Home » Putting your baby to sleep – Useful links
Putting your baby to sleep – Useful links
It’s amazing how we try too hard isn’t it???? lol!
Fran’s basket is on a rocking stand so if she doesn’t settle within a few minutes I just reach out and rock her gently without turning the light on just to calm her down a bit.
I find the less interaction I have with her the better and it’s amazing how quickly she nods off once the lights go out.
We started putting her up to bed on her own last Tuesday and using the monitor rather than taking her up when we go up and because she can self settle we have had no problems so far. It’s just taking things one step at a time – we are attempting dream feeding too in the hopes she will eventually start sttn – she goes a bit longer each night so fingers crossed!!
For a newborn, wanting to be held isn’t a “habit” — it’s a need. Try to look at it from your baby’s point of view: After nine months spent nestled inside you, being alone in a big crib with no warm body nearby can come as quite a shock. Although every baby is different, almost all of them get a bit agitated if a parent lays them down while they’re still wide awake. Most need to be “parented” to sleep — nursed, bottle-fed, or rocked until they drop off.
Obviously every NB/baby is different but this is what we did…. I will give you our whole day routine to hopefully show what we did… We always did the Eat, Play, Sleep method and he was able to teach himself to put himself to sleep without having to nurse/bottle to sleep. We ALWAYS have started our day at 8am from the day we got out of the hospital… we were also on a strict 3hr BF schedule because he was born at only 5lbs. So… here it goes.
(at about 2wks we got the ok to let him sleep until he woke himself to eat, he went from 4hrs to 5, to 7-9hrs at 4.5wks, to 12hrs by 12wks old)
During his MOTN feedings, whether or not we were on the 3hr schedule or him waking himself… i would always go in there with no lights or VERY dim lights, NO talking to him, gently change his diaper, BF, change again between switching boobs, burp him, swaddle him back up and put him back to bed and he continued to sleep. I made it very clear between the difference of night and day… during the day, feedings were in bright day light, loud noises, and activity followed right after… in the MOTN, lights were off, no noise, and no activity.
Like i said, all babies are different but i believe by sticking to a routine, it helped him get into a good nursing/sleeping schedule and our days were very predictable. It also helped him become adaptable to our traveling schedule (as long as we stuck to our routine!).
Congrats and good luck with your LO… you will figure out your own groove and like PP said, as soon as you do, it will change!!! Have fun with it!
It’s like learning to crawl. If you always carry your baby, he won’t get the chance to discover crawling, as he’ll never be on the floor long enough to work it out. If you make a habit of feeding or rocking your baby to sleep, he won’t have the opportunity to learn how to soothe himself to sleep.
