Help! My baby only sleeps with motion!

Sleeping in motion, is it bad?

How often is it that our babies sleep like little angels in the car seat or the stroller, but as soon as you put them in their crib they are wide eyed and bushy-tailed waiting for you to play with them.

It just isn’t FAIR.

Let’s quickly talk about sleep props.

What is a sleep prop? A sleep prop is an external strategy (or thing) that your child uses in order to fall asleep. The PROBLEM with sleep props is that if they “disappear,” then when your baby wakes in the middle of the night, or during a nap that was cut short, they’re going to be confused as to why they don’t have their familiar sleep prop and they’ll definitely wake up.

All of my clients that I work with have sleep props. The most common sleep prop is feeding to sleep, but the second most common is MOTION sleep.

If you’re sitting here thinking “oh crap – that’s me.” Then you’ve come to the right place!

Motion is most definitely a sleep prop if you’re having to use it at every nap – BUT it can also be a helpful sleep tool. It is rare that I admit a sleep prop is also handy, so listen close ;)  

If we think about ourselves, going on a summer road trip to the mountains – driving for what feels like forever…surrounded in beautiful nature and trees…zzzzzz. Even if we NEVER nap at home, there is something about a moving vehicle that makes people DROWSY.

When we are awake, but sitting and still, our brain has time to relax and remind us that we are tired. This is when we would normally reach for a coffee or some sort of caffeinated energy boost, OR this is when we would grab a snack to distract ourselves.

The same goes for a toddler or a baby. When they’re crawling or walking around, they aren’t going to ever be “still” enough to dial it back and realize they’re tired. So when we strap them into the car seat or the stroller – it’s boring for them, and the motion lulls them into a nice sleep.

BUT – is it really that nice?

No.

The thing is, is that when babies fall asleep in these motion situations, they aren’t getting the “right” kind of sleep. They aren’t getting the deep, restorative sleep that is so important for the development of their brains. Only getting “motion” sleep is similar to the sleep an adult gets in the car on a road trip, or the (terrible) sleep you get on an airplane. We all get better sleep when we can lay flat on our backs and stretch out – which encourages our brain to get into that deeper sleep state, cycling through the various sleep cycles.

One of the first products I bought as a newly pregnant mom, was a Mamaroo motion chair for my unborn baby. Thinking that he would sleep peacefully as he was rocked to sleep, and I would be able to cook, clean, watch a show, fold laundry, (insert various house task), etc. Oh was I ever wrong. Once my son was born, HE HATED the Mamaroo. There was nothing I could do to keep him in it! He just hated the motion that it gave. The car seat – that was another story. He loved the car seat and if I was ever feeling “burnt out” by naps, we would just go for a nice long drive.

That being said – some motion naps are okay – especially when your baby is overtired and you know they just need to get to sleep somehow. We should be relying on these products as the ONLY way our children can get to sleep, because then they aren’t developing any independent sleep skills.

I preach 100% consistency, but when it comes to motion naps, I would love to see you commit to at least 80% of naps in the crib or bassinet, with 20% of naps in the stroller, car seat, etc.

When can motion sleep be helpful?

It can be SO helpful with your newborn baby. Newborns don’t have any sleep skills and they are incapable of learning self-soothing strategies when they’re fresh out of the womb. We CAN set them up for sleep success through routines and healthy sleep habits, BUT they can’t self-soothe like our older babies can.

If we think of the womb, it was noisy, dark, and baby moved around a lot! If we want to mimic the womb in a sense, then we would need to implement some sort of movement for our newborn’s naps. I highly recommend “baby-wearing” to keep your baby close and secure, but I do also recommend committing to trying 1 nap a day in the bassinet or crib.

As our babies age, around 6 months they will transition down from 3 naps a day to 2 naps. This change in schedule and routine can be hard for our little ones and sometimes confusing too – as they navigate their extended awake period. Including a 30-minute motion nap can really help them make it through until bedtime – ensuring you aren’t dealing with an overtired monster by the time 5pm hits. This also gives you a little free time to get out of the house with them, and a nice little 30-minute stint of alone time. 

Once you start implementing sleep changes for your child, you might notice that naps take longer to consolidate than regular night time sleep. This is SUPER normal, but also veryyyyy frustrating.

Like WHY don’t you want to sleep and give mama a break??

If you’re feeling really burnt out by naps, then like I mentioned earlier, commit to the morning nap in the crib, and maybe do the second nap “on-the-go” to help your child get the rest they need. It is more important that your child sleeps well than not sleeping enough.

The good news is, nap length IMPROVES with time. The more consistent we are with our nap schedules, the more consistent our children will be with us.

Of course, if you are struggling with breaking the habit of constant motion naps, book a free-15 minute consult with me and we can talk all things SLEEP!

My favourite work is working 1-on-1 with clients like YOU!