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Babies: 3 - 6 Months
Be my sleep expert--or recommend one!
Let me start this post by saying that I am extraordinarily lucky and have a nearly five month old baby that, for the most part, sleeps through the night. We typically start her bedtime routine about 8 and she is asleep by 8:30 and she wakes sometimes between 6:30 and 7:30. Again, I know that we are VERY lucky.
Our sleep issues are of a different sort. We HAVE to rock her to sleep at night and for every nap. At night, we give her a bottle and she practically passes out afterwards so this happens quickly, but during the day this can take upwards of 30 minutes. Then her naps have become really short, sometimes only 30-45 minutes, so it feels like you are spending just as long getting her to sleep as she does actually sleeping. If we just lay her down in the crib, she screams--a lot. The only times she has ever fallen asleep by herself is in a moving car.
If by chance she wakes up in the middle of the night, which happens maybe once a week or so, she is UP. By that I mean, she will not go back to sleep for about 2 hours and when I put her back in the crib she lays there and screams. I sit and rock her in the complete dark and silence trying to get her to sleep, siticking that paci in over and over, but I really need to find a better solution to this. Again I know how lucky I am that this is not every night, but still...
So thoughts??? What would you do? Have you transitioned your baby from a rock-to-sleeper to a puts-her-self-to-sleeper? How did you do it? Any books I need to read? Would love your advice!!! Thanks in advance!!
Erica
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Re: Be my sleep expert--or recommend one!
https://thebabysleepsite.com/
This helped us! The nice thing is she offers several methods of training so that you can pick what works for your family.
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This is where we were abou 1.5 momths ago. You want to start by rocking her until JUST before she falls asleep, then put her down. She will probably wake up and cry....let her fuss for abou 5 minutes or so (or whatever your comfort level) and then repeat. It will take a while, but she will eventually fall asleep. Once she has perfected that, rock her just until you can tell she is getting sleepy and put her down, and do the same as above (let her cry a bit, then start over). Eventually she will catch on and then you can just put her in crib awake at nap/bedtime and she should fall asleep on her own.
Routine will really help with this also so she mentally knows that "ok, we are getting ready for sleep". Your routine can be whatever you want, reading a book, singing, bath before bed, etc. But the point is to do something that will eventually trigger her to get into "sleepy mode".
I'd also recommend "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child".
Thank you--this is super helpful! I will definitely try this. I know it will take time and patience, but I want to do it. I have an aunt who rocked her 5 year old to sleep--I don't want to be like that! Not that I am anywhere near that, but I have that ingrained in my head!