I’ve been doing a little bit of research lately about sleep training. Now, before you get all huffy on me, I don’t mean the militant-style, cry-it-out style of sleep training. That works for some kids, but Nate is still too young for that kind of thing. I’m not sure I’d have the heart to teach him to sleep by crying it out, anyway. I admit that we have, on occasion, let him cry a little bit when he wakes up in between feedings. I want him to learn that I won’t come in to soothe and feed him every hour all night long. I never let him cry himself to sleep completely, though. I always go in and make sure he’s okay, give him a pat and his soother and make sure he knows I’ll come in if he needs me.
I’ve talked to some friends of ours who, after extensive research of their own, did do the Ferber method with their daughter when she was eight months old, and in their words, “It was like someone turned a switch and suddenly there was SLEEP in our house.” It pretty much took one night, both parents taking turns going in to reassure their daughter every fifteen minutes that she was okay, to try to soothe her without picking her up, and leaving the room again. The next day she ate “like a champ” and then that night slept soundly the whole night long.
Last night Nate went to bed after his last feeding around ten o’clock and didn’t wake up again until almost three. Then he got up at about 7:45 this morning. That means I only had to get up with him once last night. He’s been eating more during the day and I wonder if that has something to do with this change. Now that he can roll onto his tummy, he seems to be more comfortable in his crib. I’m hoping for a repeat performance tonight. To help things along, I’ve decided to really try to be diligent with our bedtime routine. It goes something like this:
Nate gets a bath, then jammies and a cuddle with his night time bear. I’ve had this little blanket bear in his crib since he was born, pretty much, although now that he’s rolling around in the night, I’ve taken it out while he’s asleep. I want it to be a sleep cue for him, so he knows that when the bear makes an appearance, bedtime is on the way.
Next he has a bottle and more recently, a bit of rice cereal. Sometimes then he’ll cuddle up with Graham for a few minutes before we say good night to daddy and head upstairs to his room. I make the room dark, except for a soft lamp we have on his dresser, and we have a snuggle in the rocking chair. I might read him a little story or sing him a song while we rock. (Note to self: “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch is not the ideal story for new moms to read their babies…bring some Kleenex along if you decide to try it.)
When I see that he is sleepy but not asleep, and from what I understand, this distinction is very important when teaching babies to sleep, I put him down in his crib. We’ve always had either a noise machine, iPod speakers or some other sound to help lull him at night, so I put the wave sounds on his Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium (Graham found it for him on Kijiji for twenty bucks) and put him in his crib. I kiss his forehead, pat his chest, say “Night, night,” shut off the lamp and leave the room. He’s usually asleep by the time I get downstairs.
What’s your bedtime routine?
What a GREAT routine! Ours was pretty similar. And my kids loved that freaking aquarium.
Both my boys have that aquarium too!
We do mayhem, bath time, PJs, more mayhem, a book for Oscar and a nurse for Miles. The mayhem is the best part.
Nico’s routine is pretty simple, which I hope won’t come back to bite us when he gets older. His crib is in our room, so we all try to go up between 10 and 10:30. I turn on the music on his mobile, swaddle him, and nurse him. He usually falls asleep by the time his 40 minutes of feeding are up, and sleeps for about 6 hours. Man, I hope this doesn’t jinx me :S
I'll admit that we did the cry it out method (although I did check on him if he got too wound up). I say whatever works for YOU and YOUR baby is whats best. Congrats on finding something that seems to be working for you!
I read this last night just before bed time. Ian is 5 months old now and he sleeps in our bed. He goes to bed around 10pm and I either fall asleep with him or play on the laptop next to him. We don't do a bath time or teddy bear or anything like that. We do read to him but not necessarily at bed time.
As for crying, he snacks on the boob throughout the night so never wakes up or fusses. I'm a very heavy sleeper so I honestly am only half aware of when he feeds. I tried to count last night and I think it was at 11pm, 1:30am, 4:45am, 6:15am and 7am. The 7am was his "breakfast" before I got up to shower.
This "system" is working for us, but it also means he always sleeps with me. I'm going away on business in two weeks and we'll see how it goes when he doesn't have the boob to snuggle with all night. I'm a bit worried, but we'll all survive for just one night.
Wow, this got long! But I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
So, I don't have children but I babysit a pretty fantastic two year old. Her parents have her on a schedule and she is VERY into her routine. The cutest thing is that she adds things to the routine. She is always put into her crib after the same routine and sometimes she goes straight to sleep and sometimes she talks to herself for an hour before going to sleep.
The Routine: At 7pm we get her bottle (she likes the little 5 oz bottles and gets 6 oz of milk– so there's a refill process). We turn of the lights, get her bear, and sit down in the front room. We test the milk on K's hand, and then she drinks it. After the bottle, we brush her teeth (First I do it, then she gets too. She usually takes the toothbrush into her crib with her) She now really likes to "drop off" her done bottle in the sink.
Her room is dark and the fan is on, and she gets put in with a kiss and a "Good night" then we turn on her Ocean Wonders aquarium and leave her be.
What you're doing sounds a lot like "The Baby Whisper" which is the techniques we used to get our little ones to learn to sleep on their own.