A HOT topic on every website, book, magazine and group relating to babies. There are soooo MANY opinions out there regarding baby's sleep. Where does one begin? Everyone is different and that goes for babies too... what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another... HOWEVER I am a firm believer that CONSISTENCY and ROUTINE create the right atmosphere for sleep. Please note that this post is entirely my own personal opinion. Please do what YOU as the mom feel is right for your baby!
Nothing stressed me out more than my little one not getting enough sleep. To me, an over-tired baby who cannot fall asleep because he's so overly stimulated and exhausted is enough to make me go insane (for a short while). But I quickly learnt that routine, for me & my baby, was the key!
As part of my 'research' during my pregnancy, I read BABYWISE and SLEEP SENSE (Details are listed under Brilliant Books...) These two guided me in creating a healthy routine for my baby... one which was easy to follow, kept baby happy & well fed, and made complete sense overall! I felt more comfortable knowing that I had something to work with as apposed to my baby being fed on demand and sleeping whenever!
Both books contain a wealth of knowledge which I refer to often as my little one enters each new stage of his life. If you are looking to get your baby into a routine, I would highly recommend both books.
I'd just like to stress that these books "guided" me. I didn't do EVERYTHING they said, but I took what I felt was right for me and my baby. As with the advice given to me by friends and doctors... I took what sat well with me.
What worked for us...
We gave our baby a pacifier! Best decision we ever made! We first tried a Tommee Tippee but he wasn't too interested. Then I gave him a NUK... BINGO!!! (See adorable photo above)
We chose a little "animal soother" which he would get every time he went down for a nap. It's a soft little bunny which is flat. (Yes, there is a reason it is flat... to prevent suffocation often caused by large stuffed animals placed in cots).We also used the same blankets. At this point you might be thinking we went a little over the top, but like I said, CONSISTENCY really worked for us!
We once attempted to swaddle our little one! We never did it again! I must say though that the thought of someone swaddling me isn't totally appealing.
We created an 'atmosphere for sleep'...
During the day... Drew the curtains closed, switched the AC fans on low (for that distant hum), put a few drops of Essential Lavender Oil on the bedding, placed him into his moses basket/cot, gave him his dummy & bunny, covered him with warm blankets, and out I went, closing the door behind me.
At night time... He would have a warm bath, this was his opportunity for play time with dad which always involved lots of splashing, shrieking & uncontrollable laughter! Then he would be taken into the nursery, rubbed down with soft towels and lathered up in baby aqueous cream! Once dressed and ready for bed, I would feed him his last feed of the day, then place him into his moses basket/cot, with same dummy, bunny & blankets. A quick kiss and a prayer good night, followed by lights out!
Once the 'atmosphere for sleep' was in place, we kept to our routine! Ahhh, the joys of a routine!!! Personally, I couldn't do parenting any other way... that's just me! Keep reading to see our routine!
What didn't work for us...Trying to put our little one to sleep without a dummy - utterly pointless!
Using any sort of 'sleep prop' that resulted in ME doing it... rocking, patting, singing, breast-feeding etc. What a downward spiral that was! Yes, there were the few times where a quick rock to sleep was completely necessary (such as on a plane, in a restaurant, at a party) but they were the exception to the rule. I quickly learnt that habbits (both good & bad) were VERY easily formed and I had to make the right decisions if anyone was going to get any sleep in our house ;)
Letting go of our routine... because of a holiday, family visiting, church timings, motocross events etc. I'd worked too hard to let any of these circumstances mess up our wonderful routine! Yes, we certainly had to make adjustments and our son had to sleep in all sorts of strange places, but at the end of the day, the feeding & napping times were always consistent.
Our newborn's routine...
With the help of BabyWise & Sleep Sense, I came up with the following routine which worked well for us! At 8 weeks my son first slept through the night, and at 9 weeks, he was consistently sleeping through each & every night! Yeay for SLEEP for mommy & daddy!
7:00am Breast-feed
10:00am Breast-feed
11:00am Down for a nap
1:00pm Breast-feed
2:00pm Down for a nap
4:00pm Breast-feed
5:00pm Bath time with daddy
5:30pm Down for a nap
7:00pm Wake baby up, Breast-feed & put straight back down to sleep
10:00pm Wake baby up for his 'Dream Feed' & put straight back down to sleep
Don't wake baby up until morning. Leave baby to wake me up during the night (usually 1am & 4am)
Something that was KEY for us, was to always start the day at the same time. If our little one woke up early, we would adjust things slightly to get back on track, and if he was still asleep at 7am, I would wake him up. It was crucial that the routine started at the same time each day!
We kept this routine going for quite some time, increasing the "awake" time as the months went by. Our little one was a 45min napper! He very rarely went longer than 45min, but I kept trying to encourage longer naps as much as I could!
Our 6 month old's routine...At 6 and a half months we moved on to a 4 hour Breast-Feeding Schedule, and dropped the 10pm Dream Feed. Initially I was quite hesitant to do so 'cause I worried he might wake up hungry in the middle of the night. However once he was eating solids, we were good to go and his next routine looked like this...
7:00am Breast-feed
8:00am Breakfast (fruit & cereal, sometimes yoghurt) Down for a nap (between 45-90min) Wake up/Play time
11:00am Breast-feed
12:00pm Down for a nap (usually 45min)
1:00pm Lunch (veg & chicken, sometimes fruit) Play time
3:00pm Breast-feed, Down for a nap (usually 45min) Wake up/Play time
6:00pm Dinner (veg & chicken)
6:30pm Bath time with daddy
7:00pm Breast-feed and off to sleep
Making sure my son got enough day time sleep was what I struggled with the most. From a young age he could quite happily go on and on with very little sleep. In fact, he was quite happy to go on all day! Putting him down for a nap was a constant struggle, but with the help of the books I mentioned, and Cecile just a phone call away, we somehow figured it out. Soon he learnt to fall asleep on his own, with his dummy & his bunny, and no crying or 'fighting' with mommy involved! What a pleasure to have a baby who willingly takes his naps!
Did we try the CIO method...
Yes we did! At first we tried the well known 'cry it out method' WITHOUT a dummy when our son was 4 months old. We did that for 5 days - never again! We achieved NOTHING! A few weeks later, after hours spent trying to rock/sing/swaddle/unswaddle/and just about trick our baby into sleeping, we tried the CIO method WITH a dummy... voila! Operation SUCCESSFUL!
As a mom YOU need to find out what works for YOU & YOUR baby! For us, we wanted our little one to learn how to 'self-soothe' and be an independent day-time napper & night-time sleeper. We accomplished just that with the help of Cecile, and being consistent! For us that meant making sure our baby had a clean nappy, was well-fell, dressed warmly, cuddled with soft blankets & had his dummy & bunny. Then he was put down into his cot and the door was closed (not fully, but almost). If there was any crying involved, we let him say what he needed to say for a few minutes before going in and replacing the dummy, then walking out again. It was amazing how quickly he would settle and fall asleep. This method really worked for US.As I said before, I am still learning as I go along and will be adding to this post in the next couple of months as our son's routine is adjusted once more!
For ANY sleep/feeding/"just about anything" advice, contact Cecile DeScally on 0506947938 (Dubai)
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