I always had in mind that sleep training my baby boy will be a priority right at the 4 mos mark, but like many of the promises I told myself before giving birth some have to be change, postpone, or will never happened. For me Sleep training started right at the end of his 8th month, which I regret for two reasons, the older the baby the more aware he is so the harder it is ( I had a failed attempt at around 5mos so believe me it is harder) and second the lost of good night sleep without properly training.
I gathered all my thoughts into 10 tips to make it easy for anyone that wants to try to sleep train their baby.
- Don't ever forget is harder on the parents that it is on the baby, stay calm and focus on the goal.
- Create a night routine, and stick to it specially on the first 72 hrs, we finding ourselves moving around the routine time frame a bit not much, when we go on trips or special occasions.
- Start you night Routine (mine looks like this):
7:30pm - Last Bottle (separate feeding from sleeping, pediatrician advice), read a book while he drinks his bottle
7:45 - 8:00pm - Brush his teeth, bath
8:00pm - baby massage, change into his pj's, sing him a song, hug him say good night and put him on his crib.
He sleep between 10- 11 hrs straight, I wish he did more between 11- 12 hrs, like I hear other moms say, but I think what I’m getting is a win.
4. The first 24 hrs were rough but not as bad as I thought, he cry on and off for 25 min until he fell asleep, you are only to check him every 20 min ( use your mom instinct over anything, I wouldn’t recommend to start the training if the baby is sick or you are on a trip), he woke up that night three times for a period of 5-10 min each time until he woke up at 7:30am.
When you go check on him, don’t turn on the light, don’t talk, don’t make a bid deal, rub his head, lay him back down cover him for only 30 sec, walk away even if he keeps crying, wait another 20 min and come in again, I was so happy I only came in to the room once and he fell asleep, it is very hard to walk away, all your motherly instinct will kick in, and you will feel you need to protect your kid from whatever is making him upset.
5. The second night he barely cry for 10 min, and he fell asleep straight until 6:40 am, not crying at all through the night
6. 72 hr mark , he complained for 3 min, he fell asleep until 7:00 am.
7. Now, as soon as I am done with the massage and I sing him a song, he is already rubbing his eyes and moving asking to be off my arms which I take as him ask him to be put down, he doesn’t cry anymore, I see him through the monitor and he doesn’t fall asleep right away, he moves around for about 5min and that is it done for the night.
8. He does like his pacifier, which is a big no no when sleep training but he grabs and puts it on his own, so throw like 6 of them on the crib, and he crabs them as he pleases, which I have only seem him do maybe a couple of times.
9. We don’t put him down for naps after 4:30pm, his last nap can be before 4pm, any nap can not be more than 2hrs.
10. Overall, he has become a way better sleeper and Napper after the training, he has a long nap between 9am to 10am that last over 1hr less than 2, and another quick nap for 30min to 45 min after 2pm. (again keep in mind he is 8mos his sleep pattern is different than a 4mos).
Always consult with his/her Pediatrician, mine was very insistent to start as early as 4mos, always asking and respecting our decision she said, if you like to co sleep, or wake up and assist you baby, please do you, but her recommendation was always a baby that is sleep trained makes for a happier mom and dad, I couldn’t agree more, like every mile stone you baby reaches there a sense of pride and happiness and sleep training was huge for me, because this was more about us a parents than really the baby.
Good Luck on this journey, and feel free to comment or ask questions below, I’ll be happy to answer anything I didn’t cover here.
xoxo.
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