Sleep Rituals

stacee55j · May 2012

LO has been sleepingbthroughbthe night since about a week prior to turning 3 months. The last 2 nights he has woken in the night. Our sleep ritual is bath, naked/story time, nurse and sleep. If he isn't asleep from nursing I rock him to sleep. I know this is the wrong thing to do and need to do and that he needs to be broken of this now that he's approaching 4 months. What are you LO's sleep rituals? Also, what about nap time? Recently he won't nap anywhere but on a walk in the stroller!

sweetky_06 · May 2012

I have the same ritual for night time and naps, minus the bath for naps.

Read book

Say good bye to the sun and draw the blinds

Turn on the sound machine (I call it the "sleep machine")

Swaddle (one arm out now)

Hold, walk around room, pat back and sing same 2 songs over and over (if you choose to do this, make sure to pick 2 songs you can stand to sing over and over and that you know by heart so you don't need to think too much)

Try to catch him when he's drowsy and put him down - I'm successful 50% of the time - the rest of the time, he's completely asleep

My goal is to slowly remove pieces - like to stop walking around the room and just sing to him and pat his tummy in the crib, then to stop the patting, then make the singing part of the ritual but not as part of the "I'm getting you drowsy", etc.

SmittyPants · May 2012

Maybe I'm just a clueless FTM, but why should you not rock your baby to sleep? It's one of my most favorite things to do.

As for our nightime routine, she gets a bath, lotion, a bottle, and then lullabies while being cuddled on the rocking chair. She's asleep when I put her down in her crib.

sweetky_06 · May 2012

SmittyPants:
Maybe I'm just a clueless FTM, but why should you not rock your baby to sleep? It's one of my most favorite things to do.
As for our nightime routine, she gets a bath, lotion, a bottle, and then lullabies while being cuddled on the rocking chair. She's asleep when I put her down in her crib.

It's perfectly ok to rock your baby to sleep until it's not OK with you anymore. It does form a sleep association with your baby that they won't sleep unless you rock them, and at some point you will need to break it, but there is no right or wrong time to do it.

For us as a family, we didn't want the rocking to sleep or nursing to sleep to continue past the newborn stage, but it's a completely personal decision. Dr. Sears encourages it for as long as you want to do it.

stacee55j · May 2012

They say you aren't supposed to because when they wake from a sleep cycle they won't be able to put themselves back to sleep and will cry for you to do it. Plus they wake up startled to find out they aren't still asleep in your arms. I mean you can take it for what it's worth of course but that's what my books and pedi have said so I'm trying to figure out how that's going to start happening.

stacee55j · May 2012

Thanks for the advice! Our night routines sound similar but I need to do a better job of catching him awake before he goes down. He also nurses forever because he is using it to get to sleep and I'm not sure what to do about that. Maybe I should try and alternate with a bottle? It would be nice if at some point someone beside myself could put him to bed if need be. I need to start trying a ritual with nap time as well. We run around quite a bit during the day.

SmittyPants · May 2012

Ah, gotcha. Good points, but I'll likely stick with it. She'll only be little for so long. As to needing to be rocked to get back to sleep, she's been sleeping from 8 to 6 for a bit over a month now... We're terribly spoiled. I'm sure that will change once she starts teething.

sweetky_06 · May 2012

sweetky_06:
I have the same ritual for night time and naps, minus the bath for naps.
Read book
Say good bye to the sun and draw the blinds
Turn on the sound machine (I call it the "sleep machine")
Swaddle (one arm out now)
Hold, walk around room, pat back and sing same 2 songs over and over (if you choose to do this, make sure to pick 2 songs you can stand to sing over and over and that you know by heart so you don't need to think too much)
Try to catch him when he's drowsy and put him down - I'm successful 50% of the time - the rest of the time, he's completely asleep
My goal is to slowly remove pieces - like to stop walking around the room and just sing to him and pat his tummy in the crib, then to stop the patting, then make the singing part of the ritual but not as part of the "I'm getting you drowsy", etc.

Also - I wanted to point out that we purposefully do not include nursing/feeding as part of the "to bed" ritual.

Brit's Luna154 · May 2012

We do a bottle and rice cereal, a bath, swaddle, then as much of a second bottle as she wants. When she loses interest in the second bottle, I put her in her crib awake and offer a pacifier. She does not always take the pacifier. Usually she goes to sleep on her own, without crying within a few minutes. Occassionally, if she seems like she is going to get fussy, I will go back in her room and re-offer or replace the pacifier. She almost always goes right to sleep after that.

For naps, I make sure that she has a clean diaper and isn't hungry, then I swaddle her, put her in her crib, and offer the pacifier. Pretty much the same deal as for bedtime.

ETA: At bedtime, she will usually go to sleep for 6-12 hours. For naps, usually 1-2 hours. I think she has finally become a sleeper. I feel like I earned it after the months I spent with her being awake for more hours of the night than she was asleep.

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