So it’s time. Camper is 10 days away from his 3 month birthday, I can’t believe it! I’ve been feeling more and more like it might be time to not only grow more serious about our sleep rules that we’ve established (and been at least 80% good at keeping) but to begin a more formal “sleep training.” I was wondering when it would become time that we could actually maneuver him into sleeping when we want/need him to, and I think that most of the things that I’m reading point to between 3 and 6 months old. I found this today:
Sleep training opportunity
Typically, by age 3 months or so, babies have started to develop more of a regular sleep/wake pattern and have dropped most of their night feedings.
This doesn’t mean you should suddenly impose a rigid sleep program on your 3- or 4-month-old. In fact, your baby may already have developed sleep patterns that fit in well with your family life. But if you’d like to help your baby sleep longer at a stretch and keep more regular hours, now might be a good time to try some type of sleep training.
Keep in mind that every baby is on a unique developmental schedule. Observe how your child reacts to sleep training, and if she doesn’t seem ready, slow down and try again in a few weeks.”
So there ya go! Keeping in mind that my baby may or may NOT be ready for a more regular schedule, I think it’s time to try. The last few days I’ve been trying to follow a bedtime routine, which is the most consistent piece of advice EVERYONE seems to give about helping baby learn how to sleep more regularly. Here’s the thing, I don’t mind if he wants to wake up and eat in the middle of the night- he actually goes right back to sleep afterward and it doesn’t cause too much of a problem for me. What I REALLY want, my BIG goal, is for him to go to bed the same time every night, within an hour or so. That way as he matures and is able to sleep longer, he’ll do it from the same starting point. I see it like setting up a good platform to jump off of. And a more predictable evening for Mommy and Daddy.
SO. This is the routine that we’ve come up with.
8pm Change diaper, change into feety PJ’s, have a little lotion massage. (I know this is generally when people say, “Give him a bath, it’ll put him out!” But tis not true. My baby LOVES the bath, so much so that it traumatizes him to the tune of screaming for an hour every time I take him out. Also: I give him a bath earlier in the day when it’s warmest out.)
8:15pm Quiet rocking until it’s time to eat. Feed him a bottle in a dim room, say goonight!
Whenever all THAT is done: Cuddle in his bedroom and listen to lullabies, when he’s VERY sleepy turn on the white noise and put him in his crib. Say a prayer, final goodnight, and leave him in his bed.
Whenever he starts freaking out, pat on the back, rub his head, pick up for a couple of minutes and then RIGHT BACK in the crib until he falls alseep for real. So far this process has taken….until 2 am. Last night he took a power nap then was up til around 2:30.
I know.
It sucks.
I get SO frustrated! It’s so hard to wonder, is he still a newborn? Is this having any effect at all?
Then I read that while you cannot control when your baby goes to sleep, you can wake him up at the same time every day. So I think I’ll try waking him up every day at 7am (this is the time he woke up today, he slept from 2-7, not bad, just needs to be earlier!!) and see if that helps his little clock get settled down a wee. We shall see I guess. He might just fall right back to sleep, who knows?
Today I think I began reading his “signals” a little better. I put him down for a nap usually about two hours after he gets up in the morning. He’ll start rubbing his eyes and I know it’s time for either a swaddle or a meltdown. I almost always choose swaddle. Today I laid him down and he did his obligatory 20 minute nap and seemed awake. But I was on to him this time. I kept the white noise on, kept him in his swaddle and laid down with him for about 10 minutes. Sure enough, he fell asleep immediately. He woke once more and then went back to sleep. Total nap time: 2.5 hours. Perfect. He was up for about two hours (enough time to visit with friends!) and then back to sleep again for another hour. I think that this could work…as long as I watch him and get him to sleep before the meltdown happens.
Yup. Been working on this post pretty much all day, and am finding it a wee ironic that as I speak not only is it past 8 and we’ve done nothing on our “schedule,” but Camper is sleeping peacefully in his Daddy’s arms. Sigh. One day.
