Share your successful bedtime and nap routines...

MiamiMergers

...that don't include nursing to sleep.  I guess I shouldn't have started doing that to begin with, but my DD used to be such a good sleeper that I wasn't worried about it.  I have now reached the point where it is so frustrating to be the only one who can put her to sleep, especially on the nights when I have to put her to bed three and four times.  I am looking to do some light sleep training to change her nursing to sleep association.  Thanks in advance!

etude de la vie

consistency is key!!! It typically takes up to 2 week of the exact same order for it to become a habit. 

For my kids I sleep trained without CIO (not against it but it just didn't work because they had reflux and CIO made it worse) so I sleep trained with sound association.

With DD I got her to associate the sea horse with sleeping. Every night after her bath I would nurse (when she wasn't dead-tired yet) with the sea horse playing. Then I would lay her down and play it again (it lasts about 5 min). If she cried I let her fuss/cry for the 5 min then I would pick her up, turn on the seahorse, and rock her for 5, then lay her back down and play it again. After a while she associated that music to going to sleep and she would get drowsy as soon as she heard the music turn on. After a while a could just lay her in the crib turn on the sea horse and she would just roll onto her stomach and fall asleep.

DS does the same but he has ocean waves white noise made by same company as sleep sheep and it has an option to play for 5 min or 45 min which is nice because DD is loud and it helps cover her noise. I give him a bottle in the glider and then into the crib he goes.  

It did take a while to work but it worked great for both kids 

JaneBeam

Our routine is super easy.  I start by reading here cues.  If she's rubbing her eyes or throwing her arms around in exhaustion, we start bed time as early as 7pm.  The routine starts when we get home at night, around 6pm.  I turn on some music and we eat a solids meal.  Then she sits in her high chair and watches me clean up the kitchen/make dinner for DH and I.  Then we play on the floor with her toys until bed time.

I prepare for bedtime by making a bottle and putting it in her room and then filling the bath.  Bedtime starts with a bath every other night (so her skin doesn't dry out too much).  I probably wash her hair every other bath.  We talk, laugh, sing, and play in the tub.  Then we go to her bedroom and once we're in the bedroom, she doesn't leave until morning.  I dry her off with the towel and put some lotion on her belly and legs and arms.  Then a clean diaper, then clean PJs.  Then I brush the 3 pieces of hair on her head and we say goodnight to the light.  (I carry her over to the light and flip it out while the night light stays on and we say "goodnight light") and then I grab the bottle and sit in a chair in her room and feed her.  She takes a bottle.  Every now and then, she will fall asleep but I will wake her up.  Then she burps and then we read a story.  Then she goes in the crib and I turn on the seahorse and it's I love you and goodnight.  I turn off the night light and close the door.

She talks to herself and plays with the seahorse for 2-3 min and then she's usually asleep.

Maybe if the habit is nursing to sleep you could do something like eat and then put on PJ's and read a story.

EVA116

Well this is sometimes successful...it always works to get her to sleep but her sleeping through the night only happens sometimes.

7:30 bath time

7:45 we read three books and then sing our ABCs

8:00 I rock her and sing old McDonald for a couple of animals and then she goes in her crib. Sometimes she is slightly awake and other times she has fallen asleep.

 

Gatorney

After dinner/dishes, either give bath or change right into jammies (bath every other night).  I nurse her, and she may or may not doze off.  I hold her for a little bit, then DH holds her for a little bit (even if she is sleeping) and when we know she is good and out, we lay her down.  She is still in the PNP in our room (our room is downstairs, hers is upstairs, she still occasionally loses paci, and we are going out of town next week, so will move her after that).  I know it breaks pretty much every rule, but she STTN (except for paci loses), and because we are only home a couple hours before she falls asleep between 7 and 7:30, it's really the only way we get to hold her for a little bit between dinner, feeding her, and cleaning up.

Jacqui105

Bath everysinglenight. Then turn on the music on her rainforest crib soother. This is the only time we play it, at sleep time. We put a small teddy bear with her that she only has for sleeping. Never for playtime. Then we read the same one book each night. So pick a book you can stand and we use key words "its sleepy time" which we repeat a few times and anytime she fusses. I am a cheater because I nurse to sleep after story time, but only for bed. The routine works at naps and anytime I cannot nurse her to sleep though. She recognizes the story and smiles after she hears the first few lines, she totally knows whats going on. Good luck!

graciaann

I was nursing to sleep my 6 month old but realized it needed to change if I was ever going to be away from her. 

She had been going to bed at like 7-8pm so that my husband could see her before he got home from work. But she was waking so many times (2-3 times) throughout the night that I decided maybe we should make some changes.

I changed her bedtime to 530-630 pm. To my surprise, she slept until 6am the next morning - no waking. She then took a nap at 9-10 and 1-3. Back to bed at 6pm, and the days have just fallen into place like clockwork it just amazes me. I must not have been getting her to bed early enough and it was affecting her ability to get a good nights sleep?

 It took about 3-4 days to put her down awake before the tears died down. Now, it takes her around 3-4 minutes of crying to get herself to sleep. I really recommend it - go in another room and fold laundry, make some food, anything to distract yourself and you may be surprised how quickly she/he is able to self soothe. The routine is always the same - I think my daughter now sees it coming -- a good night book, turning the fan on together, singing her the same song at nap and bedtime, and patting her back before she goes into the crib. Try a routine that works for you and stick to it religiously. I think infants are comforted by "knowing what's next", if that makes any sense? 

 Good luck!