SleepProgram PDF

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BABY SLEEP PROGRAM | CLICK TO RETURN TO THE CONTENTS MENU
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How to Use This Program

Welcome to the world of better sleep for your baby and
your family.
This Sleep Program is made up of 4 separate chapters:
1. Sleep for Babies

This chapter contains comprehensive information on
your baby’s sleep in the 3-12 month period and
includes explanations for their sleep behaviour and
for the recommendations we make in the Program.
2. The Sleeping & Feeding Guide

This chapter contains the ideal times for your baby’s
naps and feeds each day to lead to a more settled
baby and better sleep overnight. This is the daily
schedule you will follow while using this Program.
3. The Settling & Self-Settling Guide

This Guide contains several age-appropriate methods
to help your little one learn to fall asleep
independently. You can choose the method you
think best suits your baby’s temperament, their
existing sleep associations and your parenting style.
4. Frequently Asked Questions

This chapter covers the most commonly asked
questions we get about the use of our Sleep
Program. Search the questions in this chapter before
posting in the Little Ones Village.


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It is important you read all the information in the Sleep for

Babies chapter of this Program to really understand your
baby’s sleep and be able to troubleshoot their sleep
behaviour.
If you would like to get started on the Program straight

away, you can skip to the Sleeping & Feeding Guide and
follow the instructions to begin the Program.
Throughout the Program are clickable links to take you to

various sections. All the links are in pink.
At all times please remember that this

Program is designed for you to be able to
take as much or as little information as you
need to improve your child’s sleep. Every
family is different; some people choose to
stick closely to the Program, others use it as
a Guide only. The choice is yours. The times
and recommendations in the Program are
based on our evidence-based research and
our experience of what works for the
majority of babies.


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About the Authors

Amanda Snedden and Nicky Barker
Amanda and Nicky met when they were 15 years old at the
same high school in Auckland, New Zealand. Amanda went
on to university and graduated in the medical
profession. Nicky completed her first bachelor’s degree
then went back to university and gained an additional post-
graduate qualification in Education. They branched out in
their respective fields, travelling, working, achieving a lot of
professional success. Some years later, the girls went on to
marry and start their families. Fast-forward a few more
years and Nicky and Amanda’s “little ones” (their youngest
children) were newborns and their close friendship
rekindled over their babies and the daily challenges
associated with parenthood.
Across the span of their older children (Nicky has 3 kids and
Amanda has 2), they had separately dealt with and learnt a a
lot about baby sleep. Independently, they had researched,
analysed, tried several different methods and routines,
assisted countless friends, extended family, colleagues and
coffee group mums with their baby sleep challenges and by
the time their newest babies arrived, Nicky and Amanda had
cumulatively amassed quite a lot of knowledge! Between
them, they had had babies who didn’t sleep, babies who
slept too much, babies who wouldn’t settle, babies with
pacifiers, tummy sleepers, side sleepers, babies with reflux,
colic, tongue ties, allergies, intolerances. Babies who were
breastfed, bottle-fed, slept in bassinets, hammocks, swings,
strollers, front packs, arms. Babies who woke all night,

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babies who needed to learn to self-settle. And so, naturally,

with their renewed close friendship came a 24/7 dialogue
about their baby’s sleep patterns and ideas and suggestions
about the complex world of baby sleep.
The idea for Little Ones was born.
Nicky and Amanda had used private sleep consultants in the

past, so they knew how that area of the baby sleep industry
worked and knew there could be a better way that the
advice around baby sleep could be delivered and still be
relevant as the baby grows. They had strong beliefs and
values that families should have access to affordable,
instant, reliable resources, which would provide them with
all the information they needed to get their own baby’s
sleep on track and would be relevant as their baby grew and
changed.
And so the hard work and writing began!
After a good six months in the market, Amanda and Nicky

realised they needed to offer their customers access to
trained consultants to help and guide mothers in their use
of the Sleep Programs. This lead to the creation of the Little
Ones Village. This incredibly supportive community has now
become one of the most popular components of the Sleep
Programs, where mothers from all over the world can
access help from our Sleep Support Facilitators as well as
the thousands and thousands of other mothers also using
these Programs. It is a place where parents meet daily to
help each other on this tricky journey of parenthood.
Just like Amanda and Nicky did, not so long ago.


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Little Ones is now endorsed and recommended by Kate

Johnson, PhD Sleep Physiology and postdoctoral fellow in
the Department of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical
School and SRI (formerly Stanford Research International).
Little Ones is an accredited and recognised member of the

IACSC (International Association of Child Sleep Consultants)
and the ever-growing Little Ones Team is trained in baby
sleep neurology and behaviour, age-appropriate
settling methods and best sleep practices.
Amanda and Nicky have big plans for the future, more
exciting products, more ways to make it that much easier
for a tired mother looking for a solution. Yet, despite the
growth of the company, their fundamental goals remain the
same – to assist parents to be more confident in their ability
to respond to their baby’s needs. And for everyone to get
more sleep!
Amanda Snedden Nicky Barker


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Terms of Use
i. This Program is for your personal use only and may not be
shared, copied or distributed in any way, either in part or
whole.
ii. At all times, we recommend using safe sleeping practices
with your baby.
iii. The information contained in this document is not a
substitute for medical advice or care and you should always
seek the advice of your healthcare professional if you
suspect your baby is unwell or is having difficulty feeding.
iv. This Program is a product in itself and does not come with
additional support or consultancy services of any kind,
apart from those offered in the Little Ones Village.
v. Our products are guaranteed as long as they are being
adhered to as per the documentation or our advice. If you
choose to not follow part or all of the information or Guide,
that is entirely your choice, however Little Ones is not
accountable for the product not working for you in this
case. A refund option is available if you are dissatisfied with
the product at any point as per the refund information on
our website.
vi. Refer to our website for the full terms of use governing this
Program.


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Contents
Click to Navigate to Each Section
HOW TO USE THIS PROGRAM ...................................................................... 3

ABOUT THE AUTHORS..................................................................................... 5
TERMS OF USE .................................................................................................... 8
CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... 9
OUR SLEEP PHILOSOPHY .............................................................................. 17
CHAPTER 1: SLEEP FOR BABIES

SETTING UP THE SLEEP ENVIRONMENT ................................................. 18
BEDTIME ROUTINE.......................................................................................... 23
SLEEP CONSOLIDATION ................................................................................ 25
SLEEP & STRESS HORMONES ...................................................................... 28
OVER & UNDER TIREDNESS ......................................................................... 31
AWAKE TIMES & NAP LENGTHS ................................................................. 34
WHY WE FOCUS ON NAPS .......................................................................... 37
HOW OUR NAPS WORK ................................................................................ 40
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LUNCH NAP ................................................. 43
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN USING OUR SLEEP PROGRAM &
“SLEEP TRAINING” ............................................................................................ 45
SELF-SETTLING & SLEEP ASSOCIATIONS ................................................. 47
PACIFIERS ........................................................................................................... 51
HOW DO YOU GET RID OF THE PACIFIER? .................................................... 52


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LOSING THE SWADDLE ................................................................................. 54

GRADUAL METHOD: ........................................................................................ 54
QUICK METHOD: ............................................................................................. 56
SLEEP REGRESSIONS....................................................................................... 57
THE 4 MONTH SLEEP REGRESSION ................................................................ 57
THE 8 MONTH REGRESSION ........................................................................... 59
6 & 12-15 MONTHS ....................................................................................... 59
EARLY WAKING ................................................................................................ 61
4-6 MONTHS OVERNIGHT & HUNGER .................................................... 63
FLEXIBILITY, OUT & ABOUT .......................................................................... 65
IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE CHILD ................................................... 67
SICKNESS ............................................................................................................ 68
CHANGES IN YOUR BABY’S DAY/NIGHT ................................................. 70
WHEN THINGS AREN’T WORKING ............................................................ 71
GETTING BACK ON TRACK ........................................................................... 73
CHAPTER 2: SLEEPING & FEEDING GUIDE

GETTING STARTED .......................................................................................... 75
HOW TO USE THE SLEEPING & FEEDING GUIDE ................................. 77
RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................... 83
CHOOSE YOUR SCHEDULE .......................................................................... 84
3 TO 4 MONTHS ............................................................................................... 85
QUICK GUIDE .................................................................................................... 86
DETAILED GUIDE ............................................................................................. 87
CATNAPPING GUIDE....................................................................................... 93
NOTES & TROUBLESHOOTING ................................................................... 94
FEEDING ........................................................................................................... 94
EARLY WAKING / MORNING WAKE ............................................................... 95

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THE MORNING NAP ......................................................................................... 96

THE LUNCH NAP .............................................................................................. 97
IF THE LUNCH NAP GOES WRONG:................................................................ 98
THE AFTERNOON NAP..................................................................................... 99
THE POWER NAP .......................................................................................... 100
THE DREAM FEED (OPTIONAL) ..................................................................... 101
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 102
4 TO 6 MONTHS ............................................................................................ 103

QUICK GUIDE ................................................................................................. 104
DETAILED GUIDE .......................................................................................... 105
CATNAPPING GUIDE.................................................................................... 111
NOTES & TROUBLESHOOTING ................................................................ 112
FEEDING ........................................................................................................ 112
SLEEPING ....................................................................................................... 113
EARLY WAKING / MORNING WAKE ............................................................ 114
THE MORNING NAP ...................................................................................... 115
THE LUNCH NAP ........................................................................................... 116
IF THE LUNCH NAP GOES WRONG: .............................................................. 117
THE AFTERNOON NAP.................................................................................. 119
THE POWER NAP .......................................................................................... 120
THE DREAM FEED (OPTIONAL) ..................................................................... 121
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 122
6 TO 8 MONTHS ............................................................................................ 124

QUICK GUIDE ................................................................................................. 125
DETAILED GUIDE .......................................................................................... 126
FEEDING ........................................................................................................ 130
THE MORNING NAP ...................................................................................... 133
THE LUNCH NAP ........................................................................................... 134
IF THE LUNCH NAP GOES WRONG:............................................................. 135
THE AFTERNOON NAP.................................................................................. 137


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THE POWER NAP .......................................................................................... 138

THE DREAM FEED ......................................................................................... 139
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 140
8 TO 10 MONTHS ......................................................................................... 141

QUICK GUIDE ................................................................................................. 142
DETAILED GUIDE .......................................................................................... 143
FEEDING ........................................................................................................ 145
THE MORNING NAP ...................................................................................... 147
THE LUNCH NAP ........................................................................................... 148
THE POWER NAP .......................................................................................... 150
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 151
10 TO 12 MONTHS ....................................................................................... 152

QUICK GUIDE ................................................................................................. 153
DETAILED GUIDE .......................................................................................... 154
FEEDING ........................................................................................................ 156
THE MORNING NAP ...................................................................................... 159
THE LUNCH NAP ........................................................................................... 160
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 162
CHAPTER 3: SETTLING & SELF-SETTLING GUIDE

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 164
GLOSSARY/METHODS ................................................................................ 165


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3 TO 4 MONTHS ............................................................................................ 170

SIDE SETTLE TO SLEEP METHOD ............................................................ 172
FED-TO-SLEEP METHOD............................................................................ 174
CRYING .......................................................................................................... 178
WHEN TO FEED THEM TO SLEEP ................................................................. 179
WAKING BETWEEN SLEEP CYCLES .............................................................. 180
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 180
4-6 MONTHS .................................................................................................. 181

GENERAL METHOD ...................................................................................... 182
PARENT PRESENCE METHOD .................................................................. 182
GENERAL METHOD ...................................................................................... 183
CRYING .......................................................................................................... 190
WHEN TO ASSIST THEM TO SLEEP .............................................................. 192
WAKING BETWEEN SLEEP CYCLES .............................................................. 193
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 194
FED-TO-SLEEP BABIES 4-6 MONTHS ..................................................... 195
CRYING .......................................................................................................... 200
WHEN TO FEED THEM TO SLEEP ................................................................. 202
WAKING BETWEEN SLEEP CYCLES OR IN THE LUNCH NAP ....................... 203
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 204
PARENT PRESENCE METHOD .................................................................. 205
CRYING .......................................................................................................... 214
WHEN TO ASSIST THEM TO SLEEP .............................................................. 215
WAKING BETWEEN SLEEP CYCLES OR IN THE LUNCH NAP ....................... 216
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 217


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6-12 MONTHS ................................................................................................ 218

FED-TO-SLEEP METHOD .............................................................................. 218
ROCKED-TO-SLEEP ....................................................................................... 218
CO-SLEEPING METHOD................................................................................ 218
PARENT PRESENCE ........................................................................................ 219
THE QUICK METHOD ................................................................................... 219
CRYING .......................................................................................................... 227
WHEN TO SETTLE TO SLEEP ......................................................................... 228
THE LUNCH NAP ........................................................................................... 229
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 230
ROCKED/HELD TO SLEEP METHOD ...................................................... 231
CRYING .......................................................................................................... 236
THE LUNCH NAP ........................................................................................... 238
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 239
CO-SLEEPING METHOD ............................................................................. 240
CRYING .......................................................................................................... 248
THE LUNCH NAP ........................................................................................... 250
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 251
PARENT PRESENCE BABIES ....................................................................... 252
CRYING .......................................................................................................... 261
THE LUNCH NAP ........................................................................................... 263
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 264
QUICK METHOD ........................................................................................... 265
CRYING .......................................................................................................... 269


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THE LUNCH NAP ........................................................................................... 271
OVERNIGHT ................................................................................................... 272
EARLY MORNING WAKING ........................................................................ 273
DEALING WITH A HABIT WAKE ................................................................... 273
DAY ONE: ...................................................................................................... 274
ROUSE TO SLEEP........................................................................................... 275
CHAPTER 4: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

AWAKE TIMES & NAPS ................................................................................ 278
OUT & ABOUT / FLEXIBILITY..................................................................... 283
SLEEP ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................ 286
CRYING & UNSETTLED BABIES ................................................................ 289
SELF-SETTLING .............................................................................................. 292
NIGHT & EARLY WAKING ........................................................................... 297


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Our Sleep Philosophy

Between 0-3 Months:
At this age, settling your baby completely to sleep if needed
is absolutely fine. Using a swaddle, dark room and time to
wind-down will help your little one learn it is time to sleep.
Between 3-6 Months:

After 4 months, if your baby can’t self-settle we
recommend gradually reducing the input of you helping
your little one to sleep and allowing them the chance to fall
asleep unassisted. Following our Self-Settling Guide in
conjunction with the Sleeping and Feeding Guide will help
your baby learn to self-settle.
Over 6 Months:
If your little one cannot self-settle, they are now very aware
and will protest very loudly if they are tired and need to
sleep and you don’t give them the sleep association they
want, i.e. rocking or feeding to sleep. This is a habit for
them now and it is the only way they know how to go to
sleep. This is where proper “sleep training” comes in; where
you need to teach them to put themselves to sleep to aid in
better napping and overnight sleep. Following the Self-
Settling Guide will help with teaching your little one this
skill.


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Setting Up the Sleep Environment

A good first step is to create the perfect sleep environment
for your little one; the ideal conditions to encourage sleep.
Here are our recommended items to achieve this (these
things are not “compulsory” in order to successfully follow
our Programs, however we have seen that they help the
majority of babies!):
A Dark Room
This can be done using blackout blinds or simply by putting
a dark sheet or blanket under or over the existing curtains.
You want to cover any light that might be sneaking in
around the edges of the curtain. Babies do not fear the
dark, in fact, like most mammals, they actually find the dark
comforting, calming and safe. Do not use a nightlight either
as the light can be very stimulating to babies, making it hard
for them to settle or stay asleep for a long period.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary to sleep

babies in daylight during the day to avoid any kind of
day/night confusion. Having your baby in a good nap
pattern for their day and ensuring their naps are at the right
time and the right length will naturally help your baby
understand the difference between day and night and
consolidate their night-time sleep quicker. There are other
cues to ensure no day/night confusion occurs, such as
having plenty of communication during the day, making sure


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baby is getting the majority of their calorie intake during the

day, and light exposure during their waking hours.
For babies older than 3 or 4 months, napping in a bright

room can contribute to catnapping in the day, which can
then lead to overtiredness at bedtime.
White Noise
This is a great, easy settling and sleep tool for young babies
but it definitely also helps older babies settle and sleep for
longer too. White noise not only replicates the loud
whooshing sounds babies hear in the womb (sounds that
are louder than a vacuum cleaner in utero), but hearing
loud white noise also triggers the calming response in
babies, especially if they are overtired, overstimulated or
crying. White noise also disguises any noises from the
household which might startle or wake a sleeping baby.
When babies reach around 4 months and start waking

between sleep cycles, their senses fully switch on. Having
white noise playing means they are hearing the same
comforting sound they heard when they fell asleep and
they’ll find it easier to transition between sleep cycles.
We have a variety of white noise tracks available through

iTunes, Spotify and GooglePlay, the best of which for babies
under 6 months is our Baby Sleep Shhh. Experts
recommend playing the white noise louder than your baby’s
cries (if they are crying) or as loud as a shower to encourage
good sleep. Our advice is to play it at around 60dB. We


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recommend using white noise until at least 1 year of age for

a baby’s long nap and overnight.
Swaddling (for babies under 4 months)

Using a swaddle for babies under 4 months old is proven to
help your baby settle and sleep well. Swaddling replicates
the tight, confined feeling of being in the womb and
ensures babies can’t wake themselves up with their startle
reflex. Sometimes we hear that a baby doesn’t like being
swaddled, but more often than not, this is simply because
the swaddle isn’t tight enough, the baby is already overtired
or overstimulated, or they are too hot or cold. In general,
babies do prefer to be swaddled.
By the time your baby reaches around 4 months old, they

can start to be weaned off the swaddle for sleep. See the
Losing the Swaddle section.
Baby Sleeping Bag/Sleep Sack (for babies over 4 months)

Often babies wake in the night or early morning due to
being too cold. We can misinterpret their waking for hunger
or a settling issue and end up feeding or rocking or
resettling our babies, which can create a waking habit. Using
a baby sleeping bag can help make sure your baby stays
nice and warm all night long. We recommend sleeping bags
that are made of natural fibres - cotton, wool, bamboo,
merino - as these are much safer for your baby and will
mean they won’t overheat (a risk factor for SIDS). Avoid
using polar fleece or polyester sleeping bags as these are
quite dangerous. Having a room thermometer is good too,

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so you can make sure you are dressing baby in the right
clothing for their room temperature as some babies are very
sensitive to even the slightest temperature change.
Here is a useful clothing and temperature guide for sleeping

bags:
Room Winter Weight Mid Weight Summer Tog Rated Bag

Temp Merino Bag Merino Bag Weight
Merino Bag
Short sleeved 0.5 tog

26 C bodysuit Short sleeved
bodysuit
Short sleeved Long sleeved 1.0 tog

24 bodysuit bodysuit Short sleeved
bodysuit
Long sleeved 1.0 tog

22 bodysuit Long sleeved
bodysuit
Long sleeved Long sleeved 2.5 tog

20 bodysuit bodysuit and Long sleeved
pyjamas bodysuit

bodysuit and Long sleeved
18 pyjamas bodysuit and
pyjama top

bodysuit, pyjamas Long sleeved
16 and socks bodysuit and
pyjama set


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Cuddly/Comforter
Having a comforter or cuddly for sleep is a great tool to
encourage self-settling in your baby. If they associate the
comforter with bedtime and sleep, it will work as a strong
signal to your baby when it is bedtime. Choose a comforter
that is age-appropriate, washable and preferably one that
you can purchase two of (so you can interchange them
when you need to wash one!). Keep the comforter close to
you for a few days, in your bed or under your top or next to
you and baby while feeding, so it absorbs your scent. Then
give it to baby for every nap and at night-time. Make sure
you never place objects close enough to your baby’s face
that they can become a suffocation hazard.
Remove anything from your baby’s sleep environment that

is not completely conducive to sleep - excessive toys and
musical mobiles are often a hindrance to a baby’s ability to
self-settle. Why sleep when you have all these toys and
stimulating things to look at?!


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Bedtime Routine
Having a bedtime routine that you follow each night helps
signal to your baby that sleep is approaching. The routine
doesn’t need to be lengthy, in fact, we recommend a
routine of around an hour from start to finish (when your
baby would be asleep), or you risk your baby becoming
overtired or overstimulated. It is important that you choose
elements in the bedtime routine that can be replicated each
night; it is about repeating the same steps in the same
order, so your baby understands these as sleep cues.
For really young or unsettled babies, dim the lights for your
bedtime routine, so you are creating a calming atmosphere
conducive to sleep.
Here is a sample bedtime routine for a baby 3-6 months:
6:00 PM Bath baby in a nice warm bath

6:10 PM After drying baby, massage her with some
natural oil
6:10 PM Dress baby in her sleeping clothes and
sing a song or read a book
6:15-30 PM Start bedtime milk feed
6:50 PM Bedtime milk feed ends, give baby a
cuddle and sing her a song. Put baby in
bed for the night
7:00 PM Baby goes to bed awake, but ready for sleep


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It is important your bedtime routine isn’t too rushed or too

long. You want baby calm and relaxed throughout the
whole process.
For daytime naps, you can replicate a smaller version of the

bedtime routine, with a story or song and a cuddle before
baby goes into bed for her nap.
Establishing a bedtime routine creates a

process, the end of which is sleep. Your baby
will come to understand that and accept
sleep as the final component.


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Sleep Consolidation
Once you start on our Sleep Program, you will be re-

adjusting your baby’s naps and night-time sleep at the same
time. We call this “sleep consolidation”. This can be a period
of tricky change for your baby, and it might look like:
- more catnapping
- waking early from the Lunch Nap
- resisting settling at nap times
- waking more frequently overnight
- waking for periods of time in the night
- waking early morning
What is happening during this time is that your baby is re-

adjusting to the new sleep times and lengths. They will have
gotten used to the previous amount of sleep they were
having, which might have been more or less than the times

25
in the Program and it was most likely in different chunks

(e.g., poor day sleep but great night sleep or the other way
around). Through the Program you are changing the balance
and regulating their naps to eventually consolidate their
nights; your baby needs to adjust to this new equilibrium.
It is a bit of a waiting game in the beginning.
As your baby's naps start improving you will experience

some regression in their night sleep - this is because they're
regulating their sleep hours and are trying to get used to
having good naps in the day, so they're less tired at night-
time than they're used to being. Same goes the other way -
once their nights improve, they'll be less exhausted in the
day that they were previously, so it takes a while for them
to adapt to the nap times/lengths in the Sleeping and
Feeding Guide.
Babies will do this at different times

and different stages, all quite age dependant.
A younger baby will usually adapt quite
quickly whereas a baby going through the 4-
month regression already has a lot of
developmental stuff on their plate so it'll take
a bit longer!


26
Most of this learning and consolidation will go on behind

the scenes, in your baby's brain. You won't see evidence of
it for a while and you'll think things are a whole lot worse.
Hang in there! This is an important part of the process and
one day it will just click and you'll be so pleased you stuck it
out. The last thing your baby wants is to be working really
hard developmentally to consolidate their sleep and then
have their routine changed on them mid-development.
If your baby is really struggling and it is stressing you out –

you can always just follow the catnapping routine in the
Sleeping and Feeding Guide and give your baby some more
time to adjust.


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Sleep & Stress Hormones

Melatonin (the Sleep Hormone)
As a baby nears bedtime in the evening, they start to
experience a rise in melatonin levels. Melatonin is a sleep
hormone that is released mostly in the dark and is
responsible for us falling asleep and staying asleep.
Melatonin governs our night-time sleep cycles (which are

longer than daytime sleep cycles) and differentiates night
sleep from day sleep in our brains.
Traditionally speaking (before we were able to prolong

daylight via electric lights) as dusk approached our bodies
would have started to release this hormone, making us
sleepy leading up to bedtime.
Melatonin is only produced in the dark.

This is why the natural, biological bedtime
for babies and children tends to be between
6:30 and 7:30 PM – just after dusk.


28
During summer months when the sun sets a lot later, many
babies and young children struggle to settle and sleep if
their room is still too sunny and bright. This is a case of the
sleep hormones not being produced to tell them it is time
for night-time sleep; they can’t switch into their night-time
sleep cycles. We can get around this by creating a false
night with blackout blinds or dark curtains.
Once asleep, the melatonin continues to rise in our bodies

until midnight. This is why the period between bedtime and
midnight is considered the most restorative sleep - we are
being pumped full of those good sleep hormones.
After midnight the melatonin drops off, which can

mean many babies sleep well up until midnight then wake
every 2 hours beyond that (especially if they can't self-settle
or if something is bothering them).
By around 5 AM the melatonin has gone out of our

systems. This is the end of our night-time sleep cycles, and
we enter a period of light sleep rather than the deep sleep
we were in previously.
Here, if anything is bothering a baby such as hunger, getting

a bit cold, hearing noises or they are unwell, they will really
struggle to go back to sleep.


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Cortisol (the Stress Hormone)

Cortisol is a hormone that builds up during our waking
hours and is a very natural part of our daytime cycle.
Cortisol levels naturally increase in the day and are then
reduced when we nap. In large doses, cortisol is similar to
adrenaline or caffeine in the way it affects our bodies, so
we don’t want the levels to get too high in our babies
because it will really affect their sleep.
Napping during the day reduces the levels of cortisol, which

is really important because high levels of this hormone will
cause hyperactivity (common overtiredness behaviour) and
will make it very hard for babies (and toddlers) to switch off
and go to sleep. It would be like having a cup of coffee right
before bedtime and then trying to sleep.
High levels of cortisol also inhibit the release of melatonin,

meaning your baby won’t be getting the good sleep
hormones they need to go into a deep sleep overnight.
The long Lunch Nap in our Sleeping and Feeding Guides is

designed to your baby reduce their cortisol levels come
bedtime in the evening. This is why we always aim to have
the longest nap of the day at lunchtime, rather than in the
morning. A baby who has been awake for too long for their
age or hasn’t had a nap of over 2 hours since midday will be
very hard to settle at bedtime due to the high levels of
cortisol that will have built up. This can cause a wake 45
minutes after bedtime in the evening because the cortisol is
inhibiting your baby slipping into their night-time sleep
cycles. It can contribute to early morning waking too.


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Over & Under Tiredness

Overtiredness
Babies have a very sensitive circadian rhythm. The younger
the baby, the less awake time they can handle before their
system goes into overload and they need to have a sleep so
their overactive brain has a chance to process and catch up.
This is how they grow and learn. The younger the baby, the
more sensitive they are to being awake for too long
between naps and this results in overtiredness. Some babies
will give very clear signs and you'll have heaps of time to
get them prepared for bed so they're asleep at the right
time. Some babies won't really show any tired signs until it's
too late. Some babies will show tired signs quite early on,
but this doesn't necessarily mean they're actually ready for
bed.
If a baby is overtired, this is what it looks like:

• crying and being difficult to calm down
• resisting settling to sleep
• only napping for 30-45 minutes at a time
• waking 45 minutes after bedtime at night
• waking a lot during the night
• waking early morning
What is happening in your baby’s body is a build-up of the

stress hormone cortisol. An overload of this is similar
to adrenaline and works like caffeine in your little one's
system. This is why older babies and toddlers seem
suddenly so wide awake. The more overtired your baby is,

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the less likely they are to settle easily. If they're overtired at

bedtime in the evening, they're starting off the night on the
back foot and you're pretty much guaranteed a bad night of
restless sleep then an early wake the next morning.
Undertiredness
Sometimes, in our haste to ensure our babies don't get
overtired and therefore impossible to settle, we end up
trying to put them to bed too soon and they aren't quite
ready to settle to sleep yet or nap for very long. This is why
it is important we are getting the awake times right for a
baby’s age.
If a baby isn’t awake for long enough between naps, it can

mean an accumulation of under tiredness builds up during
the day, and your baby can have a prolonged unsettled
period in the early evening and/or multiple night waking
simply because they need some awake time.
An undertired baby generally looks like this:

• crying
• resisting settling to sleep
• napping for short periods/cat napping
• waking a lot at night
• waking in the night and wanting to stay awake for
hours on end
• waking early morning
Two personality types are common where under tiredness

is concerned:


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The Alert Baby -

This baby will simply stare at you with wide open eyes the
whole time you are trying to get them to sleep, OR be
crying and fighting you every step of the way. Eventually,
your wee one will doze off, but then in a few hours’ time
you'll have to do it all again to get them to sleep for their
next nap.
This baby wasn't tired enough to go to sleep in the first

place and was simply resisting all settling attempts as a
result. This baby might take up to an hour to be settled to
sleep, which is indicative of them needing their awake times
extended.
The Sleepy Baby -

This baby will go to sleep if you do anything to actively
settle them, such as rock or feed. They'll probably fall asleep
while you're winding them … except they'll then wake
20/30/45 minutes later or as soon as you put them down.
This baby was easy to settle because rocking or feeding is
nice and calming and it was within their sleep window, but
this baby wasn't tired enough to have a longer sleep
because they had had too little awake time.
Both over and under tiredness lead to

poor napping and/or poor night-time sleep.
This can mean a grumpy baby and frustrated
parents.


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Awake Times & Nap Lengths

The awake times in the Sleeping and Feeding Guide are the
MAXIMUM times your baby can be awake and when they
definitely need to be asleep by, rather than the time you’d
start putting your baby to bed if overtiredness is to be
avoided. They are a limit, not a goal. We can't tell you on a
daily basis when your baby will definitely get tired because
it will depend on what they have done during the day, how
their night was, how their day naps have been so far. We
can tell you the maximum time when all babies for that age
group will get overtired.
Our Sleep Program differs from other sleep programs

because we offer this maximum awake time rather than an
average awake time. Other programs might suggest 2 hours
awake time for a 6-month-old, however, some 6-month-old
babies might easily stay awake for 2.5 hours. In this
example, 2 hours isn't going to work for them, and the
mother will struggle to get her baby to go to sleep if their
awake time is too short, or the baby will go to sleep with
some active settling, but other problems will happen at
different times of the day.
Babies vary in the scale of their sleep needs and some do

need more sleep than others. This is why the awake times
in the Sleeping and Feeding Guide are the maximum – your
baby might need slightly less awake time than another baby
of the same age. In this way, you’re able to assess your own
baby’s individual sleep needs and tweak the times in the
Guide to suit your baby.

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If your little one is doing slightly less awake time and still
settling and napping until the normal wake-up time
specified in the Guide, that's great, and it’s a sign your baby
has slightly higher sleep needs. However, if your baby is
doing less awake time than in the Guide and waking
regularly or hourly overnight; is difficult to settle to sleep; is
waking early morning or only sleeping for 20-30 mins in a
nap; the likely cause is they are undertired and their awake
times need to be extended, so they consolidate their nights
and naps to be longer. This can be done by stretching out
their awake times by 5-10 minutes every 2 days.
We would not recommend doing more awake time than

stated in the Guide.
The trap that a lot of mums will get into

is thinking that their little one can only stay
awake for a short time.
Some babies, when starting out on our Sleep Program, are

genuinely unable to stay awake to the maximum awake
time. This is common if a baby is recovering from a build-up
of chronic overtiredness. If your baby goes to sleep before
the scheduled nap time, let them sleep until the normal
wake-up time as specified in the Guide (i.e, their nap will be
longer). You can aim to increase their awake time by 5-10
minutes every 2 days as their build-up of overtiredness
decreases.

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If however, your baby starts displaying any of the following

behaviours, you’ll need to scale back the nap lengths and/or
increase the awake times:
ü Being difficult to settle for naps and bedtime

ü Not sleeping until the nap wake time (i.e having
shorter naps than the length recommended in the
Sleeping and Feeding Guide)
ü Not sleeping for the full Lunch Nap
ü Waking more overnight, or more after midnight
ü Staying awake for periods in the night
ü Waking early in the morning
In regards to nap lengths, the Sleeping and Feeding Guides

can be flexible to accommodate your baby’s different sleep
needs. For example, you should only shorten your baby’s
Morning Nap length when it is beginning to impact on their
Lunch Nap or night-time sleep - not just because they’ve
reached a certain age.
It might take a few days of experimentation to get the right

awake time vs sleep time for your baby’s individual needs.
As your baby starts to sleep better for their naps and in the
night, they will easily be able to stick to the awake times
during the day.
Click HERE to see the video!


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Why we Focus on Naps

Naps are the main factor in a baby’s ability to sleep well
overnight. So, by focusing on getting good naps happening,
we can see big improvements with a baby’s night sleep
without having to do any sort of “sleep training”. Good
predictable naps also mean a baby’s mother can have some
down-time during the day, which is very important to her
mental and emotional wellbeing; motherhood is a tough job!
But good napping isn’t always easy.
Especially between 8-16 weeks.
During this age, a baby©s daytime sleep cycles will develop

fully and be organised in noticeable 45 minutes chunks.
This is developmentally normal and it happens to all babies,
usually around 16 weeks old. This is called the “4 month
sleep regression.”
At this time, catnapping can become really common and

babies can start napping for just one sleep cycle for each
nap, of 45 minutes.
This is fine if it’s working for you and your baby and their
night sleep isn’t being affected!
However, for some babies, continued catnapping can mean

they become overtired, cranky and irritable and it can start
to impact on their nights.


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This is why, while we encourage shorter Morning and

Afternoon Naps, we always aim for one long restorative
Lunch Nap. When a baby naps for longer than one sleep
cycle, they receive a multitude of physiological benefits,
including the restoration of immune function and energy
levels, appetite regulation, cortisol lowering and new skill
processing.
This is why our Programs are built on the framework of the

2-hour Lunch Nap, ensuring your baby has that big chunk
of restorative sleep.
If your baby is/was catnapping all day but still sleeping well
at night, what can happen is that somewhere between 4-6
months their night time sleep cycles will also shorten to be
just 2 hours long. This can mean they are now catnapping
in the day and also having a broken night sleep.
At this point, we’d want to look at tackling those catnaps

to help improve night sleep and that might mean adjusting
your baby’s awake windows or working on self-settling to
help them link sleep cycles.


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By focusing on naps and working

towards a self-settling baby who is achieving
a long lunchtime sleep, we are giving babies
the best chance of good sleep overnight,
sometimes without having to change
anything in their night-time sleep!


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How Our Naps Work

The naps in the Sleeping and Feeding Guide are very
carefully formulated around establishing and maintaining a
long lunchtime sleep. This nap stays the same approximate
time and length from newborn right through to 2.5 years
old. The other naps during the day are structured around
the Lunch Nap, with the goal of achieving the 2 hours (or
close to) for this nap.
As you move through the Sleeping and Feeding Guide, the

Morning Nap slowly decreases in length nearer to 6 months
and then again nearer to 12 months. This is to continue to
promote a long Lunch Nap and also to allow for some more
awake time in the morning, which your baby starts needing
as they get older.
This means that you can adjust your baby’s Morning Nap
length as needed, to encourage a better/longer sleep at
lunchtime. Gradually reducing the Morning Nap length also
means that the transition to one nap, between 12-15
months, is a lot easier once the Morning Nap is simply a
quick Power Nap.
Babies may differ slightly in the Morning Nap lengths that

work best for them. One 8-month-old baby might be fine
with a 30-minute Morning Nap and still do the full Lunch
Nap, while another 8-month-old baby might need their
Morning Nap trimmed to 20 minutes in order to do the full
2 hours at lunch.


40
You can play with the times of the Morning Nap as needed
if your baby starts waking early from the Lunch Nap and
you can rule out other factors such as settling issues,
hunger, sleep environment.
By 12 months most babies will be doing no more than 15

minutes for their Morning Nap.
In the 3-4 and 4-6 month sections of the Sleeping and

Feeding Guide, you’ll see that the nap times move by 15
minutes in each age bracket. This means your aim is to
move your baby’s nap time incrementally. It is written like
this (from the 3-4 month Guide):
9.00/9:15 AM Morning Nap 45 mins (Ideally 9:00/9:15-9:45 AM)
This means that at 3 months the Morning Nap is at 9:00

AM, but by 4 months it’s at 9:15 AM – you will move their
nap time gradually over that month.
If your baby is going to sleep earlier than the times in the

Guide and/or waking earlier than the wake-up times for
their naps, you can use a Power Nap for babies under 8
months. This is a strict 10-minute nap that bridges the gap
between their normal scheduled naps if it is greater than
the maximum awake time. This means your baby can last
until the next naptime, so you are back on track with your
nap timings for the rest of the day. Babies between 8-12
months can be stretched out to the scheduled nap times
(rather than working off their awake times like when they

41
were younger) if they woke early from the morning or

Lunch Naps or you will find you reach bedtime in the
evening earlier than the scheduled time in the Guide. This
can eventually create an early waking habit.
If your baby is consistently waking

earlier from their naps, you will need to look
at the troubleshooting notes for each nap to
try and figure out why.


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The Importance of the Lunch Nap

The backbone of our Sleep Programs is a long Lunch Nap.
This is the same for babies of all ages and is designed to
coincide with the natural dip in energy levels we all (adults
and babies alike) have between the hours of 12 and 2 PM.
Napping at this time means babies are more likely to fall

asleep, stay asleep (all things going well) and it is when sleep
will be the most restorative.
The other naps are then calculated around the Lunch Nap.
While it might be convenient or seem logical to let your

baby have a longer nap in the morning followed by a
shorter nap at lunch or in the afternoon, this can lead to
problems closer to 6 months once the daytime sleep hours
reduce naturally and your baby loses the late Afternoon
Nap. This means their longest nap of the day would then be
in the morning with only two short naps to get through the
rest of the day, and by late afternoon they will be
exhausted and need to go to bed by 6 PM (resulting in an
unsettled night and a 6 AM wake). Beyond 6 months, any
sleep after 3 PM can mean your baby will not settle well at
bedtime and correlates to a wakeful period at 3 AM.
Having a long Morning Nap also inhibits the consolidation

of the early morning sleep phase (between 5 AM- 7 AM).
This means an early wake is established and then reinforced
by continuing to have a long Morning Nap.


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During the transition to one nap, between 12-15 months

old, your baby will have reduced and then dropped their
Morning Nap altogether, leaving the Lunch Nap in place.
This is a far easier transition than it would be for babies
who are used to having a longer nap in the morning and a
shorter one early afternoon because you’d be tweaking and
readjusting two naps and converting them into one.
If you have a baby and a toddler, the Lunch Nap happens at

the same time for both ages, so you will enjoy a couple of
hours of bliss when both your kids are asleep!
Between 3-6 months the Lunch Nap can be difficult to

achieve for a variety of reasons, these include hunger,
settling issues (4-month sleep regression), sleep
environment or the length of the Morning Nap. Your baby,
despite being tired, might even refuse to go back to sleep.
Use the troubleshooting notes in the Sleeping and Feeding
Guide to get through the rest of your day if the Lunch Nap
doesn’t go to plan.
It can take a few weeks for babies to get the hang of Lunch
Nap but usually, by around 6 months, it will just click.
By establishing a good Lunch Nap early

on, you will ensure your baby is not too
overtired for the afternoon and bedtime is
relaxed and happy.


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The Difference Between Using Our Sleep

Program & “Sleep Training”
Our Sleep Program:
By following the Program, you are allowing your baby to
nap at the best times and lengths so they are ready for
sleep and will fall asleep easily during the day and will sleep
well at night. This helps enforce good sleep habits under 3
months so when your baby is between 3-4 months old,
they will understand when they are put into bed what they
are meant to do.
Following the Program also allows feeding to be at optimal

times so your baby won’t wake hungry from a nap and will
feed well during the day, so they sleep well at night.
Sleep Training/Self-Settling Training:

This is teaching your baby to go to sleep without parental
sleep associations/crutches. This is done by using methods
such as Rock or Feed to Soothe, Parental Presence or other
methods detailed in our Self-Settling Guide.
Where sleep training gets a bad rap is from methods such

as “extinction” (cry-it-out/Ferber which we don't use in our
Programs).


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Any sleep training needs to be done in conjunction with

using our Sleeping and Feeding Guide, so you can be sure
your baby is being offered sleep at the best times and
within their natural sleep windows. This makes achieving
independent sleep so much easier.
Babies who follow the Sleeping &

Feeding Guides for their day often won’t
need “sleep training” because they will be
given the opportunity to sleep at the best
times.


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Self-Settling & Sleep Associations

Self-settling refers to your baby’s ability to be able to go
from awake and alert to sound asleep, without any help
from you. Just like how you go to sleep at night. This means
if your baby is relying on you to do something for them in
order for them to fall asleep, it’s not self-settling. If you
have to put a pacifier in their mouth, this is technically not
self-settling unless the baby can do it themselves.
Sleep habits are very easily formed in babies older than 3

months. The way we put our babies down to sleep, as well
as the way we resettle them during naps or in the night, will
dictate how they learn to go to sleep. We call these things
“sleep associations”; cues or behaviours your baby
associates so strongly with going to sleep that they can’t
sleep without them. The most common sleep associations
for babies are feeding, rocking or patting to sleep or the use
of a pacifier. The way babies are put to sleep at the start of
a nap or at bedtime is the only way they know how to go to
sleep. If they then wake at the end of a sleep cycle and that
same sleep association isn’t there, they will not be able to
go back to sleep without it. This is why your baby may start
waking every 45 minutes during the day and every 2 hours
in the night and needing your help to go back to sleep.
Sleep associations are a normal part of falling asleep. Even

as adults we need something to help us fall asleep (such as
a pillow and blankets). It's when these associations disrupt
your baby's sleep, because they require your assistance,
that it becomes a problem. If a baby relies on a parent-

47
controlled sleep association to fall asleep at the start of a

nap or at bedtime, they will then need the same conditions
replicated when they surface from their sleep cycles during
the day and in the night.
We can categorise the tools babies use/require to get to

sleep in two categories - baby controlled and parent
controlled.
Baby Controlled Sleep Associations:

These are things that a baby can easily access or use or do
themselves to assist them to fall asleep, or things in a baby’s
sleep environment that signal it is time for sleep. If your
baby is using these things, they will be able to move
between sleep cycles on their own, without needing your
help; they will be able to self-settle.
These are:
ü A cuddly or comforter
ü Baby sleeping bag
ü Swaddle (in babies younger than 4 months)
ü Pacifier (around 8 months babies can replace their
pacifiers in the night)
ü White noise (for babies younger than 12 months)
ü Thumb sucking


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Parent Controlled Sleep Associations:

These are things that a parent (or caregiver) has to do to get
the baby to sleep; things a baby is incapable of replicating
themselves. A baby relying on any of these is not self-
settling.
The most common are:
ü Feeding
ü Rocking
ü Patting or tapping
ü Shushing
ü Holding
ü Replacing a pacifier (for babies younger than 8
months)
Self-settling and removing parent-controlled sleep

associations really only becomes an issue around the 4-
month mark and beyond and is a big aspect of the 4-month
regression.
Like learning to read for a 5-year-old, self-settling is a

learned skill that babies won’t just develop overnight. It is
something completely new for them, and they need a
process of coaching, consistency and the chance to learn to
do it themselves. Continuing to settle your baby to sleep
means we deny them the chance to work on this new skill
that their sleep cycle maturation has signalled they’re ready
to learn; we’re not doing them any favours in the long run.


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If your baby needs to learn the skill of

self-settling, choose one of the methods in
the Self-Settling Guide and use it in
conjunction with the Sleeping and Feeding
Guide.


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Pacifiers
Pacifiers are great settling tools for younger babies because
sucking is extremely comforting. Babies younger than 3
months will resettle between sleep cycles a lot easier than
older babies and won’t need the pacifier replaced every
time they come out of a sleep cycle, meaning the pacifier
doesn’t cause much disruption to their sleep. However,
once your baby is closer to 4 months (and beyond) if they
are using a pacifier to go to sleep they might start needing it
every time they wake between sleep cycles (45 minutes in
the day and 2 hours at night). This is a lot of pacifier runs!
Until your baby can replace their pacifier at around 7-8

months old, they will need you to replace it for them
because they are relying on the pacifier to fall asleep, so
much so, that they aren’t able to go back to sleep without it.
If your baby is not waking to have their pacifier replaced,

you are fine to keep using it. However, if it becomes a sleep
problem, between 3-6 months is a good age to ditch the
pacifier, unless you're happy to ride it out for a few more
months until your baby can put it back in themselves.
What we also find with using the pacifier at night, especially

for younger babies, is that it can actually mask genuine
hunger - the sucking tricks their brains into thinking they’ve
been fed. This can, in itself, lead to more night waking
because your baby is genuinely hungry, rather than just
waking for the pacifier.


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How Do You Get Rid of the Pacifier?

Firstly, you need to make sure you’ve got other positive
sleep associations in place, such as a swaddle or baby
sleeping bag, white noise, a dark room, a cuddly or
comforter or even a Lulla doll. Get the Baby Sleep Shhh
track going and play it very loud or use a baby Shusher to
help with settling.
If your baby needs to wean off the swaddle, tackle the

pacifier first, then wean off the swaddle after the pacifier
has been successfully ditched.
There are two methods to get rid of the pacifier, depending

on how quickly you want the pacifier gone and the level of
protesting you’re comfortable with. A baby over 7 months
will not easily give up the pacifier and you’re better to teach
them to replace it themselves at this age.
QUICK METHOD -
You will ditch the pacifier cold turkey, starting with the first
nap of the day and working through the other naps and
bedtime that same day. You might need to help your baby
settle for their naps by patting or shushing if they're upset
while they get used to not having a pacifier.
If they’re protest crying (which they may well be - they are

protesting the change), you can leave them for intervals of
6 minutes if you’re comfortable with that. Make sure you
set a timer and go and do something to busy yourself. If
your baby is still crying after 6 minutes you can pat or
cuddle to soothe them until they’re calm, then try again.

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You'll be surprised at how they can go from crying to fast

asleep at about 5 mins 30 seconds!
Each nap you put your baby down for, use the same
method (patting or shushing if they're upset) and be
consistent with your approach. Every nap they will take less
and less time to settle. It will take about 2-3 days to break
the habit (sometimes sooner!) if you’re consistent in your
approach.
GRADUAL METHOD –
Here, you will replace the pacifier with another settling tool
such as patting or rocking. You will begin by settling your
baby completely to sleep using your chosen method while
still using the pacifier for the first 3 days. After 3 days you
will put your baby down for their naps and at bedtime
without the pacifier, and you will still settle them completely
to sleep using your chosen settling method.
Once they are used to going to sleep without the pacifier,

you will then work on removing the settling, by only settling
to calm them rather than to put them to sleep. You can use
the 6-minute method here too, as described in the previous
method.


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Losing the Swaddle

Usually, between 4-6 months, babies are ready to transition
out of the swaddle. There are two methods to do this.
During this transition, keep everything else the same in your

baby’s sleep environment: dark room, white noise etc. If you
feel it is appropriate, you can add a cuddly for them to hold
to help control their newfound freedom with their arms.
Gradual Method:
Day 1:
Morning nap - remove one arm out of the swaddle at the
Morning Nap first, as this is the easiest for your baby to go
to sleep. Give them the chance to go to sleep themselves
during the settling time, but if they are not asleep by the
maximum awake time, you can try side settling for a few
minutes to help them get to sleep while they get used to
not having a swaddle.
For the Lunch Nap, Afternoon Nap and overnight, keep

both arms in the swaddle for now.
Day 2-3:
Overnight – once your baby is used to their arm out for the
Morning Nap, take one arm out of the swaddle for their
overnight sleep. Keep both arms in for their Lunch Nap and
Afternoon Nap for now.

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Day 4-5:
Lunch nap - once your baby is used to their arm out for the
Morning Nap and overnight, take one arm out of the
swaddle for their Lunch Nap. They may wake after one
sleep cycle in which case you can go and resettle them to
sleep. If you cannot get them back to sleep, follow the
catnapping guide for the day. Keep both arms in for their
Afternoon Nap for now, although as this is the hardest nap
to achieve, this nap is fine to do in the car or stroller during
this transition.
Day 6-7 and beyond:

Once your baby is doing all naps (except the Afternoon
Nap) with one arm out, take the other arm out, starting with
the Morning Nap and in the same way you did the first arm.
Begin with 2 arms out for the Morning Nap only, then
overnight, then lastly the Lunch Nap. They may wake after
one sleep cycle in which case you can go and resettle them
to sleep. If you cannot get them back to sleep, follow the
catnapping guide for the day.
Once both arms are out, you can put your baby in a baby
sleeping bag for that nap instead of their swaddle.
It is very normal for your baby to be a bit unsettled during

this transition – they just have a new “normal” to adapt to
that is very different from what they’ve known. It will get
better!


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Quick Method:
With this method, you go cold turkey on the swaddle for all
naps from day 1. You can settle your baby to sleep if
they’re not settling by the maximum awake time, being
mindful of reducing the settling after a couple of days so as
not to create a new sleep association.
During the Lunch Nap your baby may wake after one sleep
cycle, in which case you can go and resettle them to sleep.
If you cannot get them back to sleep, follow the catnapping
guide for the day. Day 2 and 3 will be much easier!
For the Afternoon Nap, as this is usually a hard nap to get

your baby to sleep, we recommend doing this nap in a
stroller or in the car during the removal of the swaddle.
Your baby may also wake one sleep cycle after bedtime.
You can resettle them back to sleep if that happens. Do the
same with any overnight wakes (allowing for feeds if your
baby normally has them).
By day 3 your baby should be getting used to having no

swaddle, so ensure you give your baby the chance to settle
themselves to sleep. If they are not asleep by the maximum
awake time, then you can settle them until drowsy and
allow them to drift off themselves.


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Sleep Regressions
Babies go through several periods in the first year where
they experience "sleep regressions". In some cases, babies
have to re-learn sleep skills due to the parts of their brain
responsible for sleep changing and maturing. Other times
the regressions are more to do with developments in their
physical and/or social skills and around nap transitions.
The 4 Month Sleep Regression

A baby’s sleep can dramatically change around the 4-month
mark. You might have had an amazing sleeping newborn
and suddenly they’ve started waking a lot more in the night
and catnapping in the day.
This is commonly called the 4-month sleep regression;

however, it is better not to think of it as a regression but
more of a maturation of your baby’s neurological
development. Their brains are developing and their sleep is
becoming more like ours as adults.
An adult sleep cycle goes through periods of deep sleep and

periods of REM sleep. REM sleep is a lighter sleep where
we dream and are more likely to be woken if something is
different or bothering us in our environment. Our deep
sleep is where we are unlikely to be woken. Adult sleep
cycles are about 100 minutes long, then we rouse slightly


57
and fall back asleep again, into the next sleep cycle without
even realising it.
Young babies are a bit different. They have periods of

active sleep and periods of quiet sleep. Active sleep is what
the baby enters straight after falling asleep, this is like REM
sleep in adults and they can be easily woken during this
time. They breath shallower, can grunt, cry out and if
anything is bothering them, they are easily woken. During
this phase your baby is likely to wake if they went to sleep
in your arms and you put them down. After active sleep
they enter quiet sleep - this is when breathing is more
rhythmic and it is like the deep sleep stage in adults. A
baby’s sleep cycle is about 45 minutes in total and if tired
enough, if nothing is bothering them and have a full tummy,
babies under 3 months will rouse between sleep cycles but
then enter into another 45-minute cycle of active through
quiet sleep until they have had enough restorative sleep
and wake up.
After 3 months babies go through a massive development

in their sleep cycles and they don't drift from one to
another so easily.
By four months they wake completely at the end of a sleep

cycle and need to consciously try to go back to sleep. This
wakefulness is the part that is referred to as the “four-
month regression”.
Unfortunately, this sleep regression won’t go away until

your baby can totally self-settle.


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The 8 Month Regression

There is another sleep regression around 8 months and it is
all about the massive physiological developmental changes
your baby is experiencing at this time. At around this age,
many babies are learning to crawl, might be pulling up to
stand, they will have language explosions. This can mean
your baby wants to wake in the night simply to practice
their new skills! They might also start resisting some naps or
waking earlier in the Lunch Nap. They are quite literally
distracted by their own amazingness! This is completely
normal, and unless they're really upset you are best to leave
them to it.
It is during this time it can be easy to quickly establish some

bad sleep habits as you might be inclined to go back to
rocking or feeding your baby to get them back to sleep. This
regression does go away and should only last a few weeks
on and off.
6 & 12-15 Months

At these times there can be a tiny hiccup in your baby's
sleep as they go through nap transitions. It might seem like
a sleep regression! At 6 months (or thereabouts) your baby
drops their Afternoon Nap and then somewhere between
12-15 months your baby will drop the Morning Nap. While
our Programs are carefully formulated to make these
transitions as easy as possible for your baby (by gradually
reducing the nap times until they're gone), there can still be
a period of adjustment. This might mean your baby starts
waking earlier in the morning or after one sleep cycle at


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bedtime for a few days. As with the 8-month regression,

this will resolve itself and you need to be really careful not
to interfere and create more sleep habits during this time!
Even on this Program, your baby might

experience disturbances to their sleep as
they are adjusting to the changes in their
neurology. However, you're lucky, because
being on our Program means your baby has
the best chance to minimise these
disruptions and sail through the regressions
a lot easier.


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Early Waking
If your baby is doing well on the Program and following it
closely, the main reasons for waking before 6 AM are:
ü They are cold. This is common because 5 AM is

usually the coolest part of the night, especially during
winter. Having your baby in a merino sleeping bag, or
swaddled with cotton or wool blankets over the top
(for babies under 4 months) is the best way to go.
Using a heater in their room is good, as long as you
can control the temperature - use a thermostat to
set the room temperature: 18/19 degrees (64-68 F)
are the perfect room temperatures for babies. Babies
who are too hot or over-bundled can also wake at 5
AM too. This is the period of the night when babies
come into their lightest sleep (they enter deep sleep
again right before it's time to wake up), so anything
that makes them uncomfortable at this time of the
morning will wake them and keep them awake.
ü They have had too much day sleep. This would mean
your baby had simply had enough sleep in that 24-
hour period and they genuinely don't need to sleep
until 7 AM. Check their total daily sleep hours
against the recommended amount in the Sleeping
and Feeding Guide.
ü They were very overtired at bedtime. Overtiredness

stimulates increased production of the hormone
cortisol, which peaks during the afternoon and

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evening. Higher cortisol levels mean your baby's

sleep will be more restless, causing night waking and
early morning waking.
ü Their Morning Nap was too early or for too long. It is

important to keep their Morning Nap as close to the
scheduled time as you can. A Morning Nap that is
too early will actually cause more early morning
waking as they learn they can catch up on the
missed sleep at that nap!
ü They are sick. If you can rule out hunger, being too
hot/cold and day sleep having been an issue, it might
pay to have your baby checked by your doctor. Even
if they don't seem sick, ear infections or sore throats
are common culprits for early waking and don't
always present with other symptoms such as a fever
or a runny nose etc.
ü Genuine hunger in younger babies who have

recently been weaned off night feeds or a baby who
needs to start on solids. Offering them half a feed
here would be your best bet, then putting them back
to bed until 7 AM and offering the rest of the feed
after 7 AM.
For any early waking, use the troubleshooting notes in your

Sleeping and Feeding Guide to work through the rest of
your day.
If you need to break a habit wake, see the Early Waking

section in the Settling Guide.

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4-6 Months Overnight & Hunger

Between 4-6 months your baby may start waking more
overnight, even if they were previously sleeping well and
even if they were sleeping through the night. If your baby
can self-settle (without a pacifier) at all naps and bedtime,
you can rule out a settling issue as a reason for the wakes
overnight.
The next most common reason is that they are hungry. By 6

months old babies can be ready to start eating solid food
and in particular, protein. Until they are well established on
solids, they might start waking more in the night because
they are genuinely hungry.
Milk is still the most important food for a baby until 8

months of age, however, milk is digested very quickly and
doesn't sustain your baby for long periods.
If your baby is breastfed or bottle-fed

and you don't want to start solids until 6
months or later, you will need to treat night
waking as hunger.


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If you have started solids and your baby is still waking, it is

likely that you need to increase the amount or add protein
at the lunch meal for a baby 6 months and older.
When starting solids, we recommend you start with solids

at lunchtime and increase by 1 teaspoon per day until your
baby is eating at least ½ a cup, then introduce dinner. Again,
start with 1 teaspoon and increase to at least ½ a cup then
introduce breakfast.
If you are using a pacifier and overnight you are resettling

with a pacifier instead of feeding (if you haven't introduced
solids), please be careful. A pacifier can mask the fact that
your baby is actually waking because they are hungry.
Because the baby sucks the pacifier, like when they are
feeding, even though they may go back to sleep, their brain
thinks that it’s getting food. You could be resettling when
actually the reason for the wake was hunger.
Please note: it is normal to have up to 2 wakes in the night

until solids are well established (at least ½ a cup at two
meals, lunch and dinner). It can also be quite normal to have
one feed a night until 8 months when solids come before
milk. If your baby is older than 9 months and is still waking
overnight, she will be doing so out of habit and is not
needing milk, exclusively breastfed or not.
We do not recommend doing dream feeds over 6 months

as this can create habit waking or waking later in the night
and also encourages them to take calories overnight instead
of during the day.


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Flexibility, Out & About

Our Programs are quite flexible, in that you can alter the
times for the feeds and sleeps to better fit in with your
family, as long as the awake times and total nap hours are
adhered to.
This means that if you’d like an earlier start to your day, say
6:30 AM instead of 7:00 AM, you’d just move the entire
Sleeping and Feeding Guide forwards by half an hour. The
same goes the other way.
While using the Program, in no way are we meaning for you

to be stuck at home all day! The first and last nap of the day
are really easy to do on the go, and once your baby is
sleeping well in their cot at night, the Lunch Nap can also be
done by some babies in a stroller too.
To do the morning and Afternoon Nap in a

stroller/car/carrier, still have the wind-down period and
then aim to be in the car or pram very close to the normal
nap time. If your little one isn't going to sleep, try and keep
a few of their sleep associations that they usually have, like
their cuddly, white noise, sleeping bag, as this will help.
Most babies will find going to sleep while moving very

comforting and will do so easily, others need a little help,
and just like learning to go to sleep in their bed, they need
to be given the chance to learn. If your baby goes to sleep
for their Lunch Nap in the car, you can transfer them to
their bed once home to complete the nap.


65
If, however, your baby has a sleep association and you are
trying to get them to sleep well in their cot overnight, the
easiest place to start is to teach them during the day. This
means you may need to do a few days at home to teach
them the cot is where they sleep rather than the car, the
pram or on you.
The beauty of this Program is you will

be confident in the knowledge of when your
baby needs to sleep or feed, so you can
more easily plan outings and know you’ll
have a happy, well-rested baby!


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If You Have More Than One Child

If you have multiples, you will need to use the Multiples
Supplement in conjunction with this Sleep Program.
If you have a baby and a toddler, it is certainly manageable

to effectively follow our Sleep Programs; the founders of
Little Ones did just that!
For activities during the day, try and plan them during your
baby’s awake windows if you can, even if it means letting
your baby do their morning or Afternoon Nap in the car or
stroller on the way to the activity. You could also aim to do
their naps in the stroller or a carrier while you are at the
activity.
The same goes for school or preschool drop-off and pick-

up.
If your toddler is still having a day sleep, both your baby and
toddler will be napping at the same time across the middle
of the day, for a couple of hours. This is a wonderful
opportunity to put your feet up or have some “me-time”.
If you have activities or outings during the day and you’re

unsure how to work them around your baby’s naps, read
the FAQs for more information.


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Sickness
Sickness can have a negative impact on napping and night-
time sleep. Even if your baby doesn’t appear sick, signs to
look for are:
ü Sudden changes to their sleep over the last 24 hours

ü Waking/unsettled sleep between 7 PM and 10 PM
ü Waking early in the morning and not settling back to
sleep
ü Catnapping (unless your baby has a fever)
Babies with a fever will want to sleep - let them sleep. For
some babies, falling asleep at a random time is the first sign
they have a fever.
But, if you manage to get the fever down, or they are sick
with no fever, here is a rough guideline for what to do with
naps.
Morning Nap: We like to keep the Morning Nap the same

ending time as usual. You can put your baby down earlier
than the maximum awake time but wake at the normal wake
time, so the Lunch Nap isn't affected.
Lunch Nap: You can put your baby down earlier than the
nap time if they are very tired or if they are sick. Talk to
your doctor about pain relief options to give your baby
before the nap to aide in settling initially, and also because
when babies are sick they often catnap, so it helps stop this.


68
It is fine to let your baby sleep as long as they will for the
Lunch Nap, but cap it at 3 PM for a baby under 18 months.
Afternoon Nap: If under 6 months, this nap can be used as

a catch-up nap. You can let them sleep longer if needed,
but always wake at 5 PM (so if you want them to sleep
longer you need to put them down earlier; this usually
happens naturally anyway, because they might not have
slept as long at the Lunch Nap).
For older babies/toddlers if you notice a sudden change in

personality for a few days, this is most likely due to a
sickness.
If you know your baby is no longer sick and they start to

wake more overnight or naps go backwards, you will need
to start following the Sleeping and Feeding Guide more
closely again.


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Changes in Your Baby’s Day/Night

While on our Program, babies will have the best chance to
meet their food/milk and sleep needs. The Program can also
highlight anything else going on which could be inhibiting
your baby’s feeding or sleeping such as sickness or other
medical issues.
But even once established on our Program, babies can go

through periods of a day, 3 days, a week of unsettled
behaviour or a seemed sudden worsening of their naps or
sleep. In most cases, this is quite normal and would happen
whether on the Program or not; these are usually simply
times of regression, growth spurts or developmental leaps.
The Program will however, give you the framework to ride
out these changes and interruptions and will give you the
tools to get through the rest of the day.
If you notice a sudden or random

behaviour or regression, we always advise
you to wait a week before seeking answers
through the Little Ones Village - this will feel
like a lifetime, but it will very often just be a
one-off or a developmental phase that lasts
a few days and will resolve itself.


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You can use this troubleshooting list to rule out any of the
following as well:
ü Check the length of your baby’s day naps.

ü Can your baby totally self-settle (for babies 3-4
months onward)?
ü Did your baby take less food/milk that day?
ü Are they now too hot/cold in their bedding?
ü Was there anything that happened in their day
that was different to normal (such as having to
do all their naps out and about etc.)?
ü Are they sick? Remember ear infections or sore
throats will often not show any other outward
symptoms, and it can be really hard to know that
your baby is unwell. A disruption to their sleep is
usually the first indicator.
ü If you have another child in the house have they
been sick recently? Have you been sick?
*in the case of an obviously sick or unwell baby or a baby

who is refusing to eat/drink or won't stop crying you must
seek medical advice.
Click HERE to see the video!


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When Things Aren’t Working

Please always refer to the detailed notes in the Sleeping and
Feeding Guides to troubleshoot if things start to go awry,
your baby won’t settle, is waking more overnight than usual
or waking early from their naps.
Once established on our Program and your baby is sleeping

well. and in a lot more of a predictable rhythm, you will
quickly notice if something isn’t right. The main reasons for
a baby not settling or resettling when established on our
Program are:
ü They are genuinely hungry (you would need to refer

to the feeding notes in your Sleeping and Feeding
Guide to trouble-shoot this)
ü They haven’t learnt to self-settle.
ü Their conditions for sleep aren’t quite right, i.e. their
room is too light, there is no white noise, they are
not swaddled (in babies younger than 4 months)
ü They are sick
ü Their sleep is still consolidating – especially if you’ve
just started on the Program. Read the section on
Sleep Consolidation for more information.


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Getting Back On Track

If you've been away on holiday, if you've had a busy few
days, if your wee one has been sick or something has gone
wrong, and you've veered from the Program, and your baby
is not sleeping well, here are some ways to get back on
track once everything has settled down:
1. Spend a few quiet days at home and focus on your

baby and their sleep needs. It's likely they'll be
craving a calming environment with very little
stimulation so they can chill out.
2. Stick to the Sleeping and Feeding Guide as closely as
you can - your baby will be needing that structure
back and "going with the flow" won't help them to
know what's coming next in their day. It's very easy
to get into a habit of letting them sleep longer in the
day if they're very tired, but all extra day nap hours
come at a cost and it may mean your baby starts
waking more at night or staying awake for long
periods. It is far better to give them the chance to
catch up by having a good, restful sleep overnight
rather than extra naps during the day.
3. However, you can put your baby down slightly
earlier for their naps if they've got a lot of sleep debt
to catch up on. Just be careful not to go too much
over the total nap hours for the day.
4. Still wake your baby at 7am in the morning,
regardless of how the night went. This is a crucial
factor in regulating their circadian rhythms and
getting them back on track.


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Getting Started
If you want to get straight into the Program and catch up on
the crucial info in the Sleep for Babies chapter later on,
have a look at these important tips to help you start out:
1. Choose a day to start.
2. Wake your baby at 7 AM on that day and go from

there, following the Sleeping & Feeding Guide for
the day. If your baby wakes earlier than 7 AM, use
the troubleshooting notes in the Guide to start the
day from when your baby woke.
3. The awake times in the Guide are the maximum time

your baby should be awake. They are a limit rather
than a goal.
4. If your baby is hungrier earlier than the times in the

Guide, definitely feed them!
5. It is a good idea to spend a few days at home if you

can, giving your baby and you the chance to get used
to the new pattern of their day - especially if they
are older than 6 months and are learning to settle
themselves to sleep.
6. If you have errands or outings like school drop-off

for older kids, you’ll find the morning and Afternoon
Naps can easily be done on the go.

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7. You can expect a period of adjustment and your

baby’s sleep might seem worse before it gets better.
This is very normal! Have a read of the information
on Sleep Consolidation in the Sleep for Babies
section.
8. This is not a miracle overnight fix – it will take a

couple of weeks for your baby to get the hang of
their new structure, but it will happen! Consistency is
key.
9. If something goes wrong or veers from the Guide,

use the extensive troubleshooting notes and FAQs
to get through the rest of the day.
10. Before asking a question in the Little Ones Village

make sure you first read and re-read all the
information in the troubleshooting notes and the
Sleep for Babies section because the answers will be
found in there!


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How to Use the Sleeping & Feeding Guide

These Guides are your baby’s age-appropriate schedule to
getting through their day. Note we do call them guides; if
your baby is having longer naps than suggested in these
Guide and it is not impacting their settling or night-time
sleep, that's fine!
The Guides are designed around the perfect amount of

awake time and total day sleep babies need at each age, to
lead to easy settling and good night-time sleep.
Awake Times
The awake times specified in these Guides are the
maximum time your baby should be awake for before they
get overtired; the time by which your baby definitely should
be in bed asleep, not the time at which you’d start to put
them to bed. If your baby is having difficulty with the awake
times, read the information in the Sleep for Babies section
called Awake Times & Nap Lengths.
The awake times in the Guide are from when baby wakes to
when they need to be asleep, so make sure there is time to
wind down, change diaper and settle beforehand.
Naps
The nap timings in the Guide are based on when you’re
having the “perfect day”. We do encourage you to wake

77
your baby from their naps if they’re not already awake, as

each nap is very carefully timed to allow your baby to then
have a great next nap and a good sleep overnight. If for
example, your baby sleeps for a long time in their Morning
Nap it will impact their settling and the length of their Lunch
Nap, meaning your baby will reach the early evening very
overtired and unsettled. This can affect their night-time
sleep. For more information on this, read the information in
the Sleep for Babies section called The Importance of the
Lunch Nap.
If you need to know how to troubleshoot the rest of your

day should a nap end early or start late, you’ll find detailed
troubleshooting notes.
The timings of the naps in the Guide change as your baby

ages. You will see the times written like this (which is from
the 3-4 month Guide):
9:00/9:15 AM Morning Nap
This would mean that your baby at 3 months is napping at 9

AM, but by 4 months the nap has moved to be at 9:15 AM.
Some babies, given a chance, would happily sleep all day!

Our Program relies on you being in control of the sleep
hours your baby has, rather than letting your baby sleep for
as long as they'd like in the day. This is to ensure your baby
is getting the exact amount of sleep during the day to allow
them to do the bulk of their sleep overnight.


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If your baby wakes early in any of the naps, see the nap
information in the notes section to get you through the rest
of the day.  
The guidelines change a little after 3 months. Between 3

and 4 months your baby is learning the ability to self-settle.
This means she is learning to go to sleep without any aides,
such as rocking, feeding or patting to sleep.
After 3 months you do start to stretch your baby out a little

bit from when she wakes until her first nap rather than
working off awake times for the timing of each nap, as in
the 0-3 Month Program, otherwise your baby could end up
waking for the day earlier and earlier in the morning.
If after 9 months, your baby is taking three solid meals a

day, can self-settle at all naps and bedtime and is still
waking earlier than 6 AM or overnight, you may need to
look at the overnight wakes section in our Self-Settling
Guide.
Quick Guide & Detailed Guide

All the Guides for each age have a Quick Guide to feeding
and sleeping times, followed by a very detailed breakdown
of the timings and comprehensive notes. There are clickable
links in pink throughout the Guide to take you to the


79
Feeding
If your baby is hungry earlier than the suggested feeding
times in the Guide, definitely feed them. If your baby is
constantly hungry earlier than the suggested feeding times,
we recommend seeing a health care professional as there is
likely a reason.  
Beginning on the Guide

We suggest waking your baby at 7 AM to start your day, so
her bedtime will be at 7 PM. If you let your baby sleep later
, for example, 8 AM, then you simply adjust all the nap and
feed timings back by an hour and bedtime would become 8
PM.  
It can take at least 3 to 4 weeks for some babies to adjust

to the new rhythm to their day and during that time they
may be unsettled or grizzly - this is because things are
different for them and it takes a while to adjust. The Sleep
Consolidation section contains more information on this.
This Program is not an overnight fix – unfortunately, such a

thing doesn’t exist! If your baby is struggling with the awake
times, please see the section on Awake Times & Nap
Lengths.
Think of it like if we travel overseas to a new time zone and

are jetlagged. Our sleeping patterns are thrown out, and we
take a wee while to adjust to the new time - our night sleep
is affected and we feel tired and grumpy during the day. But
we persevere, we stay awake during the day to reset our

80
biological rhythms because we want to fix it and feel better

and sleep better at night!
This is what it can be like for babies who are changing their
sleep times and habits - it is important to persevere and be
consistent and give them the best chance to learn the new
way of doing things. Babies are very quick learners, so if all
their ducks are in a row they’ll cotton on really quickly.
If your baby seems to suddenly start sleeping a lot worse in

the night when you first start the Program, this is actually
quite normal for the first wee while as they are recovering
from a build-up of sleep debt and getting over any residual
overtiredness.
Once they have started with our Guide it will also highlight
any other issues going on, such as sickness, reflux, allergies -
this could also be a cause for their unsettled behaviour once
you know their naps and feeds are on track with the
schedule.
We always advise you to stick closely to the Sleeping and

Feeding Guide initially so you and your baby can really get
the rhythm of things.
Above all, we need to remember that the hard work you put
in now is a real investment in your baby’s sleep for years to
come. It is to your baby’s ultimate benefit you are fostering
good sleep habits with them, which will aid in this massive
period of growth and development in your baby’s life.


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If you are also teaching your baby to

self-settle, choose your method in the Self-
Settling Guide and use it at the same time as
implementing these schedules.


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Recommendations
Our Sleep Programs work best when combined with these
recommendations, however, these things are not
“compulsory” in order to use the Programs. Many people
still have great success with their child’s sleep without using
some or all of the things on this list:
Have a dark room for naps as well

at night-time sleep. Avoid using
night lights or stimulating toys or
mobiles.
Use white noise for naps and

overnight. This helps babies get in
the “zone” for sleep, blocks out
household noises and helps the
transition between sleep cycles.
Use a swaddle for babies under 4

months and a baby sleep sack for
older babies.
Aim for baby to sleep in their own

bed/crib for 80% of their sleeps.
Napping in their crib in the day
helps them learn that this is the
place where they sleep.


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Choose Your Schedule

Click to Go to Your Baby’s Schedule:
3 to 4 Months
4 to 6 Months
6 to 8 Months
8 to 10 Months
10 to 12 Months

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3 to 4 Months
For this age, refer to the following sections in the Sleep For
Babies chapter as needed:
ü Awake Times and Nap Lengths
ü The Importance of the Lunch Nap
ü Sleep Regressions
ü Losing the Swaddle
ü Pacifiers
ü Sleep Associations


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Quick Guide (3 to 4 Months)

5:00-6:30 AM Early Wake
6:30-7:00 AM Morning Start
7:00 AM Breakfast Milk Feed
Awake time 2 – 2 ¼ hours max
9.00/9:15 AM Morning Nap 45 minutes
10:00 AM Morning Milk Feed
11:15 AM Lunch Milk Feed
Awake time 2 ¼ hours max
Lunch Nap 2 hours (12:00/12:15 PM -
12/12:15 PM
2:00/2:15 PM)
2:00/2:15 PM Afternoon Milk Feed
Awake time 2 ½ hrs max
4:30/4:45 PM Afternoon Nap 15-30 minutes
5:00 PM Dinner Milk Feed
6:00 PM Bath
6:15-6:30 PM Bedtime Milk Feed
7:00 PM Bedtime
Awake time 2 hrs max
9:00 PM Expressing Time (Optional)
10:00-10:30 PM Dream Milk Feed (Optional)
Total Day Sleep 3 ¼ hours approx. (between 7 AM - 7 PM)


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Detailed Guide (3 to 4 Months)

If your baby wakes between
5:00-6:30 AM and won’t
resettle, feed one side or half a
Early
5:00-6:30 bottle and try to settle back to
Wake
sleep until 7 AM. If she won’t
resettle, see the troubleshooting
notes.
If she wakes after 6:30 AM, if
crying or hungry get her up for
6:30-7:00 Morning
the day, otherwise leave in bed
AM Start
if happy and keep her Morning
Nap at 9:00/9:15 AM
Wake your baby if not already
7:00 AM
awake. Change nappy/diaper.
Awake time 2-2 ¼ hrs max between waking up and the
Morning Nap
Breakfast
7:00 AM Give your baby a full feed.
Milk Feed
If you fed your baby one
breast/half a bottle between 5
7:30/8:00
AM and 6 AM, feed the other
AM
breast or the other half of the
bottle now.
Take your baby to her room ,
Change
9:00 AM check nappy/diaper, swaddle
and Settle


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and start to settle your baby for

sleep.
9:00/9:15 Morning They need a sleep here of 45
AM Nap mins.
Wake your baby if she is not
9:45/10 AM
already awake.
Awake time 2 ¼ hrs max between the Morning Nap and
the Lunch Nap.
Feed your baby a full feed (or
Morning combine the Morning and Lunch
10:00 AM
Milk Feed Feed at 10.45-11:00 AM, closer
to 4 months old)
Offer your baby a milk feed
Lunch before the Lunch Nap (if you
11:15 AM
Milk Feed haven’t combined the two feeds
at 10:45-11:00 AM)
Your baby will be starting to get
tired now. Take her to her room,
11:50/12 Change
check nappy/diaper, swaddle
Noon and Settle
and put your baby in their bed
for sleep.


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At 3 months, your baby will be

napping from 12:00-2:00/2:15
PM. As she gets closer to 4
months, her nap will move to
12:15-2:15 PM.
Aim for a nap of 2hrs-2 ¼ hours.
Your baby may wake after one

sleep cycle of around 45 mins -
12:00/12:15 Lunch
1 hour. Allow her up to 15 mins
PM Nap
to resettle herself as long as she
is not crying. See
If you have only just started on

our Guides and your baby can’t
yet self-settle, you may have to
resettle her during this nap for a
while until you teach her this
skill.
awake at 2:15 PM. If she woke
during the nap or didn't sleep
2:00-2:15
well for some reason let her
PM
sleep until 2:15 PM but don't let
her sleep past 2:15 PM or
longer than 2 ¼ hours.
2:00-2:15 Afternoon Give your baby a full feed when
PM Milk Feed she wakes.


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Awake time 2½ hrs max between the Lunch Nap and

Afternoon Nap.
Your baby can sleep 15 to 30
mins. Around 3 months she will
4:30/4:45 Afternoon
nap around 4:30 PM, but closer
PM Nap
to 4 months she will be napping
at 4:45 PM.
Awake time 2 hrs max between the Afternoon Nap and
Bedtime
Your baby will start to cut right
back on this nap. The Afternoon
Nap is always the hardest to get
them to sleep and to stay
asleep, especially if she hasn't
slept well during the day. If she
didn't sleep well at the Lunch
Nap she will get tired around
4:30 PM.
Wake your baby now if not
already awake. The time of this
5:00 PM wake determines bedtime. If she
woke at 4:45 PM for example,
bedtime will be 6:45 PM.
Feed your baby one side or half
a bottle. Feed both sides here if
Dinner
5:00 PM you are low on milk, your baby
Milk Feed
cluster feeds at night or during a
growth spurt.
6:00 PM Bath Bath your baby.


90
Start your bedtime routine by

feeding in a quiet, dim room. If
she didn't finish the side you fed
6:15-6:30 Bedtime at 5:00 PM, start with that same
PM Milk Feed side and then feed the other. Or
give a full bottle. It is important
to try not feed your baby to
sleep.
Settle your baby in her bed for
7:00 PM Bedtime
the night.
If you are introducing a bottle at
the dream feed, express now
from both breasts. Your supply
will likely be regulating now so
you probably won't be
9:00 - 9:30
Expressing expressing much more than
PM
100ml/3oz between both
breasts; you may need to top up
her bottle as she may be taking
more than what you can
express.
Get your baby out of bed and
change nappy/diaper first, if
Dream
10:00-10:30 needed. Feed her quietly and
Feed
PM avoid stimulating or talking to
(Optional)
her. You want to keep her as
sleepy as possible.
Hopefully, she will be sleeping
Overnight from the dream feed through to
(If req.) 6-7 AM. However, it is normal
to have 2 feeds (including the


91
dream feed) in the night until

solids are well established
around 6 months.


92
Catnapping Guide (3 to 4 Months)

Use this Guide if the Lunch Nap goes wrong, after reading
the troubleshooting notes, to recover your day.
7:00 AM Morning Start

Awake time 2 - 2 ¼ hours max
9:00/9:15 AM Morning Nap 45 mins
11:30 AM Lunch Milk Feed
Awake time 2 ¼ hours max
12:00/12:15 PM Lunch Nap
Start from here if your baby has woken early
12:45/1:00 PM from their Lunch Nap and you can’t resettle
them.
1:45 PM Afternoon Milk Feed
2:00 PM Afternoon Split Nap (45 mins)
2:45 PM Wake
Awake time 1 hr 45 min max
5:00 PM Wake and Dinner Milk Feed
6:00 PM Bath
6:15-6:30 PM
Bedtime Milk Feed
7:00 PM Bedtime


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Notes & Troubleshooting

Feeding
Around 12 weeks your baby will generally go through
another growth spurt. During a growth spurt, you will need
to let her feed for longer at feeds and she may end up
cluster feeding around bedtime.
If your baby starts to refuse the Lunch Milk Feed before her
Lunch Nap (especially bottle-fed babies), combine the
Morning and Lunch Milk Feeds and do one feed closer to
11:00 AM to ensure she is full enough to sleep well during
the Lunch Nap. If she wakes during the Lunch Nap and you
had combined the two feeds, assume that your baby is
hungry and go in and feed straight away to resettle. If this
happens for more than a few days go back to doing the
Morning Milk Feed at 10:00 AM and also the Lunch Milk
Feed before the Lunch Nap, especially during a growth
spurt.
If you find that your baby is getting hungry in the afternoon

or cluster feeding before bed then go back to doing the
Morning Milk Feed at 10 AM and also the Lunch Milk Feed
before the Lunch Nap to get more milk into them during the
morning especially if they are breastfed or during growth
spurts.


94
Early Waking / Morning Wake

Before 5:00 AM:
If your baby wakes before 5:00 AM and has fed in the last 2
hours, see if she will settle back to sleep. If she won’t, give
her a feed. For more information see Troubleshooting
Overnight.
5:00-6:00 AM:
If your baby wakes between 5:00-6:00 AM and won’t
resettle, feed one side or half a bottle and try to settle back
to sleep until 7 AM. If she won’t go back to sleep, move the
Morning Nap forward to 2hrs after she woke and allow her
to sleep until the normal wake-up time of the Morning Nap
. Do the Breakfast Milk Feed before the Morning Nap.
6:00-6:30 AM:
to sleep until 7 AM. If she won’t go back to sleep, give her a
10-minute Power Nap 2 hours from when she woke, then
continue with the Morning Nap at the scheduled time in the
Guide.
6:30-7:00 AM:
If she wakes after 6:30 AM get her up for the day if crying
or hungry, otherwise leave in bed if happy and keep her
Morning Nap at 9:00/9:15 AM.


95
The Morning Nap

During this Guide the Morning Nap start time should be
moving slowly from 9:00 AM at 3 months towards 9:15 AM
by 4 months.
Your baby will likely be cutting down on this nap naturally

now and only sleeping one cycle of around 35-45 minutes.
If she is still sleeping longer than this, you should wake her
from the nap at 45 minutes as it can have a negative effect
on the Lunch Nap and cause her to either wake after 1
sleep cycle or wake early from the nap due to not being
tired enough.
If the Lunch Nap is going wrong and you can rule out
hunger, try cutting this nap to 30/40 minutes rather than
45.
You should only shorten your baby’s Morning Nap length

when it is beginning to impact on their Lunch Nap.


96
The Lunch Nap

Your baby should be napping from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM or
2:15 PM by the beginning of this Guide. If anything goes
wrong in the Lunch Nap at any time during this guide and
she wakes for a decent period, settle her back to sleep until
2:15 PM and wake her then.
Once she gets closer to 4 months, she will be napping

12:15 - 2:15 PM.
Between 3 and 4 months your baby is coming out of their

newborn phase and they should be learning to self-settle. In
other words, learning to go to sleep without any help, much
like adults do. Due to this change in development she will
come into a lighter sleep at the end of a sleep cycle around
35-45 minutes. Your baby needs to be given a chance to
settle herself back to sleep. If you are already doing two
feeds before the Lunch Nap, you can assume that it is not
hunger causing a wake and leave your baby for 10-15
minutes to resettle, as long as they aren't crying up; this is
the time that they learn they can sleep longer than one
sleep cycle during the day rather than waking.
If after 10-15 minutes your baby is still awake, go in and

resettle, treating it like a night wake, resettle until asleep.
If after a few days of doing this, your baby is still waking

then it will likely be something else, such as they are relying
too heavily on a parent-dependant sleep association at the
start of their nap, they are sick, or they are too hot or cold.


97
If your baby is struggling with constant catnapping (only

sleeping for one sleep cycle), you can also ensure their
room is pitch black, you’re using white noise and that they
are still swaddled as these factors can help a baby sleep
longer.
If the Lunch Nap Goes Wrong:

Woke 12:00-1:00 PM:
If your baby does wake during the Lunch Nap (between
12:00-1:00 PM) and you have given two feeds before the
nap, allow 15 minutes to self-settle back to sleep as long as
she’s not crying up.
If she is not resettling by herself after 15 minutes or she is

crying, try and resettle her in her bed by whatever means
necessary, e.g. side settling, rocking or feeding.
If you have only done one feed before the nap assume
hunger and feed straight away to resettle.
If she won’t resettle follow the Catnapping Guide.
Woke 1:00-2:00 PM:

If your baby slept well in the Lunch Nap but woke early
(between 1:00-2:00 PM), the Afternoon Nap will start 2 ¼
hours from when she woke but ideally finishing at 5:00 PM,
therefore giving her a catch up.


98
The Afternoon Nap

This nap will be getting much shorter now.
If your baby slept well at the Lunch Nap and woke at 2:00
PM or didn’t sleep solidly at lunch but then slept till 2:15
PM, the Afternoon Nap will begin at 4:30 PM. If she slept
well from 12:15-2:15 PM then her Afternoon Nap will start
closer to 4:45 PM.
Settling should be a lot quicker by now and only take a few

minutes.
This is always a hard nap to get your baby to go to sleep. If

your baby has had a bad day of sleep, then make this easy
for yourself and take your baby for a walk in the stroller or a
drive in the car. The Afternoon Nap can work as a catch-up
nap - if anything went wrong during the first two naps, you
can try to make this slightly longer than the suggested time
(as long as you still work off the awake times), but do not let
them sleep past 5:00 PM if you want them to go to bed at
7:00 PM.
If the Afternoon Nap is cut short for some reason, bring

bedtime forward to compensate - even if this means a 6:00-
6:30 PM bedtime.


99
The Power Nap

This is a nap you can use at any time of the day to bridge
the time between your baby’s normal naps, if they have
woken early.
To do a Power Nap you put your baby down for a nap after
the normal awake time, but only let them sleep for 10
minutes.
This is very strict and it may feel strange waking your baby
after such a short time, but if you let them sleep longer than
this, they will not be tired enough for their next nap.
After the 10-minute nap you can put your baby down for
their next nap at the usual time in the Guide.
We would only use the Power Nap if it meant that even

after adjusting your day, your bedtime would be earlier than
6:00 PM.


100
The Dream Feed (optional)

The Dream Feed should be very quick by now. If your baby
stays awake for any period of time after this feed, you need
to look at how much daytime sleep they are having.
If your baby is sleeping well from the dream feed to 6:30-

7:00 AM, has done so for a few weeks and is becoming less
interested or fussing with their Breakfast Milk Feed, or
taking less milk at the Dream Feed, you can start to slowly
reduce the amount that you give them at the Dream Feed.
Do this by reducing the bottle amount by 30ml/1oz or
breastfeed time by 5 minutes every three days. As long as
your baby still sleeps through until the morning you can
keep reducing the feed. You will need to be very lenient if
your baby starts to wake in the night or starts waking earlier
in the morning; you will need to assume hunger and may
need to keep the Dream Feed in until they are established
on solids and taking two full meals, around 6 months.
If your baby is waking 2-3 hours after the dream feed, or 2-

hourly, it is a sign that the Dream Feed isn’t working and
you are best to drop it altogether and feed your baby
when/if she naturally wakes in the night.
If, for whatever reason, your baby ends up going to bed an

hour later than normal, don’t do the Dream Feed that night.


101
Overnight
If you are doing a Dream Feed, your baby might sleep
through till 6:30-7:00 AM. However, many babies may still
need another feed overnight until they are well established
on solids. A good indication of whether your baby needs a
feed or not is if she is not interested in feeding at the
Breakfast Feed, after feeding in the night.
If she wakes between 4:00 AM–5:00 AM, feed one side or

half a bottle and settle back to sleep. Feed the other side or
the other half of the bottle between 7:00-7:30 AM.
If your baby is waking early and not showing any signs of

sleeping closer to 7:00 AM the most likely reason is too
much day sleep, and they are therefore not tired enough to
do a long stretch overnight. If you are doing the right
amount of day sleep and your baby is still waking before
4:00 AM there is likely something else going on, for
example, they aren't getting enough milk between 7:00 AM
- 10.30 PM or other medical reasons.
All overnight feeds (7:00 PM – 7:00 AM) should be done in

baby’s room by keeping the lights dim. Don’t talk or
stimulate your baby, only change nappy/diaper if necessary
before feeding.
If you are feeding overnight and your baby is only taking a

small feed, or isn’t hungry at all at the 7:00 AM feed, this
will have a knock-on effect on the rest of the morning
feeds. You will need to do both the Morning Feed and the
Lunch Feed on those days, rather than combine them.

102
4 to 6 Months
For this age, read the following sections in the Sleep for
ü 4-6 Months Overnight and Hunger
ü Self-Settling
ü Losing the Swaddle
ü Pacifiers


103

Awake time 2 ¼ - 2 ½ hours max
9:15/9:30 AM Morning Nap 30-45 minutes
10:45/11:00 AM Lunch Milk Feed (if on solids)
11:30 AM Lunch Milk Feed or Solids
Awake time 2 ¼ - 2.5 hours max
Lunch Nap 2 - 2 ¼ hours (12:15/12:30 - 2:15/2:30
12:15/12:30 PM
PM)
2:15/2:30 PM Afternoon Milk Feed
4:45 PM Afternoon Nap 10-15 mins (4:45/4:50 - 5:00PM)
5:30 PM Dinner Solids
6:00 PM Bath

7:00 PM Bedtime
9:00 PM Expressing Time
10:00 PM Deamfeed (optional)
Total Day Sleep 3 hours approx. (between 7 AM - 7 PM)


104

If your baby wakes between
5:00-6:30 AM and won’t
resettle, feed one side or half a
5:00-6:30
Early Wake bottle and try to settle back to
AM
sleep until 7:00 AM. If she won’t
resettle, see troubleshooting
notes.
If she wakes after 6:30 AM, if
crying or hungry get her up for
6:30-7:00 Morning
the day, otherwise leave in bed
AM Start
if happy, keep her Morning Nap
at 9:15/9:30 AM.
7:00 AM
Awake time 2 ¼ - 2 ½ hrs between waking up and the
Morning Nap
Breakfast
Milk Feed
If you fed your baby one
breast/half a bottle between
7:30/8:00
6:00-6:30 AM then feed the
AM
other breast or the other half of
the bottle now.
Take your baby to her room,
9:15/9:30 Morning
check nappy/diaper, swaddle or
AM Nap
sleeping bag and put her in bed


105
for her nap. This nap will slowly

move from 9:15 AM to 9:30 AM
between 4 and 6 months.
Wake your baby if she is not
10:00 AM
already awake.
Awake time 2 ¼ - 2 ½ hrs between the Morning and Lunch
Nap
Feed your baby a full feed (or
Morning
10:00 AM do one lunch milk feed at 10:45-
Milk Feed
11:00 AM)
If your baby has shown signs of
10:45/11:00 Lunch Milk needing solids, do a full milk
AM Feed feed here instead of at 10:00
AM.
Give your baby a Lunch Milk
feed before the Lunch Nap (if
you haven’t given her a full milk
Lunch Milk feed at 10:45-11:00 AM). If
11:30 AM Feed or your baby is starting solids,
Solids introduce them here. No need
to give more milk after solids if
she is taking about ½ cup of
solids.
Your baby will be getting tired
Change now. Take her to her room and
12:00-12:15
and Wind wind-down, check nappy/diaper,
PM
down swaddle or sleeping bag and put
your baby in bed for her nap.
12:15/12:30 At 4 months, your baby should
Lunch Nap
PM be napping from 12:15 PM to

106
2:15/2:30 PM. Once they’re

very close to 6 months, their
nap will move to 12:30 PM to
2:30 PM.
Aim for a nap of no more than 2

¼ hours.

sleep cycle of around 45 mins -
1 hour. Allow her up to 15 mins
to resettle herself as long as she
is not crying. See
If you have only just started on

our Guides and your baby can’t
yet self-settle, you may have to
resettle her during this nap for a
while until you teach her this
skill.
awake. If she woke during the
nap or didn't sleep well for some
2:15/2:30
reason let her sleep until 2:30
PM
PM but don't let her sleep past
2:30 PM or longer than 2 ¼
hours.
2:15/2.30 Afternoon Give your baby a full feed when
PM Milk Feed she wakes.


107
Awake time 2 ½ hrs from the Lunch Nap to the Afternoon

Nap.
Your baby can sleep 10 to 15
mins.
As long as your baby slept for at

least 10 minutes at this nap,
bedtime will still be 7:00 PM. If
your baby didn't nap for some
reason and she’s closer to 6
months, put her to bed at
Afternoon
4:45 PM 6:15/6:30 PM and bring the
Nap
dinner feeds forward by half an
hour.
Your baby will start to cut right

back on the Afternoon Nap.
From 5-6 months, this nap
might be hard to achieve. You
may need to go for a drive or
take your baby for a walk.
Wake your baby now if not
5:00 PM
already awake.
Dinner
5:00 PM Give your baby a full feed now.
Milk Feed
Dinner If you are introducing solids,
5:30 PM
Solids feed dinner now.
6:15-6:30 Bedtime You shouldn't need to do this in
PM Milk Feed her room anymore as you don’t


108
want to create a feed-to-sleep

association, however if it is a
loud, busy time in your house,
you can still feed your baby in a
quiet room.
Wind
6:50 PM check nappy/diaper, put in
Down
sleeping bag.
the night. If she didn't have an
Afternoon Nap and she’s closer
to 6 months, she might wake
after 35/45 minutes; this is
likely overtiredness. If she does
this, you will need to start
waking her from the Lunch Nap
7:00 PM Bedtime at 2:15 PM to ensure you can
get in an Afternoon Nap at 4:45
PM for 10-15 minutes.
If your baby isn’t settling well at

bedtime and you are giving her
longer than the guide for her
Afternoon Nap, you will need to
reduce the Afternoon Nap.
If you are introducing a bottle at
the dream feed, express from
9:00 - 9:30 both sides. Your supply will
Expressing
PM likely be regulating now so you
probably won't be expressing
much more than 100ml/3oz


109
between both breasts. You may

need to top up with a bottle as
she may be taking more than
what you can express.
Get your baby out of bed and
change nappy/diaper first if
Dream
needed. Feed her quietly and
10:00 PM Feed
avoid stimulating or talking to
(optional)
her. You want to keep her as
sleepy as possible.
If you are doing a dream feed,
your baby might sleep through
till 7:00 AM. However, it is
normal to have 2 feeds
(including the dream feed) in the
night until solids are well
established at 6 months. A good
Overnight
indication whether she needs a
feed or not is if she is not
interested in feeding at 7:00 AM
after feeding in the night. If so
you can try resettling at one of
the wakes overnight rather than
feeding for a few days.


110
Catnapping Guide (4 to 6 Months)

Use this Guide if the Lunch Nap goes wrong, after reading
the troubleshooting notes, to recover the rest of your day.
7:00 AM Morning Start

Awake time 2 ¼ - 2 ½ hours max
9:15 AM Morning Nap 45 mins
10:00 AM Milk Feed
10:45/11:00 AM Morning Milk Feed (if on solids)
Lunch Milk Feed or Solids (if you are introducing
11:30 AM
solids)
Awake time 2 ¼ -2 ½ hours max
12:15/12:30 PM Lunch Nap
Start from here if your baby has woken early
1:00 PM from their Lunch Nap and you can’t resettle
them.
3:00 PM Wake
5:00 PM Wake and Dinner Milk Feed
5:30 PM Dinner Solids (if you have introduced lunch)
6:00 PM Bath

7:00 PM Bedtime

111

Feeding
If your baby starts to refuse the Lunch Milk Feed before her
Lunch Nap (especially bottle-fed babies), combine the
Morning and Lunch Milk Feeds and do one feed closer to
11:00 AM to ensure she is full enough to sleep well during
the Lunch Nap. If she wakes during the Lunch Nap and you
had combined the two feeds, assume that your baby is
hungry and go in and feed straight away to resettle. If this
happens for more than a few days go back to doing the
Morning Milk Feed at 10:00 AM and also the Lunch Milk
Feed before the Lunch Nap, especially during a growth
spurt.
Around 4-6 months your baby may show signs of

wanting/needing solids, please ensure you take the advice
of your health care professional about weaning. Milk is still
the most important food for your baby so make sure you
still give milk before solids.
Lunch is the first place to start with solids, then introduce

dinner. If you have started solids and your baby is still
waking during their Lunch Nap, it is likely that you need to
increase them. We like to start with lunch solids and
increase by 1 teaspoon per day until your baby is eating at
least ½ a cup, then introduce dinner. Start with 1 teaspoon
and increase to at least ½ a cup then introduce breakfast.
This will happen over a month or so once you introduce
solids.

112
If your baby is taking less than ½ a cup of solids at the lunch

meal, they still might need a milk feed before the Lunch
Nap.
Sleeping
Between 4-6 months your baby has usually lost her startle
reflex and is learning to roll, so this means that you can start
transitioning out of her swaddle into a sleeping bag.
Read the section on Losing the Swaddle for more

information.
We recommend a baby sleeping bag rather than sheets and

blanket as your baby is less likely to get cold when she
moves around.


113

Before 5:00 AM:
If your baby wakes before 5:00 AM and has fed in the last 2
hours, see if she will settle back to sleep. If she won’t, give
her a feed. For more information see Troubleshooting
Overnight.
5:00-6:00 AM:
to sleep until 7:00 AM. If she won’t go back to sleep, move
the Morning Nap forward to 2 ¼ hrs after she woke, and
allow her to sleep until the normal wake up time of the
Morning Nap. Do the Breakfast Milk Feed before the
Morning Nap.
6:00-6:30 AM
If your baby wakes before 6:30 AM and won’t settle back to
sleep, feed one side or half a bottle and try to settle back to
sleep until 7:00 AM. If she won’t go back to sleep, give her
a 10-minute Power Nap 2 hours from when she woke, then
continue with the Morning Nap at the scheduled time in the
Guide.
6:30-7:00 AM
If she wakes after 6:30 AM get her up for the day if crying
or hungry, otherwise leave in bed if happy and keep her
Morning Nap at 9:15/9:30 AM.


114
The Morning Nap

During this Guide the Morning Nap should be moving
slowly from 9:15 AM at 4 months towards 9:30 AM at 6
months. This will then move the Lunch Nap from 12:15 PM
to 12:30 PM.
Your baby will likely be cutting down on the Morning Nap

naturally now and only sleeping one cycle of around 35-45
minutes. If she is still sleeping longer than this, you should
wake her from the nap as it can have a negative effect on
the Lunch Nap and cause her to either wake after 1 sleep
cycle or wake early from the nap as she’s not tired enough.
hunger, try cutting the Morning Nap to 30/40 minutes
rather than 45.



115
The Lunch Nap

At 4 months, your baby should be napping from 12:15 PM
to 2:15/2:30 PM. Once they’re very close to 6 months,
their nap will move to be 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM, in which
case they may be able to go until bedtime without an
Afternoon Nap.
If anything goes wrong in the Lunch Nap at any time during

this Guide and your baby wakes for a decent period, settle
her back to sleep until 2:30 PM and wake her then.
If she is not doing the full 2 hours at the Lunch Nap and is
waking earlier and she is doing 45 minutes at the Morning
Nap, you can try to reduce her Morning Nap to 30 to 40
minutes to improve the length of the Lunch Nap.
Between 3 and 4 months your baby is coming out of their

newborn phase and they should be learning to self-settle. In
other words, learning to go to sleep without any help, much
like adults do. Due to this change in development, she will
come into a lighter sleep at the end of a sleep cycle around
35-45 minutes. Your baby needs to be given the chance to
settle herself back to sleep. If you are already doing two
feeds before the Lunch Nap, you can assume that it is not
hunger causing a wake and leave your baby for 10-15
minutes to resettle, as long as they aren’t crying up; this is
sleep cycle during the day rather than waking. If after 10-15
minutes your baby is still awake, go in and resettle, treating
it like a night wake, resettle until asleep.


116
If after a few days of doing this, your baby is still waking, it

will likely be something else such as they are relying too
heavily on a parent-dependent sleep association at the start
of their nap, they are sick, or they are too hot or cold.
If your baby has not started solids and you aren't doing two
milk feeds before the Lunch Nap, go back to doing this - it
will more than likely be hunger waking your baby at the
Lunch Nap, in which case feeding to resettle would be your
option here.
If you have only just started on our Guides and your baby
can’t yet self-settle, you may have to resettle her during this
nap for a while until she learns to do it herself.
If your baby is struggling with constant catnapping (only

sleeping for one sleep cycle), you can also ensure their
room is pitch black, you’re using white noise and that they
are still swaddled as these factors can help a baby sleep
longer.
If the Lunch Nap goes wrong:

Woke 12:15-1:15 PM
If your baby does wake during the Lunch Nap (between
12:15 - 1:15 PM) and you have given two feeds before the
nap, allow 15 minutes to self-settle back to sleep as long as
she’s not crying up.


117
If she is not resettling after 15 minutes or she is crying, try

and resettle her in her bed by whatever means necessary,
e.g. side settling, rocking or feeding.
If you have only done one feed before the nap, assume
hunger and feed straight away to resettle.
If she won’t resettle, follow the Catnapping Guide.
Woke 1:15-2:15PM
If your baby slept well in the Lunch Nap but woke early
(between 1:15-2:15 PM), for example at 2:00 PM instead of
2:15 PM, then the normal Afternoon Nap will start 2 ½ hrs
from when she woke, but ideally finishing at 5:00 PM,
therefore giving her a catch up.


118
The Afternoon Nap

This nap is very short now and will only be 10-15 minutes
at around 4:45 PM.
As you reach closer to 6 months, you may have to work

very hard to get an Afternoon Nap in, by either taking your
baby for a walk or drive.
Make sure you wake her from her Lunch Nap at 2:30 PM at
the latest to ensure an Afternoon Nap. If your baby isn't
wanting to take an Afternoon Nap you can try waking from
the Lunch Nap at 2:15 PM to get a short nap in before 5:00
PM, but do not let them sleep past 5:00 PM if you want
them to go to bed at 7:00 PM. Make sure you do not let
them sleep longer than the total daytime sleep hours for
their age.
If the Afternoon Nap is cut short, bring your bedtime

forward to compensate. Even if this means a 6-6:30 PM
bedtime.
If your baby doesn't nap for some reason in the afternoon,

you will probably find that she will wake after one sleep
cycle after going to bed for the night. This is due to
overtiredness, and you will need to ensure they have an
Afternoon Nap the next day. We recommend having a short
10-minute Afternoon Nap, waking at 5:00 PM, until 6
months.


119
The Power Nap

This is a nap you can use at any time of the day to bridge
the time between your baby’s normal naps, if your baby has
woken early.
the normal amount of awake time, but only let them sleep
for 10 minutes.
This is very strict and it may feel strange waking your baby
this your baby will not be tired enough for her next nap.
their next nap at the usual time in the Guide.
We would only use this Power Nap if it meant that even

6:00 PM.


120
The Dream Feed (optional)

The dream feed should be very quick by now. If your baby
stays awake for any period of time after this feed, you need
to look at how much daytime sleep she is having.
If your baby is sleeping well from the Dream Feed to 6:30-

7:00 AM, has done so for a few weeks and becoming less
interested or fussing with their Breakfast Milk Feed or
taking less milk at the Dream Feed, you can start to slowly
reduce the amount that you give them at the dream feed.
Do this by reducing the bottle amount by 30ml/1oz or
breastfeed time by 5 minutes every three days. As long as
your baby still sleeps through until the morning you can
keep reducing the bottle. You will need to be very lenient if
your baby starts to wake in the night or starts waking earlier
in the morning, you will need to assume hunger and may
need to keep the Dream Feed in until they are established
on solids and taking two full meals, around 6 months.
If your baby is waking 2-3 hours after the Dream Feed, or

2-hourly, it is a sign that the Dream Feed isn’t working and
you are best to drop it altogether and feed your baby
when/if she naturally wakes in the night.
If, for whatever reason, your baby ends up going to bed an

hour later than normal, don’t do the Dream Feed that night.
If you are introducing solids earlier than 6 months, you will

find that your baby will naturally start to cut down on this
feed. Once she is taking 60ml/2oz or less for three days
you can drop the feed.

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Overnight
If you are doing a Dream Feed, your baby might sleep
through till 6:30-7:00 AM, however, some babies may still
need another feed overnight until they are established on
solids. A good indication whether your baby needs a feed or
not is if she is not interested in feeding at the Breakfast
Feed after feeding in the night.
If your baby wakes between 4:00 AM – 6:30 AM, feed one

side or half a bottle and settle back to sleep. Feed the other
side or the other half of the bottle between 7:30 AM - 8:00
AM.
If your baby is waking early and not showing any signs of

sleeping closer to 7:00 AM, the most likely reason is too
much day sleep, and they are therefore not tired enough to
do a long stretch overnight. If you are doing the right
amount of day sleep, your baby can self-settle at naps and
bedtime, and your baby is still waking overnight there is
likely something else going on, for example they aren't
getting enough milk between 7:00 AM – 10:30 PM, or
other medical reasons. You can try and drop the Dream
Feed to see if she does a longer stretch in the night and
only feeds once then settles back to sleep until 7:00 AM.
This is better than doing a Dream Feed as well as feeding
overnight.
All overnight feeds (7:00 PM – 7:00 AM) should be done in

their room by keeping the lights dim, don’t talk or stimulate
your baby, only change nappy/diaper if necessary before
feeding.

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If you are feeding overnight for whatever reason, your baby

will likely only take a small feed or possibly not be hungry at
all at the 7:00 AM feed. This can have a knock-on effect on
the rest of the morning feeds, so if you combined the two
feeds before the Lunch Nap, you should go back to feeding
twice on those days.


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6 to 8 Months
ü Self-Settling
ü How our Naps Work


124

5:00-6:30 AM Early Morning Wake
7:30 AM Breakfast Solids
Awake time 2 ½ hours
9:30 AM Morning Nap 30 mins (9:30 - 10:00 AM)
10:45/11:00
Lunch Milk Feed
AM
11:30 AM Lunch Solids
12:30 PM Lunch Nap 2 hours (12:30 - 2:30 PM)
4:45 PM Afternoon Nap 10-15 mins (if needed)
6:00 PM Bath
6:15 PM Bedtime Milk Feed
6:30 PM Bedtime
Total Day Sleep 2 ½ - 2 ¾ hours approx.


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If your baby wakes before
5:00-6:30
Early Wake 6:30 AM and won’t resettle
AM
see troubleshooting notes.
If your baby wakes after 6:30
AM and is crying or hungry
6:30-7:00 Morning get her up for the day,
AM Start otherwise, leave in her bed if
happy. Keep her Morning Nap
at 9:30 AM.
7:00 AM
Awake time 2 ½ - 3 hrs between waking up and the
Morning Nap
Breakfast
Milk Feed
Once your baby is established
Breakfast
7:30 AM on lunch and dinner solids,
Solids
introduce breakfast.
Morning check nappy/diaper, put in
9:30 AM
Nap sleeping bag and put in bed
for her nap.
10:00 AM
awake.
Awake time 2 ½ hrs between the Morning Nap and the
Lunch Nap

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10:45-11:00 Lunch Milk

Full milk feed.
AM Feed
Lunch solids. Over 6 months
Lunch old and if your baby is
11:30 AM
Solids established on solids,
introduce protein at this meal.
Change and check nappy/diaper, put in
12:25 PM
Wind-Down sleeping bag and put her in
bed for her nap.
Aim for a nap of no more than

2 hours.

sleep cycle of around 45 mins
– 1 hour. Allow her up to 20-
30 mins to resettle herself as
long as she is not crying. See
12:30 PM Lunch Nap
If she woke during the nap
and she did go back to sleep,
allow her to sleep until
2:45/3:00 PM
If you have only just started

on our Guides and your baby
can’t yet self-settle, you may
have to resettle her during
this nap for a while until she
learns to do it herself

127

2:30 PM
awake.
Afternoon Give your baby a full feed
2:30 PM
Milk Feed when she wakes.
Awake time 4 -4 ¼ hrs between the Lunch Nap and
Bedtime
If your baby has not slept
Afternoon solidly at the Lunch Nap or did
4:45 PM Nap (if not sleep through to 2:30 PM,
needed) you can offer a short nap here
for no more than 15 minutes.
Dinner Milk Give your baby a full feed
5:00 PM
Feed now.
Dinner
5:30 PM Dinner solids.
Solids
You shouldn’t need to do this
in her room anymore,
Bedtime however, if there is too much
6:15 PM
Milk Feed going on in the living room,
you can still feed in a quiet
room.
6:20 PM Wind-Down check nappy/diaper, put in
sleeping bag.
the night. When she drops the
6:30 PM Bedtime
Afternoon Nap at 6 months,
you will need to have her in


128
bed at 6:30 PM at the latest.

Around 8 months, start to
slowly push this closer to 6:45
PM.
If your baby had an Afternoon
7:00 PM Bedtime
Nap.
If you haven’t already dropped
Dream Feed this, once your baby is eating
10:00 PM
(optional) at least two meals a day you
can happily drop this feed.
Overnight See notes


129

Feeding
Around 6 months your baby may show signs of wanting
solids. Please ensure you take the advice of your health care
professional about weaning. Milk is still the most important
food for your baby, so make sure you still give milk before
solids.
Lunch is the first place to start with solids, once she is

taking at least ½ a cup of solids, then introduce dinner.
Once she is taking at least ½ a cup of solids at dinner and
lunch, introduce breakfast.
Until 10 months old, only give protein at lunchtime as

protein can be hard to digest if you give at dinner and can
affect their overnight sleeping.
Between 7-8 months, especially if your baby is bottle fed,

you may find your baby starts to refuse having both milk
feeds at 2:30 PM and 5:00 PM. You may need to merge
these two feeds and just do one feed at around 3:30/4:00
PM, then dinner solids at 5:00 PM.


130

blanket because your baby is less likely to get cold when
she moves around.
5:00-6:00 AM
If your baby wakes before 6:00 AM and you have already
fed her overnight, leave her to settle back to sleep if she
will, unless she gets upset, or she might develop an early
waking habit.
If she continues to wake between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM

and you are confident she is not hungry, she may have
developed a habit wake. This is very easy to form and even
you just going in and checking on her will make her think it
is time to get up. You may need to leave her for a few days
to help break this habit. The quickest way to deal with this
wake is by using the Early Morning Waking method in the
Self Settling Guide.
If your baby has woken early for another reason, such as

sickness, or if your baby has a habit wake and you are trying
to fix it, as a temporary fix between 6-8 months you can do
a Power Nap 2 ¼ hours after she woke, then continue with
her normal scheduled morning and Lunch Nap times.
If your baby is waking earlier than 6:00 AM, take a close

look at the total amount of day sleep she is having or the
time of her bedtime; she may be awake for too long in the
afternoon leading to overtiredness, especially if she isn’t
doing the full 2 hours at lunch OR she is having an

131
Afternoon Nap that is too long or too late in the afternoon.

Both factors can cause early morning waking.
6:00-6:30 AM
If she wakes between 6:00 AM – 6:30 AM you can bring
her Morning Nap forward to 2 ½ hours after she woke and
let her sleep for 30-45 minutes, the keep the Lunch Nap at
the normal scheduled time.
6:30-7:00 AM
If your baby wakes between 6:30 AM – 7:00 AM you can
maintain their normal scheduled nap and feed times for the
day.


132
The Morning Nap

From 6 months, the Morning Nap needs to be at 9:30 AM
and only 30 minutes long if your baby woke between 6:30
AM and 7:00 AM, which will then move the Lunch Nap to
12:30 PM.
Some babies will likely only sleep for one cycle of around
30 minutes at the Morning Nap anyway. If your baby is still
sleeping longer than this, you should wake her from the nap
as it can have a negative effect on the Lunch Nap and cause
her to either wake after 1 sleep cycle or wake early from
the nap as she’s not tired enough.
hunger or any other problems such as sickness, you could
try cutting the Morning Nap to 20/25 minutes rather than
30.



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The Lunch Nap

Your baby should be napping from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM
by 6 months. If she manages to nap solidly until 2:30 PM
you can easily drop the Afternoon Nap, however from 6-8
months we recommend a bedtime of 6:30 PM. This will
ensure she doesn’t get overtired. If she is not doing the full
2 hours at the Lunch Nap and she is doing 30 minutes at
the Morning Nap, you can try cutting her Morning Nap to
20 minutes to improve the length of the Lunch Nap.
If you have followed our Sleeping Guides for a while, your

baby should easily be self-settling now. If not, please see
the Self Settling Guide.
If you are just starting this Guide at 6 months, your baby

may not be used to sleeping long periods during the day.
Between the age of 3 and 4 months, your baby came out of
their newborn phase and they now need to be able to self-
settle. In other words, learn to go to sleep without any help,
much like adults do. Due to this change in development,
your baby will come into a lighter sleep at the end of a sleep
cycle, around 35-45 minutes. Your baby needs to be given a
chance to settle herself back to sleep.
Your baby may wake after 30-60 minutes into the Lunch
Nap. In this case, allow her a chance to resettle herself. If
she is not resettling after 20-30 minutes or is crying you
can try and resettle her, however usually babies over 6
months don’t know the difference between you coming into
their room to get them up or you trying to get them back to
sleep. They will see you and your attempts to resettle as

134
more stimulating and therefore think it’s time to get up,

causing them to become frustrated if you are trying to get
them back to sleep. In this case, you are best to get your
baby up and give her an Afternoon Nap to catch up (if
under 8 months) as detailed in the Guide.

If you are following our Guide and giving solids before the
Lunch Nap and your baby wakes after one sleep cycle or
earlier than the Guide, you can assume that it is not hunger
causing a wake and leave your baby for 20-30 minutes to
resettle by themselves; this is the time that they learn they
can sleep longer than one sleep cycle during the day rather
than waking.
If after 20-30 minutes your baby is still awake, go in and

either resettle (remembering they might resist this) or get
them up and do an Afternoon Nap.
Woke: 12:30-2:00 PM
If your baby resettles, let her sleep until 2:45/3:00 PM and
wake her then. Just ensure you don’t let her sleep more
than 2 hours in total or past 3:00 PM.
If your baby does respond to resettling, make sure you

resettle them in their bed, until asleep. Treat it as a night
wake and do not stimulate your baby. If your baby has been
catnapping before 6 months you will need to persevere
doing this for up to a week; it can take a wee while to break
the habit. There may be some protesting from your baby as

135
they will be used to you getting them up at this point. If,

after a week of resettling, your baby is still waking, and you
have tried reducing the Morning Nap as well, then it could
be that they are relying too heavily on a parent-dependent
sleep association at the start of their nap, and you will need
to look at teaching them to settle themselves to sleep at the
start of every nap and bedtime.
If your baby woke earlier than 2:00 PM and didn’t resettle,

you can give an Afternoon Nap at 4:30-5:00 PM.
Woke: 2:00-2:30 PM
If your baby woke slightly early from the nap you can try for
an Afternoon Nap from 4:45-5:00 PM, or just bring bedtime
forwards to 4 hours from when the Lunch Nap ended.


136
The Afternoon Nap

At 6 months you should be able to drop this nap if your
baby is doing the full 2 hours in the Lunch Nap.
If her Lunch Nap is shortened between 6-8 months, and

she wakes between 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM, or if she is
consistently too tired in the late afternoon to eat dinner,
you should try to do an Afternoon Nap in the car or pram at
4:45 PM for no longer than 10 minutes, otherwise she will
not settle well at 7:00 PM.
For information on whether or not to do an Afternoon Nap

see notes on The Lunch Nap.


137
The Power Nap

This shouldn’t need to be used unless your baby wakes
earlier than 6:00 AM in the morning.
the normal amount of awake time, but only let them sleep
for 10 minutes.
This is very strict, and it may feel strange waking your baby
this, they will not be tired enough for their next nap.
After the 10-minute nap, you can put your baby down for
their next nap at the usual scheduled time.
We would only use this Power Nap if it meant that even

6:30 PM.


138
The Dream Feed

If you haven’t already dropped this feed, you will need to
drop it very quickly as it can cause a habit wake at night, or
more waking overnight.
Once your baby is having 2 meals a day, she will likely start
to reduce the Dream Feed naturally. If your baby is
becoming less interested or fussing with her feed at 7:00
AM you can start to slowly reduce the amount you give her
at the Dream Feed. Do this by reducing the bottle amount
by 30ml/1oz every three days or 5 minutes if you are
breastfeeding. Once she is taking 60ml/2oz or less for three
days, you can drop the feed.


139
Overnight
If your baby is established on 2 to 3 meals a day and having
protein at lunch, there may be no feeding required
overnight, although some babies will still wake for a feed up
until 8 months when solids come before milk. If your baby is
still waking multiple times, they are likely waking out of
habit, a settling issue or sickness rather than hunger.
If your baby is not showing any signs of sleeping closer to

7:00 AM the most likely reason is too much day sleep, and
they are therefore not tired enough to do a long stretch
overnight.
The other cause could be that they aren’t having enough

milk in their 2:30 PM milk feed or enough protein at the
lunch solids.
If your baby is feeding in the night but then not interested

in their 7:00 AM milk feed it is a sign that they no longer
need the milk in the night. To reduce this, you will need to
work through one of the methods in the Self-Settling
Guides to encourage your baby to resettle in the night
without a feed.


140
8 to 10 Months
For this age, read the following section in the Sleep for
ü Sleep Associatons


141

5:00-6:00 AM Early Morning Wake
Awake time 2 ½ - 3 ½ hours
Morning Nap 30 mins (9:30 – 10:00
9:30 AM
AM)
10:00 AM Morning Tea
11:15/11:30 AM Lunch Solids
12:30 PM Lunch Nap 2 hours (12:30 – 2:30 PM)
3:00 PM Afternoon Tea
Awake time 4 ¼ hours
6:45 PM Bedtime
Total Day Sleep 2 ½ - 2 ¾ hours approx.


142

If your baby wakes before 6:00
5:00-6:00 Early Wake
AM see troubleshooting notes.
If your baby wakes after 6:00
AM and is crying or hungry, get
6:00-7:00 Morning her up for the day, otherwise,
AM Start leave her in bed if happy. Keep
her Morning Nap close to 9:30
AM.
7:00 AM
Awake time 2 ½ - 3 ½ hours between waking up and the
Morning Nap
Breakfast
Milk Feed
Breakfast
7:30 AM Breakfast solids.
Solids
Morning check nappy/diaper, put in
9:30 AM
Nap sleeping bag and put her in bed
for her nap.
10:00 AM
awake.
Morning
10:00 AM Snack and drink
Tea


143
11:15-11:30 Lunch This should be a meal with

AM Solids protein.
Change Take baby to her room, check
12:25 PM and Wind- nappy/diaper, put in sleeping bag
Down and put in her bed for her nap.
Aim for a nap of no more than 2
12:30 PM Lunch Nap
hours.
2:30 PM
awake.
Awake time 4 ¼ hours between the Lunch Nap and
Bedtime
Afternoon Give your baby a full feed when
2:30 PM
Milk Feed she wakes.
Afternoon
3:00 PM Snack and drink.
Tea
Dinner
5:00 PM Dinner solids.
Solids
6:15-6:30 Bedtime
Give your baby a full feed.
PM Milk Feed
Wind-
6:30 PM check nappy/diaper, put her in
Down
her sleeping bag.
6:45 PM Bedtime Put her in bed for the night.
Overnight See troubleshooting notes.


144

Feeding
Around 8-9 months you swap to solids before milk at lunch
and dinner as detailed in the Guide.
Your baby should be well established on 3 meals a day by

now and also drinking water from a sippy cup.
This is a good time to introduce morning and afternoon tea.

Some options for this are:
• Fruit
• Cheese
• Crackers
• Yoghurt
• Toast
Before 10 months old, only give protein at the lunchtime

meal because protein can be hard to digest if you give it at
dinner and it can affect your baby’s overnight sleeping.


145

moves around.

will, unless she gets upset.
If she continues to wake between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM,

developed a habit wake. This is very easy to form and you
just going in and checking on her will make her think it is
time to get up. You may need to leave her for a few days to
help break this habit. The quickest way to deal with this
Woke 5:00-6:00 AM
If your baby has woken early for some reason, such as
sickness, or if your baby has a habit wake, and you are
trying to fix it, as a temporary fix between 8-10 months you
can bring her Morning Nap forward to 2.5 hrs after she
woke and let her sleep for 30-45 minutes, then do her
Lunch Nap at the normal scheduled time.
Woke 6:00 -7 AM
If your baby wakes between 6:00 AM–7:00 AM you can
day.


146
The Morning Nap

Between 8-12 months the Morning Nap will start to be
reducing. This nap is the next nap to be dropped between
12-15 months.
If your baby wakes at 7:00 AM she will likely start taking

longer to settle at the Morning Nap, but still make sure she
is in bed at 9:30 AM and woken by 10:00 AM at the latest.
If she is not sleeping the full Lunch Nap, resisting settling at

the start of the Lunch Nap or waking during the nap, reduce
the Morning Nap to 20-25 minutes for an 8 to 10 month
old.

when it is beginning to impact on their Lunch Nap or night-
time sleep.


147
The Lunch Nap

Your baby should be napping 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM. If she
is not doing the full 2 hours at the Lunch Nap and she is still
doing 30 minutes at the Morning Nap, see the Morning Nap
notes to reduce the Morning Nap. This will improve the
length of the Lunch Nap as she needs to sleep well until
2:30 PM to be able to get through to 6:45/7:00 PM for
bedtime.
If you have followed our Programs for a while, your baby

should easily be self-settling now. If not, please see the Self
Settling Guide.
If you are just starting this Program at 8 months, your baby

may not be used to sleeping long periods during the day
and may wake after one sleep cycle of 35-45 minutes
during the Lunch Nap. This is more likely to happen if your
baby has been catnapping before 8 months and you will
need to let your baby resettle herself in her bed if she
wakes, or after 20/30 minutes get her up and continue with
your afternoon, bringing bedtime forwards to compensate.
If your baby wakes 30-60 minutes into the Lunch Nap,

allow her a chance to resettle herself. If she is not resettling
after 30 minutes, or is crying, you will have to get her up.
Babies over 6 months don’t know the difference between
you coming into their room to get them up or you trying to
get them back to sleep. They will see you and your attempts
to resettle as more stimulating and therefore think it’s time
to get up, causing them to become more frustrated if you
are trying to get them back to sleep. In this case, you are

148
best to get your baby up and move bedtime forwards to

compensate.

Woke 12:30-2:00 PM
If your baby woke earlier than 2:00 PM from the Lunch Nap
and didn't resettle you will need to aim for a bedtime of
6:15 PM
Woke 2:00-2:30 PM
If they wake between 2:00-2:30 PM leave them in their bed
as long as they’re not upset – this will help encourage them
to sleep longer eventually. If they don’t go back to sleep,
aim for bedtime 6:15-6:30 PM.
During this Guide, you will slowly move your baby’s

bedtime from 6:45 PM to 7:00 PM as she nears 12 months.


149
The Power Nap

This shouldn't need to be used unless your baby wakes
earlier than 5:00 AM to bridge the time between the
morning wake and the Morning Nap. The Power Nap is
starting to become risky at this age because it can mean
your baby isn’t tired enough for the Morning Nap.
To do a Power Nap, you put your baby down for a nap after
the normal amount of awake time but only let them sleep
for 10 minutes.
This is very strict, and it may feel strange waking your baby
this your baby will not be tired enough for her next nap.
their next sleep at the usual time.
We recommend only using the Power Nap if it meant that

even after adjusting your day, your bedtime would be
earlier than 6:00 PM.


150
Overnight
If your baby is established on 3 meals a day and having
protein at lunch, there should be no feeding required
overnight between 7 PM and 7 AM.
If she is still waking, it is likely from habit or a settling issue,

and your best place to start is with the Self Settling Guide.
To reduce milk feeds in the night, work on one night feed at

a time and reduce the quantity by 30mls/1oz every 3 nights
for bottle-fed babies, or a few minutes every 3 nights for
breastfed babies. Once your baby is taking 60ml/2oz or less
for three days, you can drop the feed and resettle without
feeding until the wake is gone. Then work on the next
wake.


151
10 to 12 Months


152

Awake time 2 ½ - 3 ½ hours
Morning Nap 10-20 mins (9:30-9:50
9:30 AM
AM)
10:00 AM Morning Tea
11:30-11:45 AM Lunch Solids

12:30 PM Lunch Nap 2 hours (12:30-2:30 PM)
3:00 PM Afternoon Tea
6:45 PM Bedtime Milk Feed
7:00 PM Bedtime
2 ½ hours approx. (between 7 AM - 7

Total Day Sleep
PM)


153

If your baby wakes before
5:00-6:00 AM Early Wake 6:00 AM see
If your baby wakes after
6:00 AM and is crying or
Morning hungry, get her up for the
6:00-7:00 AM
Start day, otherwise, leave her
in bed if happy. Keep her
Morning Nap at 9:30 AM.
Wake your baby if not
7:00 AM already awake. Change
nappy/diaper.
Awake time of 2 ½ - 3 ½ hrs between the morning start
and the Morning Nap
Morning
Milk Feed
Breakfast
7:30 AM Breakfast Solids.
Solids
Take your baby to her
Morning room, check nappy/diaper,
9:30 AM
Nap put in sleeping bag and put
in her bed for her nap.
9:50 AM
already awake.
Awake time 2 ½ hours between the Morning Nap and the
Lunch Nap

154
Morning
10:00 AM Snack and drink.
Tea
11:30/11:45 This should be a meal with
Lunch Solids
AM protein.
Change and room, check nappy/diaper,
12:25 PM
Wind-Down put in sleeping bag and put
in her bed for her nap.
Aim for a good sleep here
12:30 PM Lunch Nap
of no more than 2 hours.
2:30 PM
already awake.
Afternoon Give your baby a full feed
2:30 PM
Milk Feed when she wakes.
Afternoon
3:00 PM Snack and drink.
Tea
Dinner
5:00 PM This can include protein.
Solids
Bedtime
6:45 PM Give your baby a full feed.
Milk Feed
6:50 PM Wind-Down room, check nappy/diaper,
put in sleeping bag.
Put her in her bed for the
7:00 PM Bedtime
night.
Overnight See troubleshooting notes


155

Feeding
Your baby should be well established on 3 meals a day and
snacks by now and also drinking water from a sippy cup.
From 10 months onward, you can offer protein at the

dinner meal as well as lunch.
Ideas for morning and afternoon tea:
• Fruit
• Cheese
• Crackers
• Yoghurt
• Toast


156

moves around.

will, unless she gets upset, or she might develop an early
waking habit.
If she continues to wake between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM

developed a habit wake. This is very easy to form and you
just going in and checking on her will make her think it is
time to get up. You may need to leave her for a few days to
help break this habit. The quickest way to deal with this
Another reason for early morning waking is if your baby’s

first nap is too long or too early. If you are still giving her
the full 30 minutes, try cutting this down to 10-15 minutes
to see if it helps with the morning wake. If she continues to
wake early, take a close look at the total amount of day
sleep she is having, the amount of solids or milk she is
taking (especially in the afternoon), or the time of her
bedtime. She may be awake for too long in the afternoon,
which would lead to overtiredness and could be the cause
of the early waking. This can happen if your baby isn't doing
the full 2 hours at lunch.


157
Woke 5:00-6:00 AM
If your baby has woken early for some reason, such as
sickness, or if your baby has a habit wake and you are trying
to fix it, as a temporary fix between 10-12 months, pull
their Morning Nap forwards to 2 ½ hours after they woke
and let them sleep for up to 30 minutes. Then do their
Lunch Nap at the normal scheduled time.
6:00 AM - 7:00 AM
If your baby wakes between 6:00 AM – 7:00 AM you can
day.


158
The Morning Nap

Between 8-12 months, your baby’s Morning Nap will start
to be reducing in length. This nap is the next nap to be
dropped at 12-15 months.
If your baby wakes at 7:00 AM she will likely start taking

longer to settle at the Morning Nap, but still make sure she
is in bed at 9:30 AM and woken by 10:00 AM at the latest.
If she isn’t doing the full Lunch Nap, resisting settling at the
start of the Lunch Nap or waking during the nap, reduce the
Morning Nap to 10-20 minutes for a 10 to 12 month old.

when it is beginning to impact on their Lunch Nap or night-
time sleep.


159
The Lunch Nap

Your baby should be napping 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM. If she
is not doing the full 2 hours at the Lunch Nap and she is
doing 30 minutes at the Morning Nap, reduce the Morning
Nap to improve the length of the Lunch Nap. Your baby
needs to sleep well at the Lunch Nap until 2:30 PM to be
able to get through to 6:45/7:00 PM for bedtime.
If you have followed our Guides for a while, your baby

should easily be self-settling now. If not please see the Self
Settling Guide.
If you are just starting this Guide at 10 months, your baby

may not be used to sleeping long periods during the day
and may wake after one sleep cycle of 35-45 minutes
during the Lunch Nap. This is more likely to happen if your
baby has been catnapping prior to 10 months.
Babies at this age are tricky to resettle because they don’t

know the difference between you coming in to their room
to get them up or you trying to get them back to sleep.
They will see you and your attempts to resettle as
stimulating and therefore think it’s time to get up, causing
them to become more frustrated if you are trying to get
them back to sleep.


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If you are following our Guide and giving solids before the
Lunch Nap and your baby wakes after one sleep cycle or
earlier than the Guide, leave your baby for 30 minutes to
resettle by themselves, as long as they aren't crying; this is
sleep cycle during the day. If after 30 minutes your baby is
still awake, go in and get them up and bring bedtime
forwards:
Woke 12:30-2:00 PM
If your baby woke earlier than 2:00 PM from the Lunch Nap
and didn't resettle, you will need to aim for a bedtime of
6:30 PM
Woke 2:00-2:30 PM
If they wake between 2:00-2:30 PM, leave them in their
bed as long as they’re not upset – this will help encourage
them to sleep longer eventually. If they don’t go back to
sleep aim for bedtime at 6:30-6:45 PM.
During this Guide you will slowly move your baby’s bedtime
from 6:45 PM to 7:00 PM as she nears 12 months.


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Overnight
If your baby is established on 3 meals a day and having
protein at lunch, there should be no milk feeding required
overnight between 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM.
If your baby is still waking, it is likely from habit or a settling

issue and your best place to start is with the Self Settling
Guide.


162


163
Introduction
This Settling & Self-Settling Guide contains trusted,
effective methods for gently teaching your baby to go to
bed fully awake and put themselves to sleep at the start of
each nap, at bedtime and also when waking between sleep
cycles (important for babies over 4 months of age).
We know there is no “one-size-fits-all” for families and a

method that works for one family might not be effective for
another. This is why we offer many options, so you can
choose what works best for you.
Throughout the Guide are clickable links in pink to help you

better navigate.
Please refer the Glossary if needed, to better understand

the terms and methods.
Choose which method to follow

depending on your baby’s temperament,
what their current sleep association is and
your parenting style.
*Your baby must also be following the Sleeping and Feeding

Guide while using these Settling & Self-Settling Methods.

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Glossary/Methods
Self-settle/Self-soothe
Your baby is able to go to bed fully awake and put
6 Minutes
In the methods, we talk about waiting for 6 minutes to allow
your baby to settle. This is a suggested time, and you are
definitely able to use a different time if it works better for
your baby and your parenting style. Some people choose to
soothe their baby in a hand-on way throughout the self-
settling processes, and that is fine, although the processes
can take a bit longer.
Side Settle
Lying your baby on her side and rhythmically shunting her
bottom in an upwards motion with one hand, while
supporting her tummy with the other hand. Most effective
when combined with a swaddle and loud white noise or
ssshhing sounds. See the video HERE on how to do it.
This method is better for babies under 4 months.


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Side Settle to Soothe

Side settling your baby as above, until they are calm but not
asleep, then rolling your baby onto their back and leaving
them to put themselves to sleep.
Side Settle to Sleep

Side settling your baby, as above, until they are asleep, at
which point you’d roll your baby onto their back.
Cuddle/Rock to Soothe
Picking up your baby from their bed, cuddling or rocking
them until they are calm, then putting them back in their
bed.
Feed to Soothe
Picking up your baby from their bed, feeding them until
they are calm but not asleep, then putting them back in
their bed.
Feed to Sleep
Feeding your baby until they are asleep, then putting them
back in their bed.


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Touch to Sleep
This is using your touch to assist your baby fully to sleep.
This might be in the form of patting, stroking their forehead,
rubbing their tummy etc. Choose a touch method that suits
your baby and their temperament and use the same one
each time.
Touch to Soothe
This is using your touch to soothe your baby but not to put
them to sleep. This might be in the form of patting, stroking
their forehead, rubbing their tummy etc. Choose a touch
method that suits your baby and their temperament and use
the same one each time. This can be combined with the
Voice to Soothe method.
Parent Presence/Gradual Withdrawal

This is a very gradual method designed for babies who are
used to a parental presence, either patting, cuddling, sitting
on their bed or in their room while they fall asleep. For this
method, you simply reduce the amount of “help” or increase
the distance between you and your baby as they fall asleep
each day. You continue to soothe them with your voice as
you reduce your physical presence until eventually, they
don’t need you in the room.


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Voice to Soothe
Using your voice, saying a sleep phrase such as “its sleep
time now” to calm your baby if they’re upset.
Lay Down, Lay Down

This is where you lay your baby in their bed, say a sleep
phrase, such as “its sleep time now” and move away or
leave the room for a period of time. If your baby sits or
stands, lay them back down, repeat the phrase and move
away, or leave the room for a period of time. Continue
doing this until they get the idea and stop sitting/standing
and go to sleep.
Rouse to Sleep
This is an option for getting rid of a habit wake either in the
night or the early morning. You set an alarm for 1 hour
before your baby would normally wake and go into their
room and rouse them slightly by touching their head or arm.
They will surface out of their deep sleep but not wake fully
and should reset back into the start of a new sleep cycle.
Do this for a few days and they will stop waking at that
time.
This can also be used to resettle in the Lunch Nap if your

baby struggles to link sleep cycles. Rouse them 15 minutes
before the end of their sleep cycle, and they should go
through into another sleep cycle.


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Choose Your Baby’s Age

Click to go to the methods for your baby’s age:
3 to 4 Months
4 to 6 Months
6 to 12 Months


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3 to 4 Months
It is vital you have your baby following our Sleeping and
Feeding Guide so their naps and bedtime are at the right
time for their age. This will greatly help their chances of
going to sleep in the first place! A baby who is not tired
enough or overtired (or hungry) will find it difficult to settle
no matter what you do.
In this section, our side-settling method is detailed. You can

use this method to assist your baby to sleep in their bed for
their naps and at night. This way, by around 4 months, the
only sleep association you need to wean them off is the
patting – the other positive associations you’ve set up will
still be in place (the swaddle, the white noise, the dark
room).
Before 4 months, teaching good sleep habits is the most

important thing, rather than proper “sleep training”. Using
the side-settling method to settle your baby to sleep is
totally fine unless they are showing signs of needing to
learn to self-settle. Signs would include:
• Only ever napping for one sleep cycle at a time

• Waking every 2 hours overnight and you can rule
out hunger, nap structure or sleep environment
issues.


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If your baby is displaying these signs, move onto the 4-6

month methods by clicking the link on the previous page.
If your baby is currently fed to sleep, you can use the

method in this section for fed-to-sleep babies, which will
gradually move your baby from being fed to sleep to being
side-settled in their bed.
Click to Choose Your Method:
Side Settle to Sleep Method
Fed-to-Sleep Method


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Side Settle to Sleep Method

1. Change nappy/diaper 15 minutes before scheduled
nap or bedtime
2. Take your baby to her room, close the curtains and

turn on the white noise (our recommendation is the
Baby Sleep Shhh track)
3. Swaddle your baby and place her in her bed
4. Roll her on to her side, supporting her tummy with

one hand and rhythmically pat her bottom with the
other hand
5. You can continue side settling to sleep, or, if she is

calm and drowsy, you can try leaving her to do the
rest of the falling asleep on her own. At 4 months,
you will begin to gradually reduce the amount of
help you give her, so eventually, you’d pop her in her
bed, swaddled, with the white noise and dark room
and she should be able to do the rest of falling
asleep on her own.
6. Once she is asleep if you have settled her the whole

way to sleep, roll her onto her back
7. Close the bedroom door to ensure darkness and

keep the white noise on


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8. During her longer Lunch Nap, it is normal to have to

resettle your baby between sleep cycles until they
get the hang of this transition. Side settle them the
same way you did at the start of their nap rather
than get them out of bed, keeping their room dark
and without stimulating them – treat it as a night
wake. See the troubleshooting notes for more
information around this resettling.
The most important part of this process is that your baby is

learning to go to sleep in their own bed. They are learning
that this is the space where they sleep, rather than on you
or in a carrier or while feeding. This will make it a lot easier
when they’re 4+ months and learning to self-settle, as you’ll
still have all the other sleep associations in place (the
swaddle, the dark room, the white noise), you’ll just be
removing one thing – the patting.
We recommend that your baby should

nap in their own bed 80% of the time; this
allows for naps to be in the stroller or car the
rest of the time and for those days when it
all goes out the window!


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Fed-to-Sleep Method
Use this method if your baby is under 4 months old and is
currently fed to sleep for all their sleeps.
You will be replacing the feeding to sleep association with a

side settling association, and you will side settle your baby
fully to sleep in their own bed.
Feeding to sleep is the strongest of all the sleep

associations, so it needs to be treated a bit more delicately.
For these babies, following the Sleeping and Feeding Guide

is the best place to start because you’ll make sure their feed
times are separate from their sleep times. This ensures they
have a good feed while awake and fresh and lessens the
continuation of their feed to sleep habit. It also means you
won’t be second-guessing yourself when you stop feeding
them to sleep.
This method involves you using side settle/feed to soothe

at the start of naps and bedtime and continue to feed to
sleep for any night wakes.


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Feed to Soothe / Side Settle

nap or bedtime

Baby Sleep Shhh track)
3. Swaddle your baby and place her in her bed
4. Roll her on to her side, supporting her tummy with

one hand and rhythmically pat her bottom with the
other hand
5. You can continue side settling to sleep, however, if

your baby gets distressed by the settling and doesn’t
appear to be calming down, pick them up, offer them
a feed to soothe them only – don’t let them fall
asleep – and put them back down into their bed.
6. Continue to side settle until asleep. If your baby gets

upset again, repeat the feed to soothe then put them
back down.
7. If she is calm and drowsy, you can try leaving her to

do the rest of the falling asleep on her own.
8. Once she is asleep, roll her onto her back


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9. Close the bedroom door to ensure total darkness

and keep the white noise on
10. To resettle during the Lunch Nap and overnight

continue to feed to sleep, until your baby is fully
used to side settling at the start of naps (without
needing to feed to soothe) then you can work on
side settling for any resettles.
The message you are sending your baby is that you are still
there to soothe them, but that they must learn to go to
sleep in their own bed.
Once your baby has fallen asleep in their own bed, even
though you’re settling them to sleep, that is a massive first
step!
Continue with side settle/feed to soothe for the start of all

naps and at bedtime.
Eventually, your baby won’t need to be fed and will be

happy simply side-settling to sleep.
In around 3 days your baby will have developed new sleep

associations: the dark room, the white noise, the
swaddle/sleeping bag, and the side settling.
If you are still feeding in the night, respond to night wakes

by feeding your baby to sleep.


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Once these new associations are in

place, it will be a lot easier to implement the
self-settling method once they’re over 4
months old, by gradually reducing the
amount of patting you’re giving your baby
each day.


177

Crying
If your baby is crying and unsettled, is not calming with the
side settling and you are following our Sleeping and Feeding
Guide to rule out over or under tiredness, something is
troubling them. It could be:
• Wind/need to burp
• They are too hot or cold
• They are still hungry
• They are uncomfortable
• They need a nappy/diaper change
• They are sick
Check these things off the list before you persevere with
your side settling.
If they are upset and not settling after 6 minutes of side

settling (or a time you are comfortable with), offer your
baby a feed or a cuddle until they are calm and put them
back into bed, side settling again. If they fall asleep while
feeding/cuddling don’t worry – we’re aiming for settling in
bed 80% of the time remember!


178
When to Feed Them to Sleep

If your baby has been resisting the settling methods for 30
minutes past their nap or bedtime, feed them all the way to
sleep.
Try again with the method at the start of the next nap.
If your baby has gone to sleep past their scheduled nap

time, let them sleep for the nap length as per the Sleeping
and Feeding Guide and push the whole day’s timings back
to compensate. This may result in a shorter Afternoon Nap
or a later bedtime in the evening.


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Waking Between Sleep Cycles

If your baby is waking after 35-45 minutes for their Lunch
Nap, leave them to see if they’ll resettle themselves. Don’t
go racing straight in. If you’ve got the right conditions for
sleep – dark room, loud white noise, swaddle – they might
be happy to just go back to sleep. We need to give them
the chance to do this.
If your baby starts crying, use the troubleshooting notes in

the Sleeping and Feeding Guide for when the Lunch Nap
goes wrong.
If your baby is crying and won’t resettle at any point, see

the notes on crying.
Overnight
Put your baby to bed at bedtime by side settling them in
their bed and using feed to soothe if necessary.
If your baby normally feeds in the night, continue to offer

milk. If your baby falls asleep feeding that’s ok for now. If
they’re still awake after the feed, you can try and side settle
them back to sleep in their bed.


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4 to 6 Months
There are 3 methods in this section. The general method is
for babies who are used to different associations each time
they go to sleep - being rocked, cuddled, or held to sleep or
used to sleeping in a stroller or car.
The second method is for babies who have a feed-to-sleep

dependency.
The third method is for babies who rely on the presence of

their parent to go to sleep – this might be patted, having
their head stroked or a parent lying down with them.
While we at no point advocate leaving your baby to cry if

they’re distressed or you are uncomfortable, it is important
to understand your baby’s cries:
1.Protest crying: this is a loud insistent cry, which almost
sounds like shouting. This cry is the equivalent of your
baby yelling at you and is a direct response to something
happening that they don’t necessarily like or didn’t expect.
2.Crying up or “winding up”: this is distressed crying and it
escalates in volume and intensity.
3.Crying down or “winding down”: this is a cry or grizzle
that gets more spaced out, quieter or weaker and is a baby
’s way of winding down, especially if they are
overstimulated or overtired.


181
General Method
Fed-to-Sleep Method
Parent Presence Method


182
General Method
This method can yield results in as little as 3 days if used
with consistency. The touch to sleep/soothe aspect of this
method is a gradual way to help learn to self-settle and
minimise crying.
A Note About Crying:

Some parents prefer as much hands-on settling as possible
while teaching their baby to self-settle, others are
comfortable with letting their baby cry for set intervals. We
are not in the business of judging your choices as a parent,
and you are free to choose whichever method and
approach best suits you and your family.
Starting the Method

It is vital you have your baby following the Sleeping and
Feeding Guide, so their naps and bedtime are at the right
time for their age. This will greatly help their chances of
going to sleep when you are teaching them to self-settle. A
baby who is not tired enough or overtired (or hungry) will
find it difficult to settle no matter what you do.
For this method, you will begin by settling your baby fully to
sleep in their bed by using touch to sleep.


183
Once they are used to settling this way and used to going
to sleep in their bed, you will gradually reduce the amount
of help you give them at the start of each nap/bedtime until
they can be put in bed, fully awake and fall asleep
themselves.
At this stage, you will probably still need to resettle them if

they wake between sleep cycles during their nap or
overnight.
Once they are completely self-settling at the start of their

naps and bedtime, you will work on teaching them to self-
settle if they wake between sleep cycles for their naps and
overnight.
This method is in 2 stages:
Stage Touch to sleep/cuddle

Touch to sleep/cuddle
to soothe at the start
One to soothe overnight
of naps and bedtime
Stage Touch to soothe at

the start of naps and
Touch to soothe
Two overnight
bedtime


184
Stage One:
Touch to sleep /cuddle to soothe at the start of naps,
bedtime and overnight.

nap or bedtime.

Baby Sleep Shhh track).
3. Swaddle your baby or put in her sleeping bag and

place her in her bed.
4. Use a touch method such as patting or stroking her

forehead to calm her and assist her to sleep.
5. Implement a sleep phrase here, such as “It’s sleep

time now”.
6. Continue touch to sleep until she is asleep.
7. If your baby gets upset or frustrated, keep trying the

method for 6 minutes (or a time you are comfortable
with) then pick her up, cuddle to soothe her, then
put her back in her bed and continue with touch to
sleep. You might need to repeat this step a few
times.


185
8. Once asleep, close the bedroom door to ensure

darkness and keep the white noise on.

get the hang of this transition. Refer to the notes in
your Sleeping and Feeding Guide for when the
Lunch Nap goes wrong. If resettling, settle your baby
the same way you did at the start of their nap, touch
to sleep / cuddle to soothe, keeping their room dark
and without stimulating them – treat it as a night
wake. See the troubleshooting notes for more
information around this resettling. If your baby didn’t
have 2 milk feeds before the Lunch Nap or isn’t
established on solids, you can offer them a feed if
they don’t resettle with the touch to sleep after 15
minutes.
10. If you are still feeding in the night, respond to night

wakes by first feeding your baby, then put them back
to bed awake and touch to sleep/cuddle to soothe to
resettle.


186
The most important thing at this point is that your baby is

learning to go to sleep in their own bed. They are learning
that this is the space where they sleep, rather than on you
or in a carrier or while feeding. This will make it a lot easier
to teach them to self-settle, as you’ll still have all the other
sleep associations in place (the swaddle, the dark room, the
white noise), you’ll just be removing one thing – the touch.
Once your baby has got the hang of touch to sleep, after
around 3 days, move on to the next stage of the process.


187
Stage Two:
Touch to soothe at the start of naps, bedtime and
overnight.

nap or bedtime.


4. Use a touch method as before, such as patting or

stroking her forehead to calm her only.
5. Continue touch to soothe until she is calm but not

asleep.
6. Say your sleep phrase, such as “It’s sleep time now”.
7. If your baby can, she’ll do the rest of the falling

asleep on her own. If she is grizzling or getting upset,
leave her for 6 minutes (or a time you’re comfortable
with) to see if she’ll put herself to sleep and if she
doesn’t, use touch to soothe again. Do this until she
is calm but not asleep. She needs to learn to do the
last bit of falling asleep on her own.

188
8. Repeat this process, as needed, touch to soothe,

until she falls asleep on her own.
9. During her longer Lunch Nap, continue to resettle

your baby between sleep cycles with touch to sleep
if needed. Refer to the notes in your Sleeping and
Feeding Guide for when the Lunch Nap goes wrong.

wakes by first feeding your baby, then put them back
to bed awake and touch to sleep/cuddle to soothe to
resettle.

self-settling at the start of every nap and at bedtime.
They have already learnt that their bed is the space where
they sleep, and you still have all the other positive sleep
associations in place (the swaddle/sleeping bag, the dark
room, the white noise), you’re just be removing one thing –
the touch to sleep.
Over the course of the next few days, gradually reduce the
amount of touch you’re doing, so that eventually you can
put your baby down in the dark room, with white noise and
they’ll happily go off to sleep on their own


189

Crying
There are three main forms of crying:
1. Protest crying: this is a loud insistent cry, which
almost sounds like shouting. This cry is the
equivalent of your baby yelling at you and is a direct
response to something happening that they don’t
necessarily like or didn’t expect.
2. Crying up or “winding up”: this is distressed crying
that a baby does when something is wrong. It
3. Crying down or “winding down”: this is a cry or
grizzle that gets more spaced out, quieter or weaker
and is can a baby’s way of winding down, especially
if they are overstimulated or overtired.
If your baby is crying up and unsettled, is not calming with

the touch to sleep/soothe and you are following our
Sleeping and Feeding Guide to rule out over or under
tiredness, something is troubling them. It could be:
• They are sick or uncomfortable
your settling.


190
If they are upset and not settling after 6 minutes of trying,

offer your baby a cuddle until they are calm (if you are in
Stage One) and put them back into bed, using touch to
sleep again.
If they fall asleep while cuddling don’t worry – we’re aiming

for settling in bed 80% of the time remember!


191
When to Assist Them to Sleep

If your baby has been resisting the settling methods for
45 minutes past their nap or bedtime, settle them all the
way to sleep. An overtired baby will find it difficult to
learn to self-settle.

time, let them sleep for the nap length as per the Sleeping
and Feeding Guide and push the whole day’s timings back
to compensate. This may result in a shorter Afternoon Nap
or a later bedtime in the evening.


192
Waking Between Sleep Cycles

sleep – dark room, loud white noise, swaddle – they might
be happy to just go back to sleep. We need to give them
the chance to do this.
If your baby starts crying, go in and resettle them as per the

notes in the Sleeping and Feeding Guide. Keep the room
dark and white noise on. Don’t simulate them; treat it as a
night wake.
Try and resettle them for 15 minutes, after which point if

they hadn’t had 2 milk feeds before their Lunch Nap or are
not yet established on solids you’d assume hunger and offer
a feed. If they end up feeding to sleep here, it’s okay, just
put them back to bed. If they are quiet but awake, keep
resettling until asleep.
If your baby doesn’t go back to sleep, use the Catnapping

Routine to get through the rest of your day.
If your baby is crying and won’t resettle at any point, see

the notes on Crying.


193
Overnight
Put your baby to bed at bedtime using touch to sleep in
their bed and cuddle to soothe if in Stage One.
Once your baby is self-settling at the start of their naps and

at bedtime, you should see an improvement in their ability
to self-settle when waking between sleep cycles or during
the night.

milk. If your baby falls asleep feeding that’s ok for now. If
they’re still awake after the feed, use touch to soothe in
their bed.
For any additional night wakes, or if your baby has stopped

feeding in the night, first leave them to see if they’ll resettle
themselves. If they are crying or it has been more than 30
minutes, use touch to soothe/cuddle to sleep (if in Stage 1).


194
Fed-to-Sleep Babies 4-6 Months

Use this method if your baby is between 4-6 months and
has previously been fed to sleep for all their naps and at
bedtime.

For these babies, following our Sleeping and Feeding

Guides is the best place to start because you’ll make sure
they are feeding completely separately from sleep. This
ensures they have a good feed while awake and fresh and
also lessens the continuation of their feed to sleep habit. It
also means you won’t be second-guessing yourself by
stopping feeding them to sleep.
To change this habit, you’ll implement a touch to sleep/feed

to soothe method.
Stage Touch to sleep/feed to

soothe at the start of Feed to sleep overnight
One naps and bedtime
Stage Touch to soothe at the

start of naps and
Touch to soothe for
night wakes
Two bedtime


195
Stage One:
Touch to sleep/feed to soothe at the start of naps and
bedtime.

nap or bedtime.


4. Use a touch method such as patting or stroking her

forehead to calm her and assist her to sleep.

time now”.
6. Continue touch to sleep until your baby is asleep.
7. If your baby gets upset or frustrated, keep trying for

6 minutes (or a time you are comfortable with) then
pick up, feed to soothe and put her back in her bed
when calm and continue with touch to sleep. The
feed is to soothe them only – try not to let them fall
asleep!


196
8. If your baby gets upset again after another 6 minutes

(or a time you are comfortable with), repeat the feed
to soothe then put them back down.
9. Repeat as many times as necessary.
10. Once asleep, close the bedroom door to ensure

darkness and keep the white noise on.

get the hang of this transition. Resettle your baby,
feeding if necessary, keeping their room dark and
without stimulating them – treat it as a night wake.
See the notes in your Sleeping and Feeding Guide
for more information around this resettling.

wakes by feeding your baby to sleep.


197
Stage Two:
Touch to soothe at the start of naps, bedtime and
overnight.
When your baby no longer needs to feed to soothe at the

start of naps/bedtime and is happy with touch to sleep, you
can continue with the rest of the method:

nap or bedtime.


4. Use your touch method to calm her only – try not to

let her fall asleep!
5. Say your sleep phrase, such as “It’s sleep time now”.
6. If your baby can, she’ll do the rest of the falling

asleep on her own. If she is grizzling or getting upset,
leave her for 6 minutes (or a time you are
comfortable with) to see if she’ll put herself to sleep
and if she doesn’t, go in and use touch to soothe
again. Do this until she is calm but not asleep.

198
7. Repeat this process, as needed, until she falls asleep

on her own.
8. During her longer Lunch Nap, continue to resettle

your baby between sleep cycles with touch to sleep,
the notes in your Sleeping and Feeding Guide for
more information around this resettling.

wakes by first feeding your baby. If they fall asleep
feeding, that’s ok. If they stay awake after the feed,
put them back to bed and use touch to soothe to
resettle them to sleep.

self-settling at the start of every nap and at bedtime.
They have already learnt that their bed is the space where
they sleep, and you still have all the other positive sleep
associations in place (the swaddle/sleeping bag, the dark
room, the white noise), you’re just be removing one thing –
the touch to sleep.
Over the course of the next few days, gradually reduce the
amount of touch you’re doing, so that eventually you are
able to put your baby down in the dark room, with white
noise and they’ll happily go off to sleep on their own.


199

Crying
There are three main forms of crying:
1. Protest crying: this is a loud insistent cry, which
almost sounds like shouting. This cry is the
equivalent of your baby yelling at you and is a direct
response to something happening that they don’t
necessarily like or didn’t expect.
2. Crying up or “winding up”: this is distressed crying
that a baby does when something is wrong. It
3. Crying down or “winding down”: this is a cry or
grizzle that gets more spaced out, quieter or weaker
and is can a baby’s way of winding down, especially
if they are overstimulated or overtired.

touch to sleep/soothe and you are following our Sleeping
and Feeding Guides to rule out over or under tiredness,
something is troubling them. It could be:
• They are sick


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the method.
If they are upset and not settling after 6 minutes (or a time
you are comfortable with), offer your baby a feed to soothe
until they are calm and put them back into bed, using touch
to sleep/soothe again.
Repeat these steps as necessary until your baby falls asleep

in their bed with you patting/stroking them if on Stage One.


201
When to Feed Them to Sleep

minutes past their nap or bedtime, feed them all the way to
sleep. An overtired baby will find it difficult to learn to self-
settle.

time, let them sleep for the nap length as per the Sleep
Guide and push the whole day’s timings back to
compensate. This may result in a shorter Afternoon Nap or
a later bedtime in the evening.


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Waking Between Sleep Cycles or in the Lunch Nap

sleep – dark room, loud white noise, swaddle/sleeping bag
– they might be happy to just go back to sleep. They need
to be given the chance to do this.
If your baby starts crying and it has been 6 minutes (or a

time you’re comfortable with), go in and resettle them using
the touch to sleep method. Keep the room dark and white
noise on. Don’t simulate them; treat it as a night wake.
Try and resettle them for 15 minutes, after which point

you’d assume hunger and offer a feed. If they end up
feeding to sleep here, it’s okay, just put them back to bed.


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Overnight
Put your baby to bed at bedtime using touch to
sleep/soothe in their bed, or letting them self-settle if they
can.

milk and if your baby falls asleep feeding that's ok. If they
are awake after the feed, settle back to bed using the touch
to sleep/soothe method.
For additional night wakes, or if your baby has stopped

feeding in the night, resettle them using touch to sleep/feed
to soothe if on Stage One, or touch to soothe if on Stage
Two.

the night.


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Use this method if your baby is used to going to sleep by
cuddling, stroking, being in the same room as you – relying
on your presence.
These are very strong sleep associations, so this transition

needs to be treated a bit more delicately. We have to be
careful not to give your baby mixed messages.
For these babies, following our Sleeping and Feeding Guide

is crucial because you’ll make sure they are genuinely ready
for sleep when you’re trying to put them down. Babies who
are over or under tired will not be easy to settle no matter
what you do and is likely the reason this sleep association
developed in the first place.
The difference with this method is that it is made up of

several phases:
1. Sitting next to your baby’s bed while they try and go

to sleep. Using touch and voice to soothe them.
2. Moving halfway across the room, still using voice to

soothe.
3. Moving to the door, still using voice to soothe.
4. Leaving the room, using voice to soothe if your baby

becomes upset, but then leaving the room again.


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Stage Touch/voice to soothe

at the start of naps and
Feed/cuddle to sleep
overnight
One bedtime
Voice to soothe at the

Stage start of naps and Feed/cuddle to sleep for
bedtime from across night wakes
Two the room

Stage start of naps and Touch to soothe for
bedtime from the night wake resettling
Three doorway

Stage start of naps and Voice to soothe for
bedtime from outside night wake resettling
Four the door


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Stage One
Touch and voice to soothe at the start of naps and bedtime.

nap or bedtime.

turn on the white noise.
3. Put your baby in her sleeping bag/or swaddle and


time now”.
5. Place yourself right next to baby’s bed. Reassure her

with the sleep phrase once you’re sitting there. If the
room is dark, she won’t be able to see you very well,
but she will still smell, hear and sense your presence.
6. Allow her to try and settle herself to sleep without

any interruption from you! It is important you give
her the chance to try and do this on her own.
7. If your baby gets distressed and isn’t calming down

after 6 minutes (or a time you’re comfortable with),
use touch and voice to soothe, repeating the sleep
phrase. If they get upset again, repeat touch and
voice to soothe.


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8. If your baby is awake but happy, leave her to it.

There is no need to repeat the sleep phrase, just stay
beside her until she falls asleep.
9. The message you are sending your baby is that you

are still there to soothe them, but that they must
learn to go to sleep on their own, in their own bed.
10. Once your baby has fallen asleep in their own bed,
no matter how long it takes, that is a massive first
step!
11. The first day and night are the hardest as you both
adjust to the new way of doing things.

get the hang of this transition. Put your baby back to
sleep using whatever method you used previously
(feeding, patting, cuddling) for the time being.
13. Overnight, feed your baby if they are due a feed

then put your baby back to sleep using whatever
method you used previously (feeding, patting,
cuddling) for the time being.

learning to go to sleep, on their own, in their own bed at the
start of naps and bedtime. They are learning that this is the
space where they sleep, rather than on you or with you
assisting them. They are learning that you are there for

208
them when they’re upset, but that they have to put

After about 3 days your baby will be used to going to sleep

in this way at the start of naps/bedtime and will have
developed new positive sleep associations: the dark room,
the white noise, the swaddle/sleeping bag.
Once your baby has got the hang of going to sleep at the
start of naps and bedtime with you next to her, move on to
the next stage of the process.


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Stage Two
Voice to soothe at the start of naps and bedtime.

nap or bedtime.

3. Put your baby in her sleeping bag and place her in

her bed.
4. Use your sleep phrase, such as “It’s sleep time now”.
5. Now you will move yourself to halfway across the

room instead of right next to your baby.
6. Continue reassuring her if she is upset with voice to

soothe.
7. If your baby is settling well at the start of her naps,

she might happily resettle during the Lunch Nap. If
not, continue to resettle with touch to soothe,
feeding if necessary.
Once your baby is settling better at the start of naps and

bedtime, after around 3 days, move on to the next stage of
the process.


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Stage Three
Voice to soothe at the start of naps and bedtime, touch to
soothe overnight.

nap or bedtime.


her bed.
5. Now you will move yourself to the door of the room.
6. Some babies might be fine with you leaving the room

at this point.
7. Continue reassuring her if she is crying with voice to

soothe.
8. If your baby is settling well at the start of her naps,

she might happily resettle during the Lunch Nap and
overnight. If not, use touch to soothe for lunch
resettling and night waking (after a feed if your baby
is due one).


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Once your baby is settling better at the start of naps and

the process.


212
Stage Four
Voice to soothe at the start of naps and bedtime, voice to
soothe overnight.

nap or bedtime.

3. Put your baby in her sleeping bag/swaddle and place

her in her bed.
5. Now you will fully leave the room.
6. Continue reassuring her with voice to soothe but

make sure you leave the room again each time.
7. From this point onwards, if your baby is self-settling

at the start of her naps, she might happily self-settle
during the Lunch Nap and overnight. If not, use voice
to soothe.


213

Crying
touch/voice to soothe and you are following our Sleeping
and Feeding Guides to rule out over or under tiredness,
something is troubling them. It could be:
• They are sick
the method.
Once you’ve moved past Stage One, if your baby is upset

and not settling after 6 minutes (or a time you are
comfortable with), you can use touch to soothe until they
are calm, then move away and continue to use voice to
soothe.
Repeat these steps as necessary until your baby falls asleep

in their bed.


214
When to Assist Them to Sleep

minutes past their nap or bedtime, assist them all the way to
sleep. An overtired baby will find it difficult to learn to self-
settle.

time, let them sleep for the nap length as per the Sleep
Guide and push the whole day’s timings back to
compensate. This may result in a shorter Afternoon Nap or
a later bedtime in the evening.


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Waking Between Sleep Cycles or in the Lunch Nap

sleep – dark room, loud white noise, swaddle/sleeping bag
– they might be happy to just go back to sleep. They need
to be given the chance to do this.
If your baby starts crying and it has been 6 minutes (or a

time you are comfortable with), go in and resettle them
using the touch to soothe method. Keep the room dark and
white noise on. Don’t simulate them; treat it as a night
wake.
Try and resettle them for 15 minutes, after which point

you’d assume hunger and offer a feed. If they end up
feeding to sleep here, it’s okay, just put them back to bed.


216
Overnight
Put your baby to bed at bedtime as per the instructions –
using touch/voice to soothe in their bed, or letting them
self-settle if they can.

milk and if they end up feeding to sleep that’s ok. If they
stay awake after the feed, settle using the touch to soothe
method.
For additional night wakes, or if your baby has stopped

feeding in the night, resettle them using touch to soothe if
on Stage One, Two or Three, or voice to soothe if on Stage
Four.

the night.


217
6 to 12 Months
There are 5 methods in this section, and you need to
choose which one best suits your baby and your parenting
style.
Fed-to-Sleep Method
If your baby has been fed to sleep for their naps and night
sleep, use this gradual method to help your baby learn to
fall asleep in their bed. This method allows you to still feed
your baby for comfort if they need it.
Rocked-to-Sleep
If your baby has been rocked or cuddled to sleep, this is a
gradual method that allows you to continue to rock or
cuddle your baby to soothe them, which teaches them to
fall asleep in their own bed.
Co-Sleeping Method
If your baby is co-sleeping for naps and/or overnight, this
method very gradually guides them to fall asleep in their
own sleeping space, while respecting the closeness of the
co-sleeping bond.


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Parent Presence
If your baby is used to falling asleep with a parent present,
with you patting, touching or lying down with them, this
method very gradually moves you away from your baby’s
bed while allowing you to soothe them with your voice.
The Quick Method

This method can yield results in as little as 3-4 days if used
with consistency, depending on the strength of your baby’s
sleep association. This method is usually met with more
protest from your baby, so if you want a gradual method,
please choose one of the other ones.
If your baby has no specific settling attachment or if you

want to break an existing sleep association quickly, use the
Quick Method.
While we at no point advocate leaving your baby to cry if

they’re distressed or you are uncomfortable, it is
important to understand your baby’s cries:
1.Protest crying: this is a loud insistent cry, which almost
sounds like shouting. This cry is the equivalent of your
baby yelling at you and is a direct response to something
happening that they don’t necessarily like or didn’t expect.
2.Crying up or “winding up”: this is distressed crying and it
3.Crying down or “winding down”: this is a cry or grizzle
that gets more spaced out, quieter or weaker and is a
baby’s way of winding down, especially if they are
overstimulated or overtired.

219
Fed-to-Sleep Method
Rocked-to-Sleep Method
Co-Sleeping Method
Quick Method

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Fed-to-Sleep Method
Use this method if your baby is currently fed to sleep for all
their sleeps.
You will be replacing the feeding to sleep association with a

feed to soothe method.


is the best place to start because you’ll make sure they are
feeding completely separately from sleep. This ensures they
have a good feed while awake and fresh and lessens the
won’t be second-guessing yourself when you stop feeding
them to sleep.
An option for fed-to-sleep babies is to

introduce a pacifier. If your baby is over 7
months old, they can learn to replace this
themselves, and it can be an effective way of
keeping the sucking association your baby is
used to while removing your assistance in
the equation.


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Stage Feed to soothe at the

start of naps and Feed to sleep overnight
One bedtime
Stage Self-settling at the start Feed to soothe for night

of naps and bedtime wakes
Two


222
Stage One:
Feed to soothe at the start of naps and at bedtime.

nap or bedtime.


her bed.

time now”.
5. Move away from the bed or leave the room and set
a silent timer, initially for 6 minutes (or a time you are
comfortable with).
6. If your baby gets distressed and is crying, you can

use your voice or touch to help soothe your baby,
for the duration of the timer.
7. If they are still crying and not winding down after the
timer is up you can offer them a feed to soothe them
only – don’t let them fall asleep – and put them back
down into their bed awake and say your sleep
phrase.


223
8. Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 by using your voice or touch

to soothe for an extra 2 minutes each time before
implementing feed to soothe, or your baby falls
asleep.

are still there to soothe them while learn to go to
sleep on their own, in their own bed.
step!
11. During the longer Lunch Nap, it is normal for your

baby to wake after one sleep cycle until they are able
to self-settle at the start of the nap. If this happens,
leave them for at least 15 minutes to see if they’ll
resettle themselves. If they don’t or are crying up,
get them up and follow the notes in your Sleeping
and Feeding Guide to get through the rest of the
day.


224

space where they sleep, rather than on you or while
feeding. They are learning that you are there for them when
they’re upset, but that they have to put themselves to
sleep.
It may take a while the first few attempts, but persevere. If

your baby happens to fall asleep while feeding to soothe
just try again with the next naptime.
After about 3 days your baby will have forgotten about

being fed to sleep at the start of naps/bedtime and will
have developed new positive sleep associations for going to
sleep: the dark room, the white noise, the sleeping bag.
Once your baby has got the hang of self-settling to sleep

without you needing to feed to soothe, at the start of naps
and bedtime, after around 3 days, move on to the next
stage of the process: reducing night wakes.


225
Stage Two:
Feed to soothe at night wakes.
If your baby is self-settling well for all day sleeps and at

bedtime without you needing to feed to soothe AND you
do not need to stay in the room while they fall asleep, their
night waking may have significantly reduced as they will be
able to resettle by themselves here too.
If, however, your baby is over 6 months, is on 2 meals of

solids a day, weighs more than 7kg/15.5lb and is waking for
more than one feed in the night, you can start to respond to
these additional wakes with feed to soothe once your baby
is self-settling at the start of naps and at bedtime.
The method is the same as it has been previously – when

your baby wakes, leave them to see if they’ll settle
themselves back to sleep. If they are due a feed, give them
a full feed but do not let them fall asleep feeding. Then put
your baby in her bed awake and if they get upset and it’s
been more than 6 minutes (or a time you’re comfortable
with), feed to soothe then lay them back in bed awake.
Repeat as necessary, try not to feed them to sleep.
If you’ve feed at the first wake, resettle at the second.


226

Crying
It is very common for babies in this age bracket to protest
by crying. This is because you’re changing very established
sleep habits.
You will need to give your baby a chance to work on this

new skill, so rushing to soothe them straight away is not
necessarily in their best interests long term. We recommend
waiting 6 minutes (or a time you’re comfortable with) before
offering a feed to soothe.
Once calm and back in their bed, if your baby starts crying
again wait a further 2 minutes longer than the previous
time. Repeat the process and then wait an additional 2
minutes and so on.
If you are uncomfortable with any level

of crying, you can feed or cuddle to soothe
your baby at any stage, just bear in mind the
process will take longer and you will need to
be careful you’re not continuing to feed your
baby to sleep.


227
When to Settle to Sleep

At this age, you need to persist with the self-settling
method.
Some babies will resist settling for up to an hour, some even

longer. Persevere and then readjust their day naps to
compensate using the troubleshooting in your Sleeping and
Feeding Guide.
Resorting to feeding your baby back to sleep is confusing

for your baby, and they can come to learn that they just
have to cry for longer to get what they want. The older
your baby is, the longer they can hold out settling to sleep.
The first three days are the hardest, but it does get a lot
easier after that.


228
The Lunch Nap

While your baby is learning to self-settle she may wake
after one sleep cycle during her Lunch Nap. Beyond 6
months babies begin to really resist resettling in any form
and even just seeing you can signal to your baby that it’s
time to get up!
While working on the early stages of this method and until

your baby is entirely able to self-settle at the start of her
nap if she wakes after one sleep cycle leave her for 15
minutes to give her the chance to resettle herself. If she
doesn’t resettle or is crying up, get her up and use the notes
in your Sleeping and Feeding Guide to get through the rest
of the day.
For a baby between 6-8 months this will mean you’ll need
to do a later Afternoon Nap. For babies older than 8
months bring bedtime forwards to compensate.


229
Overnight
Put your baby to bed at bedtime as per the instructions for
your method.
If your baby is still fed in the night, continue to offer milk at

the first wake, then settle back to bed using this method for
any additional wakes.
How to determine if the wake is a habit rather than hunger:

1. Your baby is eating a small quantity / only for a few
minutes then going back to sleep
2. Your baby is eating a sufficient quantity/frequency
during the day on the Sleeping and Feeding Guide
3. Your baby used to sleep longer stretches and then
they got shorter again
4. You have a gut feeling that perhaps baby is ready to
drop feeds
5. Your baby is taking a tiny feed or isn’t interested in
their 7 AM milk feed
6. The wake is always at the same time each night - you
could set your alarm clock at a certain time in the
night and know that your baby will wake for a feed.


230
Rocked/Held to Sleep Method

Rocking or cuddling to sleep is a very strong sleep
association, so it needs to be treated quite delicately.

is crucial because you’ll make sure they are really ready for
sleep. A baby will not be easy to settle if they are under or
over tired.
The times indicated for this method are approximate only –

some babies do it a lot quicker. You should move onto the
next phase when your baby is ready, rather than focusing
too heavily on the days specified in the method.
In this method you’ll implement a lay down / rock to soothe

mantra in 2 stages, explained here:
Stage Rock to soothe at the Rock to sleep

start of naps and bedtime overnight
One
Stage Self-settling at the start Rock to soothe for
of naps and bedtime night wakes
Two


231
Stage One:
Rock to soothe at the start of naps and bedtime

nap or bedtime.


her bed.

time now”.
a silent timer, initially for 6 minutes (or a time you’re
comfortable with).

timer is up you can use rock to soothe them only –
don’t let them fall asleep – and put them back down
into their bed awake and say your sleep phrase.

to sooth for an extra 2 minutes each time before

232
implementing rock to soothe, or your baby falls

asleep.

are still there to soothe them while they learn to go
to sleep on their own, in their own bed.
step!
11. During her longer Lunch Nap, it is normal for your

resettle themselves. If they don’t or are crying, get
them up and follow the notes in your Sleeping and
Feeding Guide to get through the rest of the day.

space where they sleep, rather than on you or in a carrier or
while feeding. They are learning that you are there for them
when they’re upset, but that they have to put themselves to
sleep.
Once your baby has got the hang of self-settling to sleep at

the start of naps and bedtime without you needing to rock
to soothe, move on to the next stage of the process:
reducing night wakes.


233
After about 3 days your baby will have

forgotten about being rocked to sleep at the
start of naps/bedtime and will have
developed new positive sleep associations:
the dark room, the white noise, the
swaddle/sleeping bag.


234
Stage Two:
Rock to soothe at night wakes

bedtime without you needing to rock to soothe and you do
not need to stay in the room while they fall asleep, their
able to resettle themselves here too.

these additional wakes with rock to soothe once your baby
is self-settling at the start of naps and at bedtime.

your baby wakes, leave them to see if they’ll settle
themselves back to sleep. If they are due a feed, give them
a full feed but do not let them fall asleep feeding. Then put
your baby in her bed awake and if they get upset and it’s
been more than 6 minutes (or a time you are comfortable
with), rock to soothe then lay them back in bed awake.
Repeat as necessary but do not feed them to sleep.


235

Crying
by crying. This is because you are changing a very strong
sleep habit.
You will need to give your baby a chance to work on their

waiting 6 minutes (or a time you are comfortable with)
before offering rock to soothe.
again wait a further 2 minutes than your previous time.
Repeat the process and then wait an additional 2 minutes
and so on.

of crying, you can rock or cuddle to soothe
process will take longer, and you will need to
be careful you’re not continuing to rock your
baby to sleep.


236

method.

Feeding Guide.
Resorting to rocking your baby back to sleep is confusing

for your baby, and they can learn that they just need to cry
for longer to get what they want. The older your baby is,
the longer they can resist settling.
The first three days are the hardest but it does get a lot
easier after that.


237
The Lunch Nap

and even just seeing you can signal to her that it’s time to
get up!

nap, if she wakes after one sleep cycle leave her for at least
15 minutes to give her the chance to resettle herself. If she
doesn’t resettle get her up and use the notes in your
Sleeping and Feeding Guide to get through the rest of the
day.


238
Overnight
your method.


• Your baby is eating a small quantity / only for a
few minutes then going back to sleep
• Your baby is eating a sufficient
quantity/frequency during the day on the
Sleeping and Feeding Guide
• Your baby used to sleep longer stretches and
then they got shorter again
• You have a gut feeling that perhaps baby is ready
to drop feeds
• Your baby is taking a tiny feed or isn’t interested
in their 7 AM milk feed
• The wake is always at the same time each night -
you could set your alarm clock at a certain time in
the night and know that your baby will wake for a
feed.


239
Co-Sleeping Method
Co-sleeping and feeding to sleep are the strongest of all the
sleep associations, so this transition needs to be treated a
bit more delicately.

is crucial because you’ll make sure they are feeding
completely separately from sleep. This ensures they have a
good feed while awake and fresh and also lessens the
won’t be second-guessing yourself by stopping feeding
them to sleep.
This method is made up of several stages.
1. Teach your baby to sleep in their own bed for naps

and at night-time (while their bed is in your room).
You will feed them to sleep here.
2. Teach your baby to self-settle at the start of all naps

and bedtime while still in your room.
3. Move your baby to her own room. You can camp in

with them for a few days if you like
4. Move out of baby’s room (if camping in) and teach

your baby to self-settle in the night, eliminating night
waking.


240
An additional option for co-sleeping babies is to also

introduce a pacifier. If your baby is over 7 months old they
can learn to replace this themselves, and it can be a really
effective way of keeping the sucking association your baby
is used to (if breastfeeding to sleep), but removing your
assistance in the equation.
You should move onto the next stage of the method when
your baby is ready, but you need to ensure you are actively
progressing through the stages.
Feed to sleep for naps

Stage and at bedtime and put Feed to sleep
baby in her own bed in overnight
One your room
Feed to soothe at the
Stage start of naps and
bedtime and put baby in
Feed to sleep
overnight
Two her own bed in your
room.
Move baby’s bed to her
Stage own room. Should be Feed to soothe
self-settling for naps and overnight
Three bedtime.


241
Stage One:
All sleeps, own bed, feed to sleep

nap or bedtime.
2. Take baby to your room, close the curtains and turn

on some white noise.
3. Put your baby in her sleeping bag and proceed to

feed her to sleep.
4. Once asleep, place your baby in her own bed.
5. Close the bedroom door to ensure total darkness

and keep the white noise on.

day.


242
The most important thing at this point is

that your baby is learning to go to sleep in
their own bed. They are learning that this is
the space where they sleep, rather than on
you or in your bed.
After about 3 days your baby will be used to being fed to

sleep and will have developed a sleep habit of this, but also
will have developed new positive sleep associations: the
dark room, the white noise, the sleeping bag, her own bed
as the place where she sleeps.
Once your baby is sleeping in her own bed, after around 3

days, move on to the next stage of the process.


243
Stage Two:
Feed to soothe at start of naps and bedtime

nap or bedtime.
2. Take your baby to your room, close the curtains and


her bed.

time now”.
a silent timer, initially for 6 minutes (or a time you're
comfortable with).

timer is up you can offer them a feed to soothe them
only – don’t let them fall asleep – and put them back
down into their bed awake and say your sleep
phrase.


244

to sooth for an extra 2 minutes each time before
implementing feed to soothe or your baby falls
asleep.

step!

resettle themselves. If they don’t or are crying, get
them up and follow the notes in your Sleeping and

space where they sleep, rather than on you or while
feeding. They are learning that you are there for them when
they’re upset, but that they have to put themselves to
sleep.


245
After about 3 days your baby will have forgotten about

being fed to sleep at the start of naps/bedtime and will
have developed new positive sleep associations: the dark
room, the white noise, the sleeping bag.

the start of naps and bedtime without you needing to feed
to soothe, move on to the next stage of the process.
Once your baby is self-settling in her own bed for all naps
and at bedtime, move her bed to her own room.
You can camp in with her, on a mattress or spare bed if you

feel more comfortable doing so, but it is optional.
Once she’s in her own room, you will continue to feed her
in the night, if she’s still waking, for a further couple of
nights. See the next section on reducing night waking.
You need to make sure you’ve moved out of her room (if
camping in) before you start eliminating her night feeds or
your presence in her room will be confusing for her.


246
Stage Three:
Own room, own bed, feed to soothe for night wakes

bedtime without you needing to feed to soothe and you do
not need to stay in the room while they fall asleep, their
able to self-settle here too.

more than one feed (or resettle) in the night, you can start
to respond to these additional wakes with feed to soothe
once your baby is self-settling at the start of naps and at
bedtime in their own bed in their own room.

your baby wakes, leave her to resettle herself in the first
instance. If they get upset and it’s been more than 6
minutes, feed to soothe then lay your baby back in her bed.
Repeat as necessary but try not to feed or cuddle them to
sleep.


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Crying
by crying. This is because you’re changing very established
sleep habits for them.

waiting 6 minutes (or a time you’re comfortable with) before
offering feed to soothe once you reach that stage.
again wait a further 2 minutes on your previous time.
Repeat the process and then wait an additional 2 minutes
and so on.

process will take longer and you will need to
be careful you’re not continuing to feed your
baby to sleep long-term. You need to still be


248

method.

Feeding Guide.
Resorting to feeding or rocking your baby back to sleep is

confusing for your baby and they will learn that they just
need to cry for longer to get what they want. The older
your baby is, the longer than can resist settling.
easier after that.


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The Lunch Nap

get up!

of the day.


250
Overnight
your method.


• Your baby is eating a small quantity / only for a few
• Your baby is eating a sufficient quantity/frequency
• Your baby used to sleep longer stretches and then
• You have a gut feeling that perhaps baby is ready to
drop feeds
• Your baby is taking a tiny feed or isn’t interested in
• The wake is always at the same time each night - you


251
Parent Presence Babies

Parent presence in the form of cuddling, stroking, being in
the same room as your baby are very strong sleep
associations, so this transition needs to be treated a bit
more delicately. We have to be careful not to give your
baby mixed messages.
For these babies, following our Sleeping and Feeding Guide

is crucial because you’ll make sure they are genuinely ready
for sleep when you’re trying to put them down. Babies who
are over or under tired will not be easy to settle no matter
what you do and is likely the reason this sleep association
developed in the first place.
This method is made up of several phases. You will follow in

this order:
1. Sit on a chair next to your baby’s bed while they try

and go to sleep. If they get upset, you’ll use your
voice and touch to soothe them.
2. Move your chair halfway across the room, still using

your voice to soothe.
3. Move your chair to the door, still using your voice to

soothe.
4. Leave the room, if your baby becomes upset use

voice to soothe, then leave the room again.

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You should move onto the next phase when your baby is
ready, but you do need to make sure you’re progressing
through the stages.
Stage Voice and Touch to

soothe next to baby’s
overnight.
One bed.
Stage Voice to soothe from

halfway across the
overnight
Two room.

the doorway of the
overnight
Three room.

outside the room (if
Voice to soothe
overnight
Four needed).


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Stage One:
Touch to soothe at the start of naps and bedtime

nap or bedtime.


her bed.

time now”.
5. Place a chair in the room and sit right next to baby’s

bed. Reassure her with the sleep phrase once you’re
sitting there. If the room is dark, she won’t be able to
see you very well, but she will still smell, hear and
sense your presence. Set a silent timer, initially for 6
minutes (or a time you’re comfortable with).
6. Allow her to try and settle herself to sleep without

any interruption from you. It is important you give
her the chance to try and do this on her own.



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8. If your baby is awake but happy, leave her to it - no

need to repeat the sleep phrase, just stay beside her
until she falls asleep.

step!
11. The first day and night are the hardest as you both
adjust to the new way of doing things.

day.
13. Overnight, put your baby back to sleep using

whatever method you used previously (feeding,
patting, cuddling) for the time being.



255
space where they sleep, rather than on you or with you

assisting them. They are learning that you are there for
them when they’re upset, but that they have to put
After about 3 days your baby will be used to going to sleep

in this way at the start of naps/bedtime and will have
developed new positive sleep associations: the dark room,
the white noise, the swaddle/sleeping bag.

the start of naps and bedtime, move on to the next stage of
the process.


256
Stage Two:
Voice to soothe start of naps and bedtime
1. Your baby should be self-settling at the start of naps

and bedtime with you sitting next to them.
2. Now you will move to halfway across the room

instead of right next to your baby.

soothe.
4. If your baby is self-settling at the start of her naps,

she might happily self-settle during the Lunch Nap
and overnight. If not, leave her for at least 15
minutes then get her up and continue with your day
as per the instructions in the Sleeping and Feeding
Guide.

Once your baby is settling better at the START of naps and

the process.


257
Stage Three:
Voice to soothe start of naps and bedtime

and bedtime with you sitting across the room from
them.
2. Now you will move to the door of the room.
3. Some babies might be fine with you leaving the room

at this point.

soothe.
5. If your baby is self-settling at the start of her naps,

she might happily self-settle during the Lunch Nap
and overnight. If not, leave her for at least 15
minutes then get her up and continue with your day
as per the instructions in the Sleeping and Feeding
Guide.



258
Stage Four:
Voice to soothe start of naps and bedtime and overnight.

and bedtime with you sitting next to them.
2. Now you will leave the room.

soothe, but make sure you leave the room again
each time. If you can talk to your baby over your
baby monitor, this is a good option.
4. From this point onward, if your baby is self-settling

at the start of her naps without you needing to use
voice to soothe, she might happily self-settle during
the Lunch Nap and overnight. If not, leave her for at
least 15 minutes. If they don’t or are crying up, then
get her up and continue with your day as per the
instructions in the Sleeping and Feeding Guide.
5. This is when you can now tackle any remaining night

wakes as per the instructions on the next page.


259

bedtime without you needing to use voice to soothe AND
you are not needing to stay in the room while they fall
asleep, their night waking may have significantly reduced as
they will be able to self-settle here too.
If, however, your baby is over 6 months, weighs more than

7kg/15.5lb, is on 2 meals of solids a day and is waking for
more than one feed (or resettle) in the night you can start to
respond to these additional wakes with voice to soothe
bedtime without your help.

your baby wakes, leave them to settle themselves back to
sleep. If they get upset and it’s been more than 6 minutes
(or a time you’re comfortable with), use voice to soothe.
Repeat as necessary but do not feed or cuddle them to
sleep.


260

Crying
by crying. This is because you’re changing a very strong
sleep habit for them. With this method there can be minimal
to no crying if you prefer to use very short intervals.

new skill of falling asleep, so rushing to soothe them straight
away is not necessarily in their best interests long term. We
recommend waiting 6 minutes (or a time you are
comfortable with) before using touch or voice to soothe.
Once calm, if your baby starts crying again wait a further 2

minutes on top of your previous time. Repeat the process
and then wait an additional 2 minutes and so on.

of crying, you can soothe your baby at any
stage, just bear in mind the process will take
longer, and you will need to be careful you’re
not continuing to soothe/pat/cuddle your
baby to sleep long-term. You need to still be


261

method.

Feeding Guide.
Resorting to soothing your baby back to sleep is confusing

for your baby, and they will learn that they just need to cry
for longer to get what they want. The older your baby is,
the longer than can resist settling.


262
The Lunch Nap

months babies begin to really resist resetting in any form
get up!

doesn’t resettle get her up and use the notes in your
Sleeping and Feeding Guide to get through the rest of the
day.


263
Overnight
your method.


drop feeds


264
Quick Method
Use this method if you are comfortable with some crying
while teaching your baby to self-settle.
It is important your baby is following the Sleeping and

Feeding Guide to make sure they are genuinely ready for
sleep when you’re trying to put them down. Babies who are
over or under tired will not be easy to settle no matter what
you do
Stage Lay down/cuddle to

soothe at the start of
Use previous (old)
settling method
One naps and bedtime overnight
Stage Self-settling at the start Lay down/cuddle to

of naps and bedtime soothe for night wakes
Two


265
Stage One:
Lay down/cuddle to soothe at the start of naps and
bedtime.

nap or bedtime.


her bed.

time now”.
a timer, initially for 6 minutes (or a time you are
comfortable with).
6. If your baby is still upset after the time is up, pick her
up, cuddle to soothe and put her back in her bed,
laying her down and saying the sleep phrase again
and leaving the room or moving away from the bed.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 by leaving the room for 2

minutes extra each time before implementing cuddle
to soothe or your baby falls asleep.


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leave them for at least 15 minutes or for as long as
possible if crying down, to see if they’ll resettle
themselves. If they don’t or are crying up, get them
up and follow the notes in your Sleeping and

space where they sleep, rather than on you or in a carrier or
while feeding. They are learning that you are there for them
when they’re upset, but that they have to put themselves to
sleep.
Once your baby is self-settling at the start of naps and

bedtime without you needing to cuddle to soothe, you can
work on the next stage: reducing night wakes using this
self-settling method.


267
Stage Two:
Lay down/cuddle to soothe at night wakes.

bedtime, their night waking may have significantly reduced
as they will be able to resettle by themselves here too.

these additional wakes with lay down / cuddle to soothe
bedtime.

your baby wakes, use the lay down method with them. If
they get upset and it’s been more than 6 minutes (or a time
you’re comfortable with), cuddle to soothe then proceed
with lay down. Repeat as necessary, try not to cuddle or
feed them to sleep.
For a baby who is waking more than once in the night, feed
at the first wake, then resettle at the consequent wakes,
unless you believe your baby is genuinely hungry.


268

Crying
by crying, this is because you are trying to change the only
way they know how to go to sleep.
You will need to give them a chance to work on this new

skill, so rushing to soothe them straight away is not
waiting 6 minutes (or a time you are comfortable with)
before offering cuddle to soothe.
again wait 2 more minutes than you did before. Repeat the
process and then wait 2 more minutes each time and so on.

your baby at any stage. The process will take
longer, and you will need to be careful you’re
not continuing to assist your baby to sleep.
The Parent Presence Method is a more
gradual method if you’d like to avoid as
much crying as possible.


269

method.
Some babies can resist settling for up to an hour, some

even longer. Persevere and then readjust their day naps to
Feeding Guide.
Resorting to assisting your baby back to sleep is confusing

for your baby, and they can come to learn that they just
have to cry for longer to get what they want. The older
your baby is, the longer they can hold out settling to sleep.
easier after that.


270
The Lunch Nap

get up!

of the day.
to do an Afternoon Nap. For babies older than 8 months
bring bedtime forwards to compensate.


271
Overnight
your method.


drop feeds


272
Early Morning Waking

Dealing With a Habit Wake
If your baby is in an early waking habit, you will first need to
check their naps and night-time sleep against the relevant
Sleeping and Feeding Guide for their age. Often a baby’s
day sleep timing and length is the main cause of an early
wake.
If their napping is on track and you can rule out other

factors for early waking such as their room is getting too
light at that time of the morning, hunger or they are too
cold, you will need to tackle this habit wake.
There are three main factors that trigger a habit waking

response in us all: sunlight, food and communication. If your
baby is used to getting food or some form of
communication in the night or early morning it stimulates a
body clock trigger, like an alarm clock, which will continue
to go off at the same time each night/morning.
For a habit wake before 6 AM, you need to teach them it's
not morning. If your baby sees you between 5-6 AM that
makes them think it's time to get up and they get into the
habit of waking then. This means you can't go into the room
during the process of breaking the habit wake. It will take at
least three days to break the habit. The method to break
the wake is on the next page.


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Day One:
When they wake, leave them for as long as possible. When
they get upset say your sleep phrase, for example, "it’s sleep
time" either over a baby monitor or from outside their door
and repeat it until they calm down, then leave them. Repeat
this process for at least 10 minutes (saying your sleep
phrase if they are upset until they calm). After 10 minutes
get them up.
Day Two:
Do exactly the same as day one, but for 10 minutes more
than the day before. If they calm down keep going for
longer. This day they might go back to sleep closer to 7 AM.
Day Three:
Do the same as the day before but for 10 minutes longer.
Keep saying the sleep phrase if they get upset until they
calm down. They should go back to sleep.
Day Four:
Continue the same method and add 10 minutes. Some
babies won’t wake early today.
The first two days are the hardest, but it will break the
habit.
For days they don't go back to sleep, follow the early

morning waking times for their nap as per the instructions in
the Sleeping and Feeding Guide.

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Rouse to Sleep
Another option for getting rid of a habit wake either in the
night or the early morning is to set an alarm for 1 hour
before your baby would normally wake. You’d go into their
room and rouse them slightly by touching their head or arm.
They will surface out of their deep sleep but not wake fully
and should reset back into the start of a new sleep cycle.
Do this for a few days and they will stop waking at that
time.
This can also be used to resettle in the Lunch Nap if your

baby struggles to link sleep cycles. Rouse them 15 minutes
before the end of their sleep cycle and they should go
through into another sleep cycle.


275


276
Click to Go to a Category:
Awake Times & Naps
Out & About / Flexibility
Sleep Environment
Crying & Unsettled Babies
Self-Settling
Night & Early Waking

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Awake Times & Naps

“It feels mean to wake my baby from her Morning
Q Nap, how does this affect the lunchtime if I don’t
wake her?”
The Morning Nap sets up the nap success for the rest of
the day. If your baby has too much sleep at the first nap,
this can adversely affect the length of the Lunch Nap and
the rest of the day, leading to an overtired baby come
bedtime.
“My baby is supposed to have an awake time of 2

Q hours, however after 1.5 hours, he is showing tired
signs (yawning). Should I put him to bed early?”
Babies have a natural dip in their energy levels at around 1-

1.5 hours of awake time. This is when many people assume
they’re ready for a nap and your baby will probably fall
asleep at this time because it’s inside their sleep window,
especially if you’re doing something to settle them. But they
won’t actually sleep longer than one sleep cycle if you did
put them down now as they’re not tired enough to sleep
longer. Try taking your baby outside for some fresh air or
change their activity. If you’re just starting on the Program
and have a baby under 4 months, you can work on an
awake time of 1.5 hours and increase it by 5 minutes every
2 days. Refer to the section on Awake Times.


278
Q “How will I know when my baby has gone to sleep if

I’m not in the room with her?”
We recommend the use of a baby monitor as the best way

to observe or hear your baby going to sleep. A video
monitor is great if it’s within your budget. You can affix the
monitor on the wall above baby’s bed, so you get a good
birds-eye-view of them as they’re sleeping. This is
extremely valuable because often a baby might be awake
but silent for quite a lot longer than you realise! This of
course will affect your timing of their next nap. We also
recommend allowing time for your baby to self-settle over
the age of 3 months, so it’s not always best to go rushing in
and aide them back to sleep. With a video monitor, you can
easily see if they’re settling fine on their own or if they are
getting upset.
“It usually takes 10 minutes for my baby to fall

Q asleep once I put him in his bed, should I let him
sleep 10 minutes longer?”
If you know your baby takes a while to fall asleep, try giving
them some quiet wind-down time before putting them to
bed. This could be lying quietly on the mat, use of a pacifier,
soothing music playing, cuddling or swaying with your baby.
This will get them in the “zone” for sleep.


279
Q “My mother-in-law says it is cruel to wake a sleeping

baby, yet your guides say I should?”
We always say it is better to wake your baby in the day

rather than your baby wake you in the night! Waking your
baby helps them regulate their sleep hours and consolidate
their night-time sleep. Being more in control of their naps
ensures they have the right amount of daytime sleep, so
they have a reasonable bedtime and sleep well at night.
Q “What if my baby falls asleep while feeding?”
This is a common occurrence with younger babies

especially. Often babies under 3 months appear to be
asleep while nursing but are actually milk “drunk” and
usually need to just burp. Our feeding times are scheduled
well before your baby’s next naptime to try and avoid your
baby feeding to sleep. The exception is the lunch feed
before the Lunch Nap for babies younger than 4 months. If
you find your baby is in the habit of trying to sleep during
this feed, you could try giving them the milk feed in a bottle
instead; they will drink it faster and they will be less likely to
sleep on a bottle rather than on the breast. You want to
avoid your baby falling asleep before their naptime, because
even a 5-minute sleep can mean they won’t want to go to
sleep when naptime comes around!


280
“My baby is a catnapper, but he sleeps through the

Q night. Why does he need to sleep more during the
day?”
Catnapping and good night-time sleep aren't sustainable,

unfortunately. Eventually, your baby’s night sleep will
change to become fragmented with 2-hourly waking.
Working on the catnapping in the day is your best line of
defence. Read the section on Sleep Consolidation for more
information.
“My baby is tired, and I’m putting him down earlier

Q than the maximum awake time, how long should he
sleep for.”
If you are putting your baby down earlier than the

scheduled nap time, you can let your baby sleep until the
normal nap wake-up time. This will mean they’re sleeping
for longer at that nap so you will need to make sure it isn’t
affecting their settling or the length of the rest of their naps
that day.
Q “Why does my baby always wake after 45 minutes

for her Lunch Nap and at bedtime?”
Once babies reach around 4 months old they start fully

waking between sleep cycles. Your baby will need to learn
to go to sleep on her own before she can go back to sleep
at the 45-minute mark. It may take a few days, or even
weeks of you needing to resettle her at this wake before

281
she learns that she has to sleep longer. Having a dark room
and white noise will help your baby transition between
cycles easier. Often the cause of this wake at bedtime is
overtiredness; make sure you are sticking to the awake time
windows for your baby’s age to avoid her being too
overtired come bedtime. If your baby can self-settle and
has started waking at the 45-minute mark, don’t rule out
hunger or sickness as these are the next most common
reason for the wake here.
Q “Why won’t my baby sleep longer than one sleep

cycle even though they are settling well?”
Between 3-6 months, because of all the developmental

changes going on in your baby’s brain, it is completely
normal for them to wake after one sleep cycle in the day
and struggle to get back to sleep –even if they can self-
settle. You may need to persevere with resettling to try and
get them back to sleep; use the notes in your Sleeping and
Feeding Guide. If they won’t resettle, get your baby up and
follow the catnapping routine. Tomorrow is another day!


282
Out & About / Flexibility

“My baby is supposed to nap at 9 AM but will fall
Q asleep in the car when I drop my older children at
school at 8:30 AM. How do I fix this?”
We would suggest moving the entire Guide forward by half

an hour, so you’d wake baby at 6:30 AM rather than 7 AM.
Her first nap would then be 8:30 AM and you can do this
nap in the car. Bedtime would become 6:30 PM. As your
baby gets older, she will be able to stay awake while you
drop off your older children.
Q “I have a weekly activity during the Lunch Nap. What

can I do?”
If your baby is in a good sleep pattern, you can recreate

their sleep environment in a stroller and do the nap out and
about. You can do this by taking some portable white noise,
a blackout shade and their comforters or pacifiers. You may
find that your baby doesn't sleep as long while out, but you
can let them catch up on sleep by increasing the length of
the 3rd nap, or by putting to bed earlier for the day.
Another way of altering the guide for a baby who you have
to wake from the Morning Nap, is on the day of your
activity, you can swap the morning and Lunch Nap around
and allow your baby to sleep (up to 2 hours) in the morning.
Then follow the awake time for the next nap and wake at
the usual wake time of the Lunch Nap. This is absolutely
fine to do on the odd occasion, but see the section on The

283
Importance of Lunch Nap as to why it can have a negative

effect on the day if done long term.
The Program is a guide to how much sleep babies need to

get through the day from 7 AM-7 PM. Any more or any less
sleep can have a detrimental effect on the night. So if you
want to go out for lunch and your baby only sleeps one
sleep cycle, occasionally that is fine if you've got the chance
for a third nap or they have an early bedtime and they can
catch up there. But if your baby starts waking overnight or
early morning it’s likely that they are overtired and have a
build-up of cortisol causing the unsettled night; going back
to sticking to the Guide will eliminate the problems.
Q “My baby always falls asleep in the car or in the

pram. How do I stop this?”
If you are closely following our Sleeping and Feeding Guide,

you should begin to get a good understanding of times
when your baby is likely to be sleepier and times when it
would be fine to go out if you want them to stay
awake. You can always plan to do the morning or afternoon
sleep in the car or pram so that you can get out of the
house! We’d recommend you try and do the Lunch Nap in
baby’s bed as this will ensure they sleep better and for
longer. If, however, your baby has fallen asleep in the car
right on her nap time, it is fine to transfer her to her bed to
finish the nap. We find that after the 2:30 PM feed is
usually the best time for an outing for babies under 6
months.


284
“I would like to follow your Guide, but am I going to

Q be stuck at home all day? How do I get out and
about with my baby?”
In no way are we meaning for you to be stuck at home all

day long. The first and last nap of the day are easy to do on
the go. Once your baby is sleeping well in their bed at night,
the Lunch Nap can also be done by some babies in a pram
too. See the section on Flexibility. Toddlers sleep from
12:30-2:30 so it’s likely you'll be at home at that time of the
day eventually, especially if you have more than one child.
However, if your baby has a sleep association and you are

trying to get them to sleep well in their bed overnight, the
easiest place to start is to teach them during the day, so you
may need to do a few days at home to teach them the bed
is where they sleep, not the car, the pram or on you, while
you are breaking this association.
“I want my baby to be flexible and be able to sleep

Q anywhere, I don't want to have her sleep in a dark
room all the time.”
Setting up great sleep habits to begin with will mean your

baby is biologically aligned to want to sleep at her
scheduled nap times. You can easily recreate your sleep
environment while out and about with the use of portable
white noise, a shade cover for your stroller etc. Once your
baby is over 12 months, there are other cues to let your
baby/toddler know that its sleep time other than darkness.
They have also consolidated their sleep more so being in a
completely dark room is not quite as important.

285
Sleep Environment
“What is the difference between White Noise and
Q Baby Sleep Shhh?”
Baby Sleep Shhh is a settling tool. Designed to help settle

your baby, it works amazingly well for babies under 5
months or overtired/overstimulated or sick babies over 5
months, because it initiates the calming reflex in the brain.
Our audio track of Baby Sleep Shhh can also be used on
repeat to play the whole time they are asleep, but we
recommend having it VERY loud initially to settle your baby
if they are crying and turning it down if you are going to
play it for the whole nap/overnight. iPhones and iPads
might not play Shhh loud enough unless you've got it right
next to their ear (about 10cm from ear), so we recommend
playing it on an MP3 player plugged into some cheap
speakers.
White noise is best used for the rest of the nap (if you’re
only using Baby Sleep Shhh to settle). After 4 months you
won’t need the Baby Sleep Shhh as much to settle (unless
you are weaning off another sleep association, such as
feeding to sleep or a pacifier) so you can just turn on the
white noise at the beginning of the nap and your baby can
tune into it and clear their mind to go to sleep. White noise
should be used until at least 1-year-old and is the easiest
sleep association to wean off, you turn the volume down
every few days until you don't need it anymore.


286
Q “Will playing White noise or Baby Sleep Shhh

damage my little one’s hearing?”
Babies are exposed to sounds of up to 95db in the womb

(as loud as a lawnmower). We recommend playing Baby
Sleep Shhh louder than their cries if they are crying to help
settle them. Then turn it down to as loud as a shower when
asleep to around 55-65db (the level of conversational
speech).
Q “Should I use a nightlight in my baby’s room?”
No need for a nightlight at this young age – babies aren’t

scared of the dark and in fact, like most mammals, find it
really calming. Often nightlights overstimulate babies,
making it harder for them to settle and sleep.
Q “My children share a room; how will this affect using

the Program?”
You could put the older child to sleep in your bed until the
younger one is asleep, then move them together when they
are both asleep. Otherwise, just use white noise and they
should get used to each other's noise. Your older child will
sleep through more than you think!


287
Q “Can I teach self-settling with a pacifier? “
Some babies are fine with a pacifier and won’t be waking

for it to be replaced overnight. For others, at this age, the
pacifier might be doing more harm than good to your baby’s
ability to self-settle. Ditching a pacifier is often a pretty
quick adjustment with the methods outlined in the Sleep for
Babies chapter, and it pays off with truly independent sleep.
“I need to make several changes to my baby’s sleep

Q environment (move baby to her own room, stop
swaddling). Should I do them all at once or is that
too much?”
There is no harm in moving baby to their own room before

you begin the Program. If your baby is between 4-6 months
old, it can often improve sleep quickly. You know your
baby’s temperament best – make the changes that you
think they can cope with depending on how their sleeping is
going.


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Crying & Unsettled Babies

Q “If my baby is crying when I put them to bed, what
should I do?”
We always suggest babies are put to bed ready for sleep

but awake so that they learn to fall asleep by themselves. If
you’ve followed our Sleeping and Feeding Guide closely
your baby should definitely be ready to sleep by the time
they go to bed. Often babies will cry at naptime if they have
been put to bed too early or too late. Some babies use
grizzling here as a way of unwinding. It is really up to you as
to how you respond to your baby. If you’re teaching them
to self-settle, refer to the notes for your chosen method
around how long to leave your baby if they’re wind-down
crying.
Q “When teaching self-settling, how long do I let my

baby cry?”
If you’re using the Quick Method, we do recommend a time

limit of 6 minutes, however, you can use any time you’re
comfortable with. Our more gradual methods are designed
to allow you to comfort your baby throughout the entire
process. The amount your baby cries will also depend on
their temperament and of course their age – an older baby
will protest a lot more!


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Q “Can I use this Program with my reflux/alert /

difficult baby?”
If any medical conditions have been checked and attended

to by a Dr, then you’re fine to continue with our methods. A
lot of alert babies actually thrive on routine and for babies
with reflux or other medical conditions, getting their sleep
on track will help you identify or highlight if the medical
condition returns or flares up.
“My baby cries for a few minutes after I put her

Q down. Is this still self-settling and how long will she
cry for?”
If your baby is going to sleep without any assistance from

you, it’s self-settling! Sometimes even after they get the
hang of it, it can take a little while for your baby to realise
they can now go to sleep on their own. If the crying doesn't
stop after the first couple weeks, it could be either
overtiredness at bedtime (or more commonly under
tiredness) or because some babies cry to wind down at
bedtime – this is completely normal, and these babies
usually turn into children who chat or sing to themselves
before they fall asleep!


290
“My baby starts crying before I even put her down or

Q as soon as we enter her room. Is she scared of her
cot or of sleep?”
Don’t worry – your baby isn’t scared of anything (babies

aren’t capable of complex emotions like fear or hate until
they’re much older). It is a sign that your baby understands
the connection between the wind-down routine, their room
and going to sleep. This is a positive connection for them to
understand! As long as your baby is not overtired, this
crying should go away with time - sometimes it just takes a
wee while for baby’s confidence to catch up.
Q “My baby is crying and won’t calm down no matter

what I do.”
If you can rule out any other factor for her crying,
sometimes interaction with you can actually stimulate an
overtired baby. If your baby is crying and is finding it hard
to calm down and you have already tried several rounds of
settling, try reducing your interaction with them; give them
some space to calm on their own. You’ll be surprised how
well this can work! Whatever you do, don’t try a whole lot
of different settling tricks - stick to one method. Go through
the checklist of why your baby might not be settling.


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Self-Settling
“Do you have different methods I can use with my
Q baby?”
We sure do! You can choose the method that correlates to

your baby’s existing sleep association, suits their
temperament and the one you think you can be consistent
with.
Q “Is it too early to teach my baby to self-settle?”
If your baby is over 4 months and you think they’re ready,

then it’s the right time. There is no “perfect” age, however,
over 4 months is a good time to guide them towards this
skill.
Q “Is my baby too old to learn to self-settle?”
We can help babies of all ages learn this skill with the
methods in this Program.
“When is it going to start getting easier for my baby

Q to fall asleep on her own?”
Give it at least a week of using the methods in the Self-

Settling Guide with consistency. If it’s been over two weeks
and you’re still not happy with the progress, it’s probably
time to troubleshoot in the Little Ones Village.

292
“My baby just wants to lie awake in her cot and

Q doesn’t seem interested in sleep when I put her to
bed.”
Firstly, make sure your baby is closely following the

Sleeping and Feeding Guide for her age - this will make sure
she is being put to bed at the right time. Going to bed when
she’s not tired enough or overtired can result in her not
wanting to actually fall asleep! If you’ve got the right
nap/bedtimes, so long as she isn’t getting upset you’re fine
to leave her be and see if she’ll settle herself to sleep.
Q “Can I teach my baby to self-settle and still feed in

the night?”
Yes. Our methods guide your baby to fall asleep

independently, and you can most certainly do that without
night weaning. It sometimes happens naturally if your baby
is getting the right amount of day sleep and food during the
day. Night weaning is at the discretion of parents and best
discussed with your paediatrician.
“How do I know whether my baby is truly hungry

Q during the night or waking out of habit or for some
other reason?”
It is quite normal for a baby this age to still have one or two
feeds a night, but here are some clues that your baby may
be ready to drop their night feeds:


293
1. your baby is drinking a small quantity / only for a few

2. your baby is drinking a sufficient quantity/frequency
3. you have a gut feeling that perhaps your baby is
ready to drop feeds
4. your baby is taking a tiny feed or isn’t interested in
their 7am milk feed
5. you could set your alarm clock at a certain time in
the night and know that your baby will wake for a
feed; this is a habit rather than hunger.
Q “My baby is sick, what should I do?”
You have to use your judgment on this one. If it's just a

small cold and your baby seems fine, then you may be fine
to continue. If your baby is quite unwell, then you'll want to
hold off. Refer to the info section in the Sleep for Babies
chapter about Sickness for more advice.
Q “It's a regression or a Wonder Week, should I

continue teaching self-settling?”
Consistency is the best way through these periods.


294
Q “Can I teach self-settling while my baby is teething?”
Definitely. Teething isn’t as bad as we all think it is and it is

only painful when the tooth is actually breaking through the
gum, which you’ll be able to see. Teething pain is lessened
at night when your baby is lying down and their blood
pressure is lower, so if your baby hasn't been showing signs
of pain or discomfort from teething throughout the day
and/or immediately before bedtime, it's unlikely that the
teething is bothering them too much.
Q “I don’t want my baby to cry at all during this

process. Can your methods work for me?”
We all agree that it is hard to hear your babies cry, but

sometimes we outweigh the temporary crying for the long-
term gain of better sleep. You are the only one who can
judge whether this is the right time for your baby. There are
also far more gradual methods you can use which should
minimise the crying.
Q
“How is teaching self-settling different to teaching
my baby to feel abandoned?”
You are gradually guiding your baby to this new skill in the
context of a secure, loving relationship and when the
conditions for sleep are spot on. Your baby understands
different contexts, and they know that you are still there for
them and will tend to their needs when they need it; they

295
will continue to cry during the day to get their needs met
even if they are no longer crying at sleep time. At no point
do we advocate leaving your baby unattended to cry for
extended periods.


296
Night & Early Waking

Q “I’m following your Program but my baby is still
waking at 3 AM or 5 AM…”
If your baby can self-settle for naps and at night-time, you

can rule out a settling problem for this wake. Take a close
look at the amount of day sleep they are having. Too much
day sleep can mean they’ll wake at night. If this problem is
new and/or sudden, it could also be that something else is
going on, e.g. sickness. See the section on Early Waking.
Q “My baby is rolling onto her tummy/back and getting

stuck/frustrated. What do I do?”
There isn’t a whole lot you can do unfortunately, and you're

in for a tough few days. It may be over sooner if you can
leave her to figure it out for herself. If she’s rolling onto her
tummy, the upside is that she will likely sleep better on her
tummy once she's used to it! If your baby is rolling onto her
tummy and she’s still swaddled, you’ll need to either use a
Safe T Sleep (or similar) to stop her rolling or lose the
swaddle.


297
Q “If my baby wakes between 6:30 AM and 7 AM

should I try and get her back to sleep?”
This is very age dependant. Check the troubleshooting

notes for an early wake in your baby’s Sleeping and Feeding
Guide.
Q “My baby is getting her arms/legs stuck in the bars of

the crib and it’s waking her up, what should I do?”
If they are distressed by having their limbs stuck, look into

safer bumper options (vertical cot liners, breathable
bumpers). If it doesn’t seem to bother your baby, don’t
worry about it.
Q “Why is my baby waking up happy in the night and

wanting to talk/sing/crawl around?“
If your baby is napping as per the times in the Sleeping and

Feeding Guide, it’s likely this wake is because they're
practising any new skills, like crawling or rolling. Just leave
them to do their thing and avoid going in to them and
stimulating them further. You can't force them to sleep, just
give them the right conditions to sleep. Check their napping
against the times in the Sleeping and Feeding Guide if it
continues and if it’s been more than a week, seek advice in
the Little Ones Village.


298
Q “My baby throws her comforter out of the cot, what

do I do?”
Don't keep replacing it because this can easily become a

game, especially for older babies. Your baby will soon learn
not to do it if they don’t get it back!
Q “My baby is standing in her cot, what do I do?”
You can use the lay down method from the Self-Settling
Guide with her if that’s part of your settling method,
otherwise, you might be better to leave her to it. Some
older babies will see this as a game and continue to stand
up to get a response from you.


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Thank you for choosing Little Ones

for your baby’s sleep journey!
Click HERE to get the

Toddler Sleep Program!


300

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You are invited to connect with us and thousands of other

In this safe environment, you can seek guidance around

Click below to join the Village in our app

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How to Use This Program

This Sleep Program is made up of 4 separate chapters:

1. Sleep for Babies

2. The Sleeping & Feeding Guide

3. The Settling & Self-Settling Guide

4. Frequently Asked Questions

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It is important you read all the information in the Sleep for

If you would like to get started on the Program straight

Throughout the Program are clickable links to take you to

At all times please remember that this

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About the Authors

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babies who needed to learn to self-settle. And so, naturally,

The idea for Little Ones was born.

Nicky and Amanda had used private sleep consultants in the

And so the hard work and writing began!

After a good six months in the market, Amanda and Nicky

Just like Amanda and Nicky did, not so long ago.

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Little Ones is now endorsed and recommended by Kate

Little Ones is an accredited and recognised member of the

Amanda Snedden Nicky Barker

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HOW TO USE THIS PROGRAM ...................................................................... 3

CHAPTER 1: SLEEP FOR BABIES

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LOSING THE SWADDLE ................................................................................. 54

CHAPTER 2: SLEEPING & FEEDING GUIDE

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THE MORNING NAP ......................................................................................... 96

4 TO 6 MONTHS ............................................................................................ 103

6 TO 8 MONTHS ............................................................................................ 124

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THE POWER NAP .......................................................................................... 138

8 TO 10 MONTHS ......................................................................................... 141

10 TO 12 MONTHS ....................................................................................... 152

CHAPTER 3: SETTLING & SELF-SETTLING GUIDE

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3 TO 4 MONTHS ............................................................................................ 170

4-6 MONTHS .................................................................................................. 181

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6-12 MONTHS ................................................................................................ 218