The Great Baby Sleep Thread

sweetyjenj · August 2018

You guys are all mentioning things I've forgotten about!

DD did take really short naps as a newborn, then they became about an hour long at some point..like a month or two? Then they could be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half around 1-3months, and would sleep about 3 times a day. At 3 months I went back to work and she napped at daycare. She set her own bedtime around 4-5 months and started sleeping through the night (12-13 hours) around 8 months

DD would NOT be swaddled with her arms down. Even in the hospital the nurses had to swaddle her with her arms up. I just used a normal halo swaddle with her arms up, but she DID startle awake, which was so frustrating. I found a way to lay her down after nursing and tuck the swaddle up over her elbows just enough to keep her from startling awake. As a FTM I would never have imagined that happened.

LCRbelle · August 2018

White noise machine here as well! Also have a nightlight that projects stars on the ceiling that stays on all night!

sfgiantsgamerbabe · August 2018

I totally forgot about white noise too! DS still has his white noise machine.

mandababy0326 · August 2018

I had two different experiences with my DD and DS. My daughter (my first) was a terrible sleeper from the beginning. She ended up having reflux (was on two medications for it) as well as colic. We had her sleeping in a bassinet which she hated on her back and then a cuddle cove type of thing from the pack and play which we set in her bassinet until she moved to her crib around 4 months old. She did not consistently sleep through the night until she was 12 months old. I read a lot of sleep training books with her and we did do cry it out briefly when she was around 6? Months old which helped a ton. My son on the other hand I started him in a rock and play from day one. I got him on an eat/play/sleep schedule as soon as possible. He went to bed at a consistent tim every night. We kept things light and noisier during th day and dark and quiet at night. He consistently started sleeping though the night at 5 weeks old (11-12 hours). I think a lot of it was obviously the different in temperament, colic etc but it also was my preparation and comfort level for sure. Unfortunately there is not much you can do with colic but everything else can be worked with. We’ve never had to sleep train him. My best advice is loose schedule as soon as possible, swaddle, white noise, and the books healthy sleep habits, happy child and the happiest baby on the block. Praying this baby will be much more like my second than my first in terms of sleep ❤️

emmaaa · August 2018

So I guess I'm opposite on the white noise machine. We chose to forego it because I didn't think it was realistic for DD to have white noise at any place she needed to sleep. The same with black out curtains. We just have sheer curtains in her room and it has never interfered with her naps. Again, all babies are different but I didn't want to add these things as a "sleep crutch" so to say.

Re swaddling: DD didn't seem to like her arms in at first because you basically had to pin them down to swaddle her, but as soon as I had her cocooned in there, she seemed to like it. The velcro swaddles didn't work as great when she was first born because she seemed so tiny and I couldn't get it tight enough but once she chunked up a little they were great. The hardest thing is taking the swaddle away once they can roll from back to belly so that they have their arms free to roll. DD rolled around 10 weeks or so and we went cold turkey from the swaddle at night and weaned her from it during the day because we could watch her naps (and the rolling was super sporadic). We would strap the velcro pieces under her arms around her core still and she liked that because it still gave her the snug feeling.

DD got a stuffed animal in the crib a little after a year old, a pillow around 15 months, and a blanket around 18 months. We had her in sleep sacks up until she got a blanket.

wkuandrea · August 2018

thanks @emmaaa I was just reading on the Happiest Baby about weaning from swaddling when they could roll over -- I had no idea! (FTM) It makes sense, though. Could you still swaddle with arms out at that point? Is it still helpful for their sleep, or is the Merlin suit more helpful as others have mentioned?

kmos816 · August 2018

wkuandrea said:

thanks @emmaaa I was just reading on the Happiest Baby about weaning from swaddling when they could roll over -- I had no idea! (FTM) It makes sense, though. Could you still swaddle with arms out at that point? Is it still helpful for their sleep, or is the Merlin suit more helpful as others have mentioned?

I forgot about the Merlin suit! We got that for DD and she seemed to like that better than swaddling. I can’t remember how long we used it for though.

sweetyjenj · August 2018

@wkuandrea we transitioned to sleep sacks instead of swadddles and she did great. We didn't even need a merlin suit. Each baby is different, though, and DD never really liked her arms being swaddled anyway, so that might have helped us out.

emmaaa · August 2018

wkuandrea said:

thanks @emmaaa I was just reading on the Happiest Baby about weaning from swaddling when they could roll over -- I had no idea! (FTM) It makes sense, though. Could you still swaddle with arms out at that point? Is it still helpful for their sleep, or is the Merlin suit more helpful as others have mentioned?

Yep, @wkuandrea that's exactly what we did! I think swaddling with arms out still helped her feel snug around her core. I know a lot of people who loved the Merlin suit or the Zippadee Zip as well. We chose not to do either of those simply because I knew we'd have to move out of them eventually too.

Luckily, they say the startle reflex starts to go away between 10-12 which is around the time some may start to roll over (some later some earlier).

saltedcaramel518 · August 2018

The Merlin suit is worth it just for the comedic relief.

nononorman · August 2018

@saltedcaramel518 agree

it depends on how strong the startle reflex is and for how long. We had a real issue with it so that’s why we needed the Merlin. I’d hold off on buying it until you know- I think it’s like $50 and you might need 2 (spit up, DD started needing overnight diapers then so we had a couple pee throughs).

wkuandrea · August 2018

haha I also saw somewhere one that looks like a starfish -- like a starfish shape and a hood and the whole nine! LOL. I'm also curious about the Nested Bean -- it's a weighted sleepsack. Sounds like something I would like, and baby is part me, so...

BitterBetty12 · August 2018

@wkuandrea we also continued to swaddle arms out once we hit the 8 week mark. I think it definitely helped her to feel snug around the middle still. Once she outgrew those we went to a sleep sack and she was fine with it!

kns1988 · August 2018

emmaaa said:

So I guess I'm opposite on the white noise machine. We chose to forego it because I didn't think it was realistic for DD to have white noise at any place she needed to sleep. The same with black out curtains. We just have sheer curtains in her room and it has never interfered with her naps. Again, all babies are different but I didn't want to add these things as a "sleep crutch" so to say.

We have the exact same opinion on white noise machines and black out curtains. We tried to train DS to sleep through a moderate level of noise and light, and he does great with it.

pttomato · August 2018

We didn’t start out with white noise or black out curtains. And then she got to a certain age and she needed them. I had lots of plans about things we would do from the beginning so she would be used to them and for some reason it only worked some of the time. For some stuff she would be totally fine with it until she wasn’t.

nononorman · August 2018

@wkuandrea we also had that and tried it. No success... it’s not very heavy in the middle and my babe had quite a startle but maybe it would work for yours?

pttomato · August 2018

Do you think earlier sleep training can prevent sensory issues? I remember Weissbluth’s book talking about the association between sleeping less and behavioral and mental health problems. My daughter was a terrible sleeper from the beginning and she’s sensory seeking now. We attempted to sleep train her without much luck at 8 months.

kmvisioli · August 2018

pttomato said:

We didn’t start out with white noise or black out curtains. And then she got to a certain age and she needed them. I had lots of plans about things we would do from the beginning so she would be used to them and for some reason it only worked some of the time. For some stuff she would be totally fine with it until she wasn’t.

Similar here- we did use a white noise machine, but didn't use blackout curtains until DS was in a toddler bed, at which point he had a harder time going to sleep unless it was obviously "night time". He asked to not have the white noise anymore when he was 2. He never had problems napping while we were out, if needed, because most public environments have a natural amount of white noise. The twins (almost 2) just got blackout curtains because we moved them into a bigger room, but there's a bright street light literally right outside the window.

We did "graduated extinction" sleep training with all three, I think around 9 months, but my memory is foggy as to the timing. Basically once we knew they were able to consistently sleep through, had tried more gentle approaches, but got desperate during a sleep regression, ha.

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