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We had yet another great sleeping night last night. Lucy sleeps through the night like a dream. I still need to work on our bedtime routine, but as of right now our routine is as follows:
- We head upstairs at around 8:30-9:00.
- Lucy gets changed and put into a onsie.
- We spread out one of her million of small blankets out on our bed (I'm OCD about her laying on clean things, and since our cats jump up on our bed I always put her on a blanket).
- We play for about 15 minutes.
- Lucy gets swaddled anywhere from 9:00-9:30. We LOVE the Swaddle ME and had three in newborn sizes and currently are using two that we have in the larger sizes, one fleece and one cotton. If you don't have any, buy some! Lifesavers!
- Once she's in the swaddle me with her paci in she usually doesn't fuss at all (although she fights the swaddle me tooth and nail when we go to put her in it). After she's in she'll snuggle up to me and fall asleep within minutes, but amazingly I don't have to rock her or hold her, she just likes to be close.
- Rob and I are then free to watch whatever we want on TV or chat while she sleeps.
- At around 10:30-11:00 pm I feed her once more. This is so funny because I never have to wake her up, she always sleep eats!
- She gets put into her crib after the feeding and usually sleeps until we wake her up to eat around 6:00-6:30 am (I'm STILL always engorged in the mornings, or I would let her sleep longer).
- Sometimes she is awake when I go in to get her in the morning, but she's never fussy. Usually we find her just smiling up at her bird mobile while attempting to free her arms from the swaddle me. Last week Rob went in to get her she had freed an arm AND a leg! Houdini baby!
Why do I feel the need to change this routine? I feel like I should put her in her crib right after I swaddle her, so she gets used to sleeping without us right there next to her. Right? But darn it, she always looks so damn sweet and peaceful and since I'm usually at work every day I pretty much want to be near her as much as possible, even if she is sleeping. How silly am I? On the other hand Rob and I do need some...er... private time so maybe tonight I will pop her straight in her crib. All I know is, she is amazing at this sleeping through the night thing, and we feel so lucky. Thanks Lucy-Goosey!
What's your baby's sleeping routine? Any tricks of the trade I'm totally missing out on?
"Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never are."
-Louisa May Alcott
12 comments:
The experts do say that you should put the baby in the crib when they are just falling asleep (Sleepy yet still awake) if that makes since. When a baby falls asleep with you or being rocked and then wakes up in the middle of the night they want to be put back to sleep however they were put to sleep. I hope that makes since. Personally my little one falls asleep anywhere and everywhere adn sometimes he sleeps through the night and sometimes he don't! He is almost 2
My routine is around 8ish I take a bath with her, she loves this. Then I massage her all up with the lights dimmed in her room and either a baby soother playing or her humidifier is on. I let her wiggle and be free for a few minutes naked then I put a diaper on her and jammies. J comes in and reads her her Bible story and we talk while he holds her. Then I usually turn off the lights and sit in the rocker and nurse her then when she's done (even if she's not asleep) I put her in her crib (I don't swaddle, she hates it!) with her paci and the baby soother is playing, kiss her, and walk out the door. She's out in like a couple of minutes for the night.
I would say when you start her on solids, you can drop the late night feeding first (if you are worried about being engorged just pump), then work to getting her to drop the early am feeding and letting her sleep longer if that's what you would like. It's harder to get them to sleep longer in the morning then to put them in bed earlier at night. You could try an earlier night time schedule too if you desire!
I wouldn't worry about changing your routine yet. My (VERY) personal opinion is that until at least 6 mos, baby should feel safe and secure at all costs. Our pediatrician strongly recommended that we allow our child to Cry It Out. While I am certainly NOT trying to cause a CIO method debate here, lets just say that I completely ignored his advice and eventually my little boy started sleeping through the night (8:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. with NO wake up) at around 8-9 months. I do consider myself lucky!
To me, it sounds like Lucy feels safe and secure, and you are SO lucky that she sleeps such a long stretch at this age. If you want to read our sleep story, visit my blog. If you want to read some serious blogging about babies and sleep patterns, check out the Parenting Baby to Sleep blog.
Congratulations on parenthood--Lucy is A-DOR-A-BLE!
First off you could get up in the middle of the night and pump so you are not so engorged...I would pump after each of Zachary's feedings...He would go down at night and wake every few hours...I breastfeed him till he stopped and that was 9 months old...he wanted it cold from the fridge but i continued to pump and store the breast milk...he keep getting breastmilk till he was 12 months old...though my body quit producing breastmilk about 10 1/2-11 months I had a ton in the freezer for him till he was 12 months old!...but now that he is 19 months old he gets a bath at 8:30 and is asleep by 9:15 and will sleep till 7:30-8am. Love it!
Oh I have been reading your blog forever and love how cute your family is! Congrats on everything and Happy 1st Mother's Day tomorrow!
~Jenn from NC
I would hate be the one with the "bad" news, but when Miss Amelia started wiggling free, the swaddle period was gone. Soon she'll wake up 1/2 out of it and won't want it anymore. I hated not being able to swaddle her, but she then found "freedom" in the crib and slept better because of it.
I wasn't fortunate enough to be able to breastfeed, but when Amelia was younger we would bath, do a lotion massage, feed with the lights off in the rocker and straight to the crib.She also has to sleep with music on, I think a left over of her NICU stay when she was born...the noise)tho I agree with what Teacheroftwos said about putting them to bed still a little awake. It teaches them to "self sooth" and put themselves to sleep, not always having to rely on you rocking them or feeding them. It may sound rough, I work as well and want to spend every moment I can in the evening with Amelia, but trust me for when she gets older.
Amelia is almost 18 months now and just weened herself both off of the bottle, and any type of sippy cup for both nap and bed. I'm shocked! We get into our jammies, brush our teeth (wait until you can brush her teeth!!), read a book then lights out. She then points to her bed, we put her down and she's out.
Does Lucy have any "comfort" things she sleeps with? Amelia was given a "My Blankee" by someone as a gift before she was born and she's slept with it ever since the swaddling stopped. It's minky, and the story stitched on it instructed us, being the parents, to sleep with it one night and then let her have it. (our scent I guess?) She sleeps with that every night and I think that helps put her down. Not only does she know it's bedtime because it's her nightnight blanket, but it's comforting. Maybe try something to this effect for Lucy so she still feels like you're next to her with your "scent", when you're not physically. Sorry this turned out so long! All babies are different and run on their own schedules, you're doing wonderful. :)
Your routine sounds good. We didn't get on a good routine till my sons was around 4-5 months old. This is our routine now at 9 months:
When we get home from work/babysitter around 6 I feed him either a meal or veggies(baby food of course)
At 6:30 we go upstairs and give him his bath(he gets a bath every other day)
At 7 we go in the loft and play for a little bit and then I nurse him one last time before bed.
At about 7:30 we put him in bed awake(at first he would cry for about 5 minutes or so, now he goes right to sleep, we would let him CIO to a certain extent, no longer than 10 minutes).
He wakes up between 6:30-7.
Because he sleeps through the night and his last feeding is at 7ish I am totally engorged when I wake up. The first thing I do is pump and then get in the shower. This is the milk that I give to the babysitter so I really don't have to get into my freezer supply.
It works for us which is good, but it might not work for others.
I was going to ask a question! I have been reading your blog for awhile now and I remember you saying that you had not told your mom or any family what you and your husband went through to get pregnant. Did you ever tell them? Just wondering! Happy 1st Mother's Day!
Do you go to the Beaverton Farmer's Market? I usually go to PSU, but have recently moved to Beaverton and heard that one is really great. Didn't get a chance to go to opening yesterday, but hopefully can make it out next week. I am also anxious to hear about your eco transformations as I have seemed to really make a lot of changes too. DH always says he didn't realize I was so hippie inside. :)
1) i'm jealous you're got to go to the market, i can't wait to go!!
2) I gave you an award. check it out.
Sounds like you have a good routine down for bedtime. Here's ours (starts around 7pm and fast asleep by 8pm)...
- Bubble bath followed by massage with baby lotion sprawled out on nursery floor on a big towel.
- get into pjs, turn on some soft tunes, dim the lights in the nursery, last feeding.
-While my daughter finished eating we each read her a story.
- Quick brush teeth as soon as she's done eating and pop her into her crib while still awake.
Usually she will coo/fuss for maybe 5 minutes and then she's out like a light! We've done this since 8 weeks and she's now 10 months and always sleeps through the night. It has worked well even when we are traveling or staying away from home. Don't know if this helps you with any ideas to get more private time at night.Good luck with your Lucy adventures!
Bath, bottle (boob in my case), bed. The bath is actually pretty calming and could replace your play time. I go in her room, turn off the lights and give her boob. Sing her "baby mine" and then bed. She's been sleeping through the night since she was 8 weeks old. Oh, and my dd hates being swaddled so that is not part of it. She sleeps in just a onesie, spread eagle. :)
I'm the mom of a 10 month old who also began sleeping thru the night very early - schedules are important!
I agree w/ the poster who said once the baby begins wiggling free the swaddle no longer serves a purpose. Also, regarding sleeping in the crib - once your baby begins to nod off, put her in there - she needs to get used to it; esp. if she has a night awakening - would you get scared if you fell asleep one place & woke up in another?
As for CIO; I had a 15 minute rule - if my daughter cried longer then that I'd go back in her room to soothe. Sometimes she still wakes up in the middle of the night but now she has some stuffed animals in her crib & her musical crib toy to keep herself amused & fall back asleep. If she's hysterical crying (only happened a few times) that's when I make an appearance.
Regarding the "dream" (asleep) feeding; its not recommended by a lot of medical professionals so I hope you've let your pedi know about it.
anyway, that's all!
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