Baby Sleep Schedule & Nap Guides
Helping your baby (and you!) sleep better
Short Naps? Early Wake-Ups?
Fix the timing issues that are wearing you down
Short naps? Early wake-ups at 5 AM? These two problems usually go hand in hand – choose the free guide that fits what you are dealing with right now.
Hi, I’m Carmen Liebert – certified baby & toddler sleep coach.
I’ve put together these free, easy-to-use guides for parents dealing with short or unpredictable naps and early morning wake-ups. No generic advice – just real-life strategies that work, based on your baby’s age and what’s actually happening with their sleep rhythm. Each guide is packed with calm, connection, and science-based sleep tools to give you some rest and bring more colour in your family life.
Grab one, grab them both – your journey to better sleep starts here.
Baby Naps Rescue Guide
Short or unpredictable naps can make the whole day and night feel harder.
This guide helps you look at nap timing, your baby’s age and what to try when a nap does not go according to plan.
For parents of babies aged 4 to 24 months.
Early Morning Wakes Free Guide
Is your baby ready to party at 5 AM?
This Early Wake-Up Free Guide walks you through the real reasons your baby might be rising too early and gives you solutions about what you can do tonight to gradually fix it.
- The 7-step method to gently shift your baby’s wake time
- Common triggers causing early wakes and how to fix them
- Easy-to-follow sleep adjustments for lasting results
More Baby Sleep Guides and Checklists
Not what you’re looking for? Check out our Baby Travel Sleep Guides if you’re planning a trip, or browse all our Free Baby Sleep Guides for more help with food, bedtime rituals, and getting your own rest back too.
Happy Stories
Rani Nagib
2 weeks ago
We reached out to Carmen to help us with our 10 month old baby who could only sleep breastfed in the family bed. She refused to even breastfeed seated. Her naps were highly scattered and she refused to sleep anywhere else except in the family bed. She would wake up 3-5 times at night , sometimes refused to sleep for 1-2 hours. My wife was very tired through it all.
We have consulted Carmen to help us with our first baby in the past and that was a huge success (till today), so we didn’t have any doubts that she would be able to help us with our second baby.
Carmen treated our case delicately as our baby has early childhood asthma and she made sure we used the appropriate method and care for her needs. Carmen’s personalised sleep schedule and methodology worked really well. Our baby only woke up once on the first day & slept through the night starting second day (even during sickness).
Our baby is also more cheerful, chatty, lively and playful. Her appetite has increased and is more willing to have some solo playtime - we believe this is due to the consolidated sleep!
Carmen is patient, thoughtful, kind and friendly. She is very experienced and communicates clearly. We love her detailed advice and empathy shown in all situations.
Sun-Ah Kim
3 weeks ago
Six months later – and we're still thrilled!
About six months ago, we contacted Carmen because we, as a family, had reached a point where we were completely exhausted by our child's sleep. We wrote our first review immediately after the sleep consultation – and now, six months later, we absolutely want to share how lasting the changes truly are.
What impresses us most in retrospect is that our child's sleep has become even more stable and improved since then.
Today, we can put our child to bed in the evening, and they sleep through the night from falling asleep independently until waking up in the morning. If they do happen to wake up briefly during the night, they usually don't need us at all. They naturally use the things they learned during the sleep consultation – for example, their cuddly toy – and fall back asleep on their own.
And in the mornings, we experience something we could hardly have imagined before: If our child wakes up before 7 or 8 a.m., they simply stay relaxed in their bed. It babbles, plays, or cuddles with its stuffed animal until we get it. And the best part: it almost always wakes up in a good mood.
We are especially grateful for how well what we've learned translates to completely new situations. We've traveled a lot in recent months, including to places with significant time differences. We also moved house. Despite all this, our child hasn't developed any major sleep problems.
Carmen's tip to take the familiar pillow and bedding with us when traveling was incredibly helpful. And even more important were the consistent routines and rituals before bedtime. This meant that even in a completely new environment, our child had something familiar and knew exactly: now it's bedtime.
For us, that's the crucial difference: we didn't just follow a "sleep program" that works in the short term. Our child has learned skills that allow it to regulate its sleep independently today. And we, as parents, have learned how to provide it with security without having to intervene at every little sign of sleepiness.
Looking back on our first review, I'm still incredibly grateful that we contacted Carmen back then. But after six months, we can say with even more conviction:
Yes, it works. And most importantly: It works sustainably.
That's why I want to wholeheartedly recommend Carmen and Happy Baby Sleep to all parents who are currently struggling with their child's sleep and perhaps—like we did at the time—feel like they don't know what to do anymore.
Give yourselves and your child the chance to truly learn how to sleep. For us, this decision didn't just change our nights, but our entire family life.
Thank you, Carmen, for your support, your patience, and for not just helping us have better nights, but for giving us something that still works today. ❤️
Matthew “DoDo” Kent
2 months ago
Carmen helped us for two weeks but the change was so huge it felt much longer. Before Carmen, our 10 month old daughter was sleeping in our bed between us, with feeds every 3 or so hours during the night, and needed her mom to feed her to sleep, after which there was often a struggle to settle her down. At the end of the two weeks, she was in her own bed, not feeding at all during the night, and she is no longer dependent on her mother to fall asleep. The difference is huge. A few days after our time with Carmen came to an end, we even moved her into her own room! It’s so hard to know what to do as first time parents, Carmen's advice and support was exactly what we needed.
Lia C
3 months ago
TL;DR: Working with Carmen truly changed our lives ❤️ Our 5-month-old boy now has an age-appropriate routine, has learned to fall asleep independently, connect his sleep cycles, and self-soothe. As a result, he's sleeping much longer stretches and is down to just one feed per night. Our whole family is now happier, healthier, and finally getting the rest we need!
Our little boy used to only fall asleep while nursing or being bounced on a yoga ball, and he would only take contact naps. We reached out to Carmen when the 4-month sleep regression hit us hard, with 4+ night wakings and constant struggles to get him back to sleep. The sleep deprivation, endless contact naps, and being a human pacifier were really affecting my wellbeing, so we decided to start sleep coaching—and it was the best decision we ever made!
We are incredibly grateful for all the personalised support, ongoing feedback, and encouragement Carmen provided throughout the process. We could never have achieved these results by simply following advice from the internet. I highly recommend working with a professional like Carmen. It truly made all the difference for our family and we can't recommend her highly enough!
Micaela M
4 months ago
If someone would have told us that our son will be sleeping through the night after the baby sleep coaching, we would have not believed it! Carmen helped us so much, with lots of patience. We are much calmer and more confident bringing him to bed in the evening. We can’t thank Carmen enough for her support!
c ema
4 months ago
I was burned out, with a baby that didn’t sleep and crying. When I met Carmen, my world not only became better for my child, but for us as a family as well. With her guidance and care, I learned mechanisms to easy my child into a routine for sleep. She took us under her wing, offering advices, tips and ways to change little things that have greater impact. Her ability to include all our wishes and needs, into a healthy family schedule changed our perspective and allowed us to connect as a family.
I appreciated her, when my child was bigger and with kindness she reminded me that with age needs change as well, and again lent a hand to support our new sleeping routine.
I cannot imagine not doing sleep coaching with Carmen, she is kind and really invested in helping families improve sleep management long term. All her advices I still apply them to this day, sometimes even on me
Amalia Baum
6 months ago
Our 15-month-old had never been a great sleeper, typically waking every 2-3 hours her whole life. Recently, things had gotten worse: she was awake for 1-2 hours in the middle of the night, going to bed later, and waking up earlier. We were exhausted—sleeping in separate rooms, nursing endlessly, and bouncing a heavy toddler on a yoga ball until our backs ached. We had convinced ourselves she was just a "low sleep need" baby and we had to accept the situation. We were also highly skeptical of all the 5-star reviews. They sounded too good to be true. Surely this wouldn't work for our child.
But we were wrong! Carmen helped us turn the situation around completely. She was very supportive and understanding, keeping in mind our wish to always respond to our child. She provided daily feedback and replied to all of our questions. Of course, changing sleep habits can cause some frustration, but there was so much less crying and the transition was so much smoother than we had ever anticipated. The results were immediate. The first few nights, our daughter started sleeping 5-8 hour stretches, waking only once per night. After a week, she started sleeping through the night! She now consistently sleeps 12-13 hours straight at night and takes a solid 2-hour lunch nap. The coaching also helped us night-wean, which was surprisingly easy. I still happily nurse during the day, which hasn't been affected, but I know that full weaning will be so much easier now when the time comes.
Beyond finally getting our evenings and our own sleep back, the biggest benefit is psychological. We no longer dread bedtime, multiple night wakings, or even the tiniest sound from the baby monitor. No more yoga-ball backaches! If she does wake up (which can of course happen occasionally, e.g., from sickness or a bad dream), we are at ease. We don't panic because we know exactly what to do, and the process to settle her isn't erratic or exhausting anymore.
The most amazing part is seeing the change in our daughter. She actually looks forward to bedtime now, anticipating each step and actively participating in the routine. She even says good night to her plush toys! She must have been trapped in a massive cycle of overtiredness, and seeing her happy and well-rested brings us so much joy.
Jackie Kutsinski
8 months ago
Highly recommend! Our 6 month old was waking up every hour before we started working with Carmen. 2 weeks later, we have just 1-2 wake ups per night to feed, and bedtime is stress-free. It has made the biggest difference in our quality of life, I finally feel like myself again and all 3 of us are happier!
We actually tried sleep training ourselves previously but failed because we were nervous and not at all confident in our approach. We really needed Carmen's expertise. Some highlights include:
- Personalized approach to fit our family
- Helped us align as a couple on the best plan and stick to it
- Plan specific to the age of our baby, but also information on how to adapt for each age - perfect!
- Fast feedback on how each day goes helps you learn, figure out different scenarios and feel more confident
- Carmen considers many different factors to troubleshoot issues - food, environment, etc.
- Provided a lot of information on each aspect of the training and resources to help us plan for additional scenarios
- Super encouraging! We appreciated it so much - especially in our sleep deprived state.
Thank you Carmen!
Nina
1 year ago
We can highly recommend Carmen to anyone who struggles with their babies sleep and is tired of endless breastfeeding during the night. She has supported us greatly and we are more than happy with how our baby sleep has improved within only a couple of weeks where Carmen has supported us daily. Many thanks ♥️
Michael K
2 years ago
We are very satisfied and did not expect that the sleep training would work so well after such a short time. Our 7 month old baby slept through the night for 11 hours during the first few days of training.
Carmen is very committed and the material that she tailors to you and makes available to you as a PDF gives you a lot of knowledge that you can then put into practice. Through the daily protocol and Carmen's daily feedback, you can refine the knowledge and apply it correctly.
Carmen makes a lot of effort to answer all the questions and guide you correctly and never gets tired of repeating everything until you understand it and implement it correctly. The final document also gives you important information on all relevant topics in the future so that you feel in good hands.
We've heard from other moms about other sleep coaches, and it doesn't seem to be nearly as detailed as Carmen's. We recommend them without reservation.
Thank you, Carmen!
Response from the owner
Liebe Michael und Julia,
vielen herzlichen Dank für diese wundervolle Bewertung! Es freut mich sehr zu hören, dass ihr zufrieden mit den Ergebnissen dieser Schlafreise seid! Trotz aller Schwierigkeiten mit der Gewichtszunahme und dem Füttern habt ihr es geschafft, beim Schlaf eures Babys viele Fortschritte zu machen. Gut gemacht!
Eure Worte über mein Engagement und die maßgeschneiderten Materialien bedeuten mir sehr viel. Es ist mein Anliegen, nicht nur Anleitungen zu geben, sondern euch mit fundiertem Wissen auszustatten, damit ihr selbstbewusst und kompetent handeln könnt.
Die täglichen Protokolle und unser regelmäßiger Austausch sind tatsächlich zentrale Elemente meiner Methode, und ich freue mich, dass ihr diese als hilfreich empfunden habt. Es ist mir wichtig, jede Familie individuell zu begleiten und alle Fragen geduldig zu beantworten, bis wirklich Klarheit besteht.
Dass ihr meine Arbeit als besonders ausführlich im Vergleich zu anderen Schlaftrainern beschreibt, ist ein wunderbares Kompliment. Jedes Kind und jede Familie verdient diese umfassende Betreuung.
Eure Weiterempfehlung ehrt mich sehr. Ich wünsche euch und eurem kleinen Schatz weiterhin erholsame Nächte und eine wundervolle gemeinsame Zeit!
Herzliche Grüße
Carmen1 year ago
elsefeikje vanderberg
2 years ago
Carmen helped us go from waking up every 2 hrs at night, to only 2 wake ups (within 1 week). We also went from having the baby only fall asleep on my breasts to falling asleep independently. I am so happy with our progress, and I'm convinced that this isn't only better for us, but also for the baby. He is finally getting the deep, restorative sleep he needs to develop. Carmen provided us with a detailed personalized sleep plan ahead of our 2 week sleep training program, and was by our side via google doc dring the entire process. It felt great being taken by the hand by a compassionate expert like Carmen. Thank you, Carmen!
Response from the owner
Dear Else, thanks so much for your lovely words! I'm so happy to hear about the amazing progress you and your little one have made! Going from waking every 2 hours to just 2 wake-ups in a week is fantastic, and having your baby fall asleep independently is such a wonderful milestone!
You're absolutely right that good sleep benefits everyone in the family - especially your little one who's now getting that deep, restorative sleep that's so crucial for development. It makes my heart happy to know he's thriving!
It was truly a joy to support you through this journey with the personalized sleep plan and our daily check-ins. I love being there every step of the way for families like yours!
Thank you for your trust and for sharing your success story! Here's to many more peaceful nights for all of you! ????
Warmly,
Carmen1 year ago
Tanja Barnebeck
2 years ago
Many thanks to Carmen as our sleeping coach. We participated in a training program as our daughter was not sleeping through the night and we really had some struggles such as temper, being tired during the day etc.. She was doing an intensive pre analyises about our current situation and we have received a long document about our situation at home and what would be the key drivers. During the progam Carmen and we as partents worked closely together by filling in a document on a regular basis. We have received feedback everyday, which we could implement in our daily life. Addtional calls gave us the opportunity to appraoch Carmen with our topics. The program was chaning our life and even though people told us, they could have done it for less, it was not true in our case - otherwise they would! We have contacted Carmen twice during our journey and are absolutly satisfied with the outcome. She answered all of our questions in a written form e.g. traveling with a baby, moving into the kids room...which at the time was not the topic, but we already knew we would face them anyways at a later point in life.
Hence, again many thanks and we wish you all the best Carmen!
Alex, Tanja and Emma
Response from the owner
Dear Alex, Tanja, and little Emma,
Thank you so much for your kind words! It makes me incredibly happy to hear how much your journey has changed and how confidently you now handle all the new challenges that come with it. You put so much care and consistency into the process — it was truly a team effort, and I loved supporting you along the way.
It was especially wonderful to see how you stayed connected and thought ahead, even beyond the immediate sleep goals. I’m so glad you felt supported with all your questions, big and small!
Wishing you continued peaceful nights, lots of laughter-filled days, and beautiful memories together as a family. Keep nurturing that special connection with Emma every day — it’s the heart of maintaining her healthy sleep habits and your beautiful bond. ????
Take care,
Carmen1 year ago