Your 2-Month-Old Sleep Survival Guide

14 Oct

Two months in — you’re starting to find your feet a little (even if it doesn’t always feel that way). You might finally be able to make a cup of tea and drink it warm. But sleep? Still a bit of a mystery.

The good news? By 8–10 weeks, your baby’s sleep is already evolving in some amazing ways. Their circadian rhythm is starting to mature, those chaotic newborn days are slowly giving way to a bit more predictability — and that means we can begin gently laying the foundations for healthy sleep habits.

Let’s look at what’s normal at this age and how you can make life (and nights) a little easier.

1. First things first: Gentle structure, not strict routine

If you’re craving order after those newborn weeks — I get it.
At 2 months, you can start introducing a gentle rhythm to the day, but we’re still far from a fixed schedule.

👉 Think of this stage as rhythm over routine.
Your baby’s internal clock is beginning to sync up with light and dark — but their needs still vary a lot day-to-day depending on feeds, growth, and development.

A good approach now is to:

Start waking your baby by 7-8am to start the day
Expose baby to plenty of daylight in the morning and afternoon.
Follow wake windows of 60-90mins between naps
Wake your baby if they nap for more than 2 hours
If the nap is short (under 45mins) spend 5-10mins trying to get your baby back to sleep
Use similar cues before naps and bedtime (a short wind-down, swaddle or sleeping bag, white noise).

These small consistencies help their body clock strengthen without you needing to watch the clock all day.

2. Wake windows: Easy naps sorted

A wake window is simply the time your baby spends awake between naps — feeding, playing, nappy changes, snuggles. At around 8–10 weeks, most babies can comfortably manage 60–90 minutes of awake time before needing sleep again.

You’ll likely start noticing a bit more alertness — smiling, tracking your face, cooing — but they still tire quickly.

When they're closer to 8 weeks, your baby's wake windows might be on the shorter end of that range, but when your baby is 12 weeks, you'll want to try to stretch them closer to 90 minutes. If you aren’t sure when your baby is tired watch for their sleepy cues within that 60-90mins range and then start helping them to fall asleep

👉 The sweet spot: Wake window + sleepy cues = nap time.

Not seeing any cues by 90mins, begin settling them anyways.

Why? We often think that babies will just sleep when they are tired - the truth is that once maternal melatonin wears off around 4-6 weeks your baby will be more alert and need YOU to set the scene so that they can fall asleep

3. How long should my baby sleep?

Daytime sleep is still very variable — and that’s okay. Expect around 4–6 naps a day, ranging from 30–120 minutes each. Some naps might still be contact naps, some in the cot, some in the pram — all normal.

⏰ A good rule of thumb:If your baby hits the 2-hour nap mark, wake them for a feed.

Here’s why:

Babies this age still need 6–10 feeds in 24 hours. Waking for feeds during the day helps them take in more calories while it’s light — meaning they often start to stretch longer between feeds at night.
It also keeps reinforcing that daytime = awake and active, nighttime = sleep and quiet. That’s how we avoid day/night confusion and build a healthy circadian rhythm.

So don’t stress about tracking total nap hours — just keep naps under 2 hours and feed every 2.5-3.5 hours. That’s your simple, science-backed rhythm.

4. What about bedtime?

At this stage, you might start noticing bedtime becoming a thing. For many babies, that first stretch of night sleep is getting longer — maybe 4–6 hours if you’re lucky 🙌 — so it’s a good time to introduce a gentle, consistent bedtime routine.

A simple flow could be: Bath → Feed → Dim lights → Cuddles → Bed

Bedtime typically lands between 7–9 PM, depending on your baby’s last nap and feed. Don’t worry if it’s later — that earlier bedtime will naturally emerge as nights consolidate around 10–12 weeks.

5. Common sleep struggles at 2 months

Fussy baby who won’t nap - Somewhere between 4-6 weeks most babies start to ‘wake up’ - that’s because maternal melatonin is wearing off and your baby can stay awake longer in between their naps. Lots of parents tell me their babies just won’t fall asleep, that they seem really alert but super fussy and can stay awake for hours at this age. But don’t be fooled - just because your baby doesn’t zone out and fall asleep by themselves doesn’t mean they aren’t tired and need to sleep. This is the biggest change at this age - instead of just waiting for them to drift off, you need to proactively set you baby up for a nap. I teach you all about how to do this in my newborn sleep workshop

😴 Short naps (30–45 mins) - Completely normal! Your baby’s sleep cycles are starting to become defined - by 3-5 months daytime sleep cycles will be 30-45mins in length. After this point your baby will come into a very light sleep and either drift into the next sleep cycle or wake up. Some naps will link, others won’t. You can start gently helping them to achieve a longer nap by holding or rocking for 10–15 minutes when they wake up to encourage another cycle.

🌙 Early evening witching hour - Many babies get fussy around 5–8 PM. This is a mix of overstimulation, fatigue, and cluster feeding. This is a good indication that you can start to bring bedtime earlier to between 7-8pm

💤 Contact-nap dependency - Still totally fine especially if you are enjoying them. Contact naps regulate your baby’s temperature, heart rate, and nervous system. If you want to introduce more cot naps, try starting with one a day — perhaps the first nap, when sleep pressure is high and baby is calm.

🌞 Day–night confusion fading - By 8–10 weeks, most babies are starting to understand that nighttime means sleep. If not, help reinforce it with:

Waking baby by 8am to start the day
Getting outside into daylight within an hour of waking
Waking baby if they sleep for longer than 2 hours
Dark, calm nights

6. Put google down: Here’s your newborn sleep guide

If you’re ready to understand how sleep evolves in these early weeks and want step-by-step support — my Online Newborn Sleep Workshop (0–3 months) is your go-to.

You’ll learn: