Renovating with a Baby: How to Tackle Sleep Challenges and Plan a Successful Home Renovation
You want to renovate your home but you’ve got one small, incredibly cute concern. Your baby. Renovating a home without a baby is stressful enough. But with a baby, the process can get even more complex, especially when you consider the importance of sleep.
Some might agree that getting your baby to sleep while you’re breaking things down, building, and making changes to your home is nearly impossible. However, there’s hope. Try the following to help your baby get the sleep they need during a home renovation.
Plan Your Renovation Strategically
The way babies sleep changes in their first year of life. The following patterns are most common according to The Sleep Foundation:
- Newborns get anywhere from 14 to 17 hours of sleep in 24 hours, waking every 2-3 hours for feedings, diaper changes, and activity;
- 3 to 6-month-old babies get 12 to 15 hours of sleep in 24 hours and start sleeping through the night during this time;
- 6 to 12-month-old babies do most of their sleeping at night, but things like teething and illnesses can lead to nighttime awakenings.
In addition to the ever-changing sleep patterns of babies, many struggle with sleep challenges. A recent study revealed that 21% of children with sleep issues in infancy will have them through three years of life.
Keep your baby’s sleep patterns and challenges in mind as you begin to plan your renovation.
First, identify what changes you want to make to your home. Be as detailed as possible about what you want to be done and how. After that, pinpoint how long it will take to complete your renovation, how much it will cost, and what the process is step by step. Because renovations are often affected by the seasons, you want to plan appropriately. For instance, if your baby needs to be out of the house during interior remodeling, consider doing your renovation in the spring.
If you want to do big projects, consider how the noise will affect your baby’s sleep and what you can do to help. This may mean going on vacation when construction is happening or taking your little one to grandma’s house for their afternoon nap.
Ultimately, you want to keep your baby’s sleep schedule and any challenges they have at the forefront when figuring out how to make your renovation happen.
Find the Right Person for the Job
Babies can be pretty unpredictable. One minute you think you’ve got their sleep schedule down and the next you can’t get them to stop crying to go to sleep. If a person isn’t used to having babies around, the unexpectedness they bring may bother them.
That’s why finding the right person for your renovation job is critical. Yes, you want them to be affordable and good at their job. But it’s also a good idea to find someone who is a parent. They’re likely to be more understanding and accommodating of your baby’s needs as they work.
So, when you meet with potential contractors and workers, engage in a genuine conversation and see what you can find out.
Work on a Sleep Routine
Before you start your renovation, working on a sleep routine with your baby is fundamental. Although we mentioned common sleep patterns at specific ages above, the reality is that how and when a baby sleeps is unique to them.
Yours may sleep through the night and be a breeze. Or they may struggle with common baby sleep challenges, like frequent night awakenings, separation anxiety, being gassy, or teething that result in irregular sleep. In either situation, a routine can help ease the transition from being awake to sleeping for your baby. This is because they’ll know and feel that when these certain things happen, sleep follows. They get in a comfortable place physically and mentally to help them sleep.
Also, if you can create some consistency around putting your child to sleep, you can better plan your renovation around their needs. For instance, if you stick to a certain nap time with the help of a routine, you know you can always use that time to get renovation tasks done.
Create a simple routine to help your child know it’s time to sleep. This could be changing them into something more comfortable, giving them a bottle, rocking them for a few minutes after, and then transferring them to their crib. Keep making adjustments until you find what works for your baby.
Renovating with a baby is absolutely possible. Just be mindful of their most pressing needs, particularly sleep, when planning your renovation, work on a sleep routine, and find the right person for the job to make it happen.