Will starting nursery affect my baby’s sleep?

This is a topic that comes up all the time with 1-1 clients, and I understand why. It is a really scary time returning to work after you have a baby!

Here are my top tips for starting nursery!

Get to know your little ones key worker!

Make sure they understand your little one, if they need a particular comforter for nap time, or sleep associations. Tips to help get them to nap. Find out what times the naps are? Can they be flexible or is it set times? All of this can help them understand and support your child’s naps, and help you prepare for them starting.

Send in their sleep associations!

Any familiar sleep items, can really help this transition. This is going to be a big time of change, new place in the day and for sleep. Any familiar items, such as a comforter, sleeping bag, teddy can really help them feel safe and secure for naps. Making sleep a little easier!

Expect naps to be shorter!

Lowering our expectations can really help this transition! If we expect for naps to be trickier, shorter, less of them, we can prepare for this phase. Honestly lots of babies do transition without a fuss, but if you prepare for it being a little tough, it can make this easier.sier.

What to do if naps are crap?!

Depending on your little ones age, a cat nap or micro nap in the car ride home can help. Early bedtime’s are often needed, as you really want to try and avoid a too large a wake window, or that fatigue could cause lots of waking the first part of the night. For some littles, they will do a catch up nap on they days they are not at nursery, this can really help with that sleep debt!

Focus on connection before bed!

When your child goes through a big change which involves not being with you, this can cause some separation anxiety, and stress for them. Bedtime is big time of separation for our children, by focusing on connection and helping them feel loved before bed. This can make bedtime easier, and reduce the number of wakes!

Most importantly it is a phase and it will pass!

I have had 2 children transition to nursery, and honestly? It was not as bad as I prepared for! My son transitioned no issue, and this was a baby why could not settle to sleep, needed a lot of support, and napped in a cot in a room full of children no issue! My daughter had some difficulty with drop offs, and short naps, but honestly it only lasted a short while. If you do go through this difficult phase, rest assured it is a phase that will pass, you soon find a new normal.

I hope this blog post was useful for you, and helps you understand the purpose of naps and when is a good time to cap a nap.

If you feel you would benefit from 1-1 support with sleep, check out my packages.