Working Moms
realityspeller
member
sleep training prep for return to work
realityspeller
member
in Working Moms
i am 2 weeks into my maternity leave i am, of course, falling in love w my sweet little girl. i will be going back to work after 10 weeks my husband will be taking the final 2 weeks of leave we work for the same company. i am breast feeding but plan to start pumping to build a reserve in the next 2 weeks.
i am curious if you have had success with any type of sleep/feed scheduling or any specific tactics you used while on maternity leave to get your babe to successfully sleep through the night by 810 weeks? i think i will be a better mother employee if i am able to get a decent night's sleep so i am trying to get insight from real moms with real babies.
i'm currently reading a book called 'babywise' have a book called 'happiest baby on the block'. both guarantee to get the baby to sleep through the night by 8 weeks but i would love to get insight from real moms who've been there, done that.
thanks in advance for your insight!
i am curious if you have had success with any type of sleep/feed scheduling or any specific tactics you used while on maternity leave to get your babe to successfully sleep through the night by 810 weeks? i think i will be a better mother employee if i am able to get a decent night's sleep so i am trying to get insight from real moms with real babies.
i'm currently reading a book called 'babywise' have a book called 'happiest baby on the block'. both guarantee to get the baby to sleep through the night by 8 weeks but i would love to get insight from real moms who've been there, done that.
thanks in advance for your insight!
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Re: sleep training prep for return to work
I think it is pretty uncommon for babies to really STTN that young. One to three night wakings at that point is more the norm. My friends who claim their babies STTN usually mean from like midnight to 5am. DS sleeps from 8pm to 7am but only started that at 9 months old.
Please lookup Babywise- just read the Wikipedia page at least. The author is a religious fanatic that was kicked out of the church he founded in part because of his views on parenting. The publisher dumped the book so he published it himself. And Dr Sears called it the most dangerous book out there.
just try to establish routines that will help your baby establish a routine such as eating dinner around the same time, bath time, lights down, etc. a good bedtime is around 8 pm. Sleep begets sleep.
Your body will adjust. I am back to work for over a month now and LO is now 4months. We have occasionally gotten a night of 10pm 4 or 5am but nothing is guaranteed no matter what the books say!
There's no way to force it at that age. DS was still waking every 3 hours or so when I went back to work at 12 weeks. In fact, he woke up at least 2-3x a night until we sleep trained when he was 9 months old.
The thing is, you get used to it. Seriously. Your body will adjust. Obviously it's not healthy long term, but I didn't feel like the walking dead most days. I went to bed around 8, and DH took baby duty until midnight or so. I took over after that.
Your baby will find her own pattern somewhere around 4-6 weeks, but there will still be a lot of variation in it and depend on whether you are formula feeding or BFing.
I would work on making sure your baby understands daytime is for awake time - eating, playing, singing, lots of light and activity and nighttime is for quiet, sleepy times.
It would be unusual and lucky to have a young baby that sleeps more than 6 hours at night (which is the definition of STTN).
I am totally pro-sleep training, but I wouldn't even attempt it until your LO is at least 4 months and even then, I'd be cautious if I didn't think she was eating enough during the daytime.
I'd definitely recommend sticking to a routine. Also keep in mind that infants are constantly changing and developing. He may sleep through the night for a month and then have a growth spurt and not sleep through the night again for another month.
It's only been 2 weeks so right now I'm sure you're exhausted. It does get better though so try not to stress too much about sleep training right now. A lot of experts don't recommend sleep training until 6 months.
I agree with the PPs in that it's much more manageable to work toward a regular routine than attempt to sleep train. Your body will adjust. my recommendation is to go to bed as early as you can until your body adapts to your new working schedule. That will help make up for those middle-of-the-night feedings and night wakings. I found that around 12 weeks when I went back to work my twins had a pretty predictable routine so I knew when to pump at work. GL.
It really really depends on the child. My first STTN at five years old. My second STTN at 6 weeks (8-12 hours). My third we just sleep trained at one year. Previous to that he was up 3-5 times a night due to some reverse cycling.
I would just try to get into a routine so you can train your body and survive night wakings - it always helped me to know what to expect. At 10-12 weeks you can try to shape the schedule more, gently. I suggest a night time routine/bed time routine as a foundation and consistent MOTN sleep cues (dark rooms, quiet, all business no eye contact or chatter).
sleep training was probably the wrong term, i was really looking for any scheduling tips which y'all have helped with that sets your babe in the most successful position to sleep optimally at night. my child is actually only waking once at 2am after her 10pm feeding so far which is totally bearable so i was hoping there was some way to keep that pattern. but y'all are right she is going to have evolving need as she grows we will just have to modify and adjust to meet those needs.
thanks for the real life perspective and book recommendation. VERY appreciated!
I don't think you can sleep train that young. Some babies will STTN at that age, but I think it is just happenstance.
My LO started STTN at exactly 3 months to the day - as in he goes to be bed about 8-9 pm and wakes between about 6:30-8:30 am. Typically, he will sleep 10-12 hours straight. However, we did NO sleep training. He just started doing it on his own. However, even now at 5 months he will occassionally wake up at 4 or 5 am if he soaks through his diaper or didn't get enough to eat at his last feeding.
At 10-12 weeks, he was probably waking up one to two times a night. I also went back to work at about 9-10 weeks. What DH and I did was to alternate nights. We literally even slept in different rooms so one of us could at least get a good night's sleep every other night. We also had my Mother come in and stay my first week back to work to keep him at night.
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge:
Honestly, it's extremely rare for babies to STTN by that point. I was VERY lucky that mine did, but I didn't do anything specific to get that to happen besides following her cues and seeing when she would begin her longest stretch of sleep and then establishing a bedtime routine around that. She has had roughly the same bedtime routine since she was like 4 weeks old.
I've heard good things about Happiest Baby, but I echo what everyone else is saying about Babywise.
And you are probably right...you will be a better mom and employee with more sleep, but the fact is that new babies tend to not sleep. You won't be the first parent to deal with sleep deprivation. We've all been there at some point.
Even if you get on a schedule know, you might want to anticipate a set back after you go back to work.
You baby's days are very predictable now that you are home with him but going back to work will be a major change. My baby took about a month until he really got in the groove with me being gone all day.
I agree. In fact 4 months is still too early.
You can start trying to teach good sleeping habits by establishing a routine and stuff but babies get hungry even at night and you might have to feed your baby.
http://balletandbabies.blogspot.com
If it ain't broke, don't fix it! That's about what my LO was doing when I went back to work. It was very manageable. He did regress at about 5 months, and after awhile we did end up doing the Ferber method.
I agree, I am all for schedules. I was addressing her original title that said "sleep training" and her goal of getting more sleep. My DD, as scheduled as she is, still loves to see me every 2.5 hours through the night if we let her. So in that case, schedule did not equal more sleep.