To Sleep or Not to Sleep that is the Question
Let’s talk about sleep, or the lack thereof. I, personally, am not the best version of myself when I am tired, SERIOUSLY. With that said I managed to get both my girls to sleep through the night very quickly.
There are people that need less sleep than others, I am not one of them. That’s why the day we came home from the hospital the number one thing for us was to establish good sleep habits PRONTO.
Both my kids were VERY different; Ava, it seems, was naturally a good sleeper. Sophie, on the other hand, took a little work to “tame”. But they both started sleeping through the night at 4.5 months for about 10+ hours.
Here are a few things we did that I think helped us with good nights sleep from the start:
- We started establishing positive sleep habits day one.
- We created a bedtime routine. Most kids thrive on routine, ours sure did. For us, our bedtime routine consists of giving our girls a bath every night followed by milk, sometimes a story and then betty bye byes.
- Both my kids cluster fed right before sleep, that way their tummies were surely full and ready for a good stretch of sleep.
- We made midnight feeds to the point. That meant minimal lights, no talking or playing. Straight and to the point.
- Both our girls did involuntary CIO. Why involuntary? Because they are just too eager, they both learned how to roll and would try and roll onto their stomachs ALL.NIGHT.LONG. It did not matter how many times we went into the room to flip them back, 2 minutes later they would end up on their stomach and working at rolling back over. So we tried the Ferber method, letting them fuss it out for longer and longer periods of time. It took a few brutal nights of literally NO SLEEP before the novelty of rolling over wore off. But in the process of that, they learned to self-sooth and there was no looking back.
- We taught the girls to sleep in the crib early on. They slept in the bassinet for the first month or so but then transferred them to the crib. The earlier you make that transition the less separation anxiety there is for BOTH you and the baby.
- We avoided making any sleep associations that we couldn’t keep up with. We knew that we were going to try and have our kids close together so we had to strive to make them independent sleepers. That meant no rocking/walking/feeding our babies to sleep. We put them down sleepy but awake.
- We made positive sleep associations ie. sound machine. We LOVE our Sleep Sheep. The latest model is even motion sensitive DING DING DING. It’s also a great way to drown out any background noise while the baby is sleeping.
There’s always an escape attempt …Or two…
It was hard work but it paid off. Nothing good ever comes easy. So with all this said if I would give one big piece of advice, it would be FIGURE out a plan and STICK to it.
I would LOVE to know your tips and tricks, so comment away!!
Great tips and love love the pics!! We have a similar bedtime routine, with bath / milk / one story / saying goodnight and off to bed. As for the walking / feeding to sleep, i was so guilty of that in the first months (when you´re desperate for sleep, anything will do). We transferred them to the crib quite early and made positive associations with the crib as well, e.g. spend some time playing in the crib during the day to associate it with nice things and not with negative (being alone in the dark, crying).
I say the first few months yes anything goes. Im talking about more 3 months when they are more aware. Thats a good idea letting them play in the crib.
We did similar things with our first, and it worked well! Keeping this on file for baby #2. 🙂
Congratulation on baby number 2. Our number 2 eneded uo being a lot more tricky than the first one so i hope your inst
Great advice! Saving this for when my baby girl gets here. I’m the same as you – I’m NOT my best self when I’m tired, and I need a decent amount of sleep to feel like I can function. My biggest anxiety about becoming a parent is sleep deprivation.