Developmental Milestones and the Case of Crawling
Developmental milestones can have an effect on sleep! Once you have a good thing going with sleep, sometimes there are setbacks. If you are noticing sleep disruptions around developmental milestones, you’re not alone. During this time, your baby is often more interested in practicing these new skills rather than sleeping.
I still remember my son falling asleep sitting up and slumped over because all he wanted to do was crawl around and sit up in his crib. He did this for about a week and half. That is a very typical timeline for a little one to master a new skill and then have the naps come back into play.
Every baby is different though. So some babies may take a little longer to master the skill and others quicker. This has to do with both your little’s ones innate ability and their ability to practices the new skill during awake time.
Beyond experience in seeing this with my littles and the families we’ve worked with, in 2015 a research article was published confirming what we have already observed in our little ones - learning to crawl disrupts infant sleep.
I'm sure you're wondering what can we do during these times while they are protesting naps because of a developmental milestone. Here are a few things to consider:
Make sure before naptime/bedtime your little one has lots of extra time to practice this new skill.
Have your baby follow you around the house - instead of picking up your baby and carrying him/her into the next room, have them follow you (coax them with a toy and encourage/praise their crawling).
Go outside in your backyard or to a park and let them crawl around in the grass and get some sunshine.
Expose your little one to the outdoors and all the trees, leaves, breeze, noises, etc will get their senses going and engage them actively resulting in a sleepy baby.
Stay the course...
Typically developmental milestone transitions can last as long as 2 weeks, so before you make any decisions that your baby is "ready" to drop a nap, make sure it's not developmental.
If your baby completely skips a nap just know s/he may go down earlier for the next nap or nighttime sleep.
I went through these transitions with both of my kids... hang in there... and as they get older, they bring on different developmental milestones that influence their sleep. Sorry... it doesn't completely go away, but you can still have great sleepers regardless of milestones! Here's a picture of my little lady practicing her crawling (or trying to) instead of napping.
Resource:
Scher, A. & Cohen, D. (2015). Sleep as a mirror of developmental transitions in infancy: The Case of Crawling. Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development, 80 (70-88).
Miss O. @ 8mos