Besides the occasional (okay, sometimes more than occasional) night waking, Baylee has always been a rock star sleeper since she was a newborn. I get asked a lot what we did to help her get in such a good sleep routine, so I thought I'd just do a blog post to share a few of the tricks that have worked for us!
First off, we placed an importance on her sleep from day one. Many times I have deemed myself the "Nap Nazi" because it's very rare that I let Baylee go without taking her regularly scheduled nap. As inconvenient as it may be to always have to schedule our day around her nap time, I honestly feel like this made a big difference in her never fighting sleep. She now expects her nap, and actually looks forward to it, because she knows she will feel better when she wakes up. She tells me when she's ready to go "ni-night", and once I put her in her crib she's out for 2 to 3 hours. This is time during the day that I absolutely value as my alone time, and my fellow SAHM's know that some designated "me" time is what keeps us sane! ;)
So, our nap time tips?
- Start early. I started with Baylee taking her naps in her crib twice a day (about 1.5-2 hours each) at 3 months old and never looked back. She dropped to one longer nap at around 13 months old and it has been great!
- Keep a routine. Baylee knows it's nap time because I do the same routine every day and frequently explain nap time as the time we settle down and go to sleep. She gets a new diaper, her paci, and I put her in her sleep sack and she is ready for her song and goes right to sleep.
- Make the sleeping area dark. This was a difficult one for me, because I wasn't sure if I liked the idea of my kid only sleeping in a dark room, but I was desperate to keep her napping longer. So, at around 4 months old we blacked out her window and it has made all the difference. She instantly doubled the length of her naps and now associates a dark room with sleepy time. It's also helpful for night time sleep because it keeps sunlight from shining in her window too early. She won't nap in direct sunlight, but has no problem taking naps in the car or her stroller during the day, so I really don't think the dark room has done too much damage. ;) Another misconception, if you ask me.
It's been proven by pediatric studies that the better a baby/toddler naps, the better they will sleep at night. I know that sounds completely contradictory; I didn't believe it at first either, but now I swear by it. When you encourage your baby to nap you are training their sleep cycles, and an overtired baby will have restless sleep. The average baby over 3 months old and until age 2 or 3 needs about 2 to 3 hours worth of nap time on the daily. When Baylee misses her nap or if her nap gets disturbed, she night wakes often that night and always wakes for the day earlier than normal.
For night sleeping, we struggled for a long time. I don't believe in "cry it out" (just not my parenting style) so I would give her a bottle and rock her to sleep every. single. night. This was fine when she was tiny, but at around 11 months old she hit 20 pounds and something had to give. I read up on some "no tears" sleep training techniques and put together our own regime. This is what worked for us to get Baylee putting herself to sleep at night:
First, we broke away from rocking her with her bottle. Now, she gets her milk at least an hour before all sleep times so she no longer associates needing milk to fall asleep. After pushing her bottle time back, we worked on putting her to sleep awake instead of having to rock her until she was sound asleep. I would rock her in her dark room until she was just drowsy enough and then give her a kiss and put her in her crib and walk away. The first few nights, she would start crying, so I would go back in, give her a hug and another kiss, and then lay her down and try to walk away again. She would usually get the hint after this, and would whine for a minute (never full crying) and then she would hum herself to sleep. She found her own relaxation technique! I was so proud! By the third night I could plop her in her crib and walk away and only hear the sound of 5 to 10 minutes of humming before she was fast asleep. It was great! I cut back on her rocking time day by day until finally we stopped completely. Now, she gets a song and a kiss while I hold her and then goes in her crib. She no longer has to hum because she's learned to love and trust her crib, and knows that if she really needs me for anything that I will come back if I hear her call for me. It makes me so happy that she learned to go to sleep independently at such an early age, because I think trying to do it at her age now would have been much more difficult.
I am all about routine and sleep associations before night time sleep, just like with naps. Baylee's night routine is pretty much this:
6:00 dinner
6:30 bath
7:00 milk and movie
8:00 paci, sleep sack, new diaper
8:15 story time, song, and kisses
8:30 fast asleep
The sleep associations that have worked for us have been a dark room, a fan blowing for noise (pointed toward the wall), her paci (which we will work on weaning soon but has worked soooo well for now so I'm not even mad!) and some kind of sleep sack/suit. We started with swaddling then moved her to Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit when she was around 4 months and started breaking swaddles. This thing was a total savior and it almost immediately kept her sleeping longer. I will swear by them forever! Once she started rolling over, we couldn't put her in the sleepsuit anymore, so we transitioned to the Halo Sleepsacks which she completely loves to this day. They keep her nice and cozy and I don't have to worry about her kicking off her blanket. Recently, I won a Zipadee-Zip Flying Squirrel PJ cover for her and she has been sleeping in it happily every night this week. I think she likes that it lets her have more leg movement, and it keeps her super cozy without making her too hot. We will surely be ordering a few more!
Working on getting her to stay asleep has been a whole 'nother ball game, but it's getting better. She usually wakes up once a night hungry or thirsty and cries out for her "Miiiilk!" I don't mind going in her room to give her a little drink, because she always goes right back to sleep immediately after, which is something I instilled early on. I never talk to her or turn on lights, so she knows it's not wake up and play time. I silently give her some milk and a snuggle and then put her right back in bed. The whole thing takes about 5 minutes, so it's definitely tolerable, but I know uninterrupted sleep would be much better for both of us. I've tried different strategies, and sometimes she stops waking, but it never lasts more than a few nights. I've decided that she'll eventually grow out of it, so for now it is what it is. :)
I hope these tips help some of you mamas who may be having trouble getting your babies to go to sleep! What are some other techniques or sleep associations that have worked for you?
Until next time! XoXoXo
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