wake window. That’s so much longer! If you do it too early, it could spiral into other sleep problems.

The 4-month sleep regression is when your baby transitions from newborn sleep patterns to adult sleep patterns. They startle more now because they're aware of their surroundings. They have more active and light sleep. Their brains are growing rapidly. This regression typically occurs when your baby is anywhere between 12-17 weeks old. (Why don’t they call it the 3-month sleep regression?) If you do not teach your child independent sleep their sleep might be off indefinitely after the regression.

We can improve naps by looking at these:

🌙 Wake windows. Depending on your baby’s age, there is a range of time your baby should be awake without before showing sleepy cues. I like to rely on wake windows in the early months of a baby’s life. Once they are older, 8-9 months, we can focus on schedules, but in the beginning, we like to look at wake windows so those naps can be as long as possible. If they’re overtired, the nap will be short.

🌙 Sleep Environment. Make sure your baby has an ideal sleep environment for their nap. Are they in a crib? Do they have white noise? Do they have blackout shades in their room?

🌙 Feeding schedule. Is your baby on a feeding schedule? Are they getting FULL feeds every time? Depending on their age, babies should be getting full feeds every 2.5-4 hours.

🌙 How are they being put down? However your baby is being put down is what they’re going to need in order to fall back asleep. If they’re being rocked to sleep, they’ll need to be rocked back to sleep for their next cycle.

🌙 Pause. This is a big one. So often parents rush into their baby’s room to get them once they’re “awake.” The problem is… they might not be fully awake. When your baby completes a sleep cycle, pause. Watch them to see what they do. Give them the opportunity to put themselves back to sleep. This might involve some crying.

Now that we discussed the “magic recipe” for babies, does that exist for toddlers? Where’s the magic wand? How do we get these irrational, insane, highly emotional and demanding little people to LISTEN, go to sleep and… STAY asleep? I so wish I had a magic wand to make toddlers cooperate but I don’t. However, I can share the foundational elements to help get your toddler to put themselves to sleep independently and stay asleep.

There are 5 elements to a healthy sleep foundation. Combined, when you focus on all of the elements, your baby will have a strong sleep foundation and be able to sleep better. Let’s talk about them!