Sleep Training
A little over two weeks ago, Walter slept great one night. He went to bed about 11pm in his crib, woke up about 3:30am to eat, went right back to sleep and then woke up about 6am to eat and we began our day! I was so thrilled that he got a good nights’ sleep AND he slept in his crib (we previously had him sleep in a bassinet in our room, or on really bad crying nights, anywhere in the house that seemed to make him happy, such as his swing or the pack-n-play downstairs). That Saturday morning I was on cloud nine. Then my first-time-mom complex came crashing down on me: does this mean the little man is ready for a bedtime routine, and if so, what the hec do we do and at what time?
Thus began my research. I had a book my cousin’s wife gave me which I had actually began reading while pregnant with Walter. But I didn’t really get what it said until I actually had Walter and was a mom. All of sudden the book became more interesting and relevant. If offers some great tips, things I just never knew about in dealing with sleep and infants. I also began my somewhat obsessive internet research on “sleeping training” – the buzz word that encompasses all the various methodologies on getting your little one to fall (and more importantly) stay asleep at night. From the “cry it out” method to “no-cry sleep solutions” to the “shush-pat” method, I was overwhelmed and quite honestly extremely anxious. It seems that overnight (no pun intended) I began looking at Walter with grave concern over his sleep and sleep patterns. Was he sleeping enough? Too much? Was it OK that he napped in his swing? Was the TV too destracting if he slept downstairs? Did he like his crib? Did he hate his crib? Sleep became all I thought about…and it’s amazing how that very topic gave me great anxiety and caused me to have trouble sleeping myself.
And I’m not the only mom that is concerned about this topic. A quick search on Amazon on book reviews for various sleep training books for infants produces hundreds and hundreds of opinions from moms about what method seemed to be the best, and what method seemed to be the worst. You’re an evil and cruel person if you let your child “cry it out” at night. You’ll go insane if you can’t teach your child to “self-soothe” himself during the night so he’ll fall back asleep. Infants can’t sleep through the night until their at least six months old, but THIS book helped out little one sleep through the night at two months old! This one is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This one is not recommended my the American Academy of Pediatrics. This one was written by someone from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It’s enough to make you go insane…and about a week ago I thought I was going insane.
So after much thought, anxiety, internal struggle and debate, I decided that we need to have a simple bedtime routine, and that I would allow Walter to cry a little bit in his crib, but not for very long before checking up on him. Everything I’ve read to this point states that young infants cannot be spoiled by responding to their cries – that they are too young to manipulate their parents by crying, and that their crying is simply communication to the parent that something is wrong or they need something. With this in mind, we started our bedtime routine about two weeks ago:
First we start with bath time about 8:00pm. I’d like to eventually move this up to 7:00pm in a few months when he is a little older. Right now, we shoot for around 8:00pm, mostly depending on when he ate last (he eats anywhere from every 2-4 hours). We don’t have a bubble bath every night. We use suds about every second or third night so we don’t dry out his skin. Jason holds Walter’s arms (Walter is pretty wiggly) and I wash him down.
Then (hopefully!) Walter starts to get very sleepy. My books state that babies love routine, and that you should pick a routine (whatever you wish) and go through the routine every night, about the same time each night and in the exact same order. The baby will start to learn the routine, know what is coming next and ultimately know that it is sleepy-bed time!
Sometimes Walter is a little tired and starts to cry!
After bath time, we go upstairs and rub lotion on his tummy, arms and legs. Walter really likes this! Then we get in our PJ’s and sing to him. I have a special song that I made up that I sing only at bedtime. He seems to like it (despite my singing voice). Jason sits in the rocking chair while I hold him and walk around and sing to him. Then we say our prayers together as a family.
After we sing, we sit down to eat (I’ll refrain from showing you a picture of me breastfeeding) and that makes Walter really sleepy! After he has eaten, I turn on his nightlight and hold him for a bit before putting him down in his crib. It’s important to put him down sleepy, but still awake so that Walter learns how to fall asleep on his own. Imagine falling asleep while eating and then suddenly waking up alone in a bed – that would make me feel disoriented and cry too! So, I wrap up Walter in his Kiddopotamus swaddle and kiss him on the forehead and say goodnight. The Kiddopotamus is wonderful – my cousin’s wife (who also gave us the sleep book) also gave us this as a present. I didn’t use it for a long time, because it was too big on him, and he didn’t really seemed to like to be swaddled. Well, apparently I was wrong! The first night I used the Kiddopotamus, he wiggled around a bit and fell right asleep – not a single tear was shed! The second night, we had a few tears, but he only cried for about 1-2 minutes before falling asleep. Since then, we’ve had very few tears (one night Walter was overtired, and cried a lot because he hadn’t napped well that day) and sleep has come pretty quickly at night.
So, this is where we are at with our sleep! He usually falls asleep around 9pm after our routine, and will sleep until about 2 or 3am, wake up to eat, and then go right back to sleep and then sleep until 6 or 7am, when we eat again and then we are up for the day. We’re still working on naps (naps come sporatically throughout the day) but I am so pleased so far with our routine. More importantly, I hope that Walter is happy and that he is getting enough good sleep.
YEA!!!!