It's finally happened. And I am so relieved. I am happier, have enough energy to get throug the day, and have a small reserve of patience again. That's righ folks, Mighty Mouse is finally sleeping through the night. But it wasn't an easy road and we worked HARD to train his sleeping patterns. There are some people who assume babies one night just decide to sleep all night long. But none of mine have ever done that without major effort from me. You have to teach them. Your baby will get the sleep they need no matter what. The goal is to give them that sleep when YOU are sleeping. And the key is baby steps. After six months kids totally GET the night time routine, so if you can work steadily to get it done before six months you'll have a great sleeper on your hands. I have three. So here's how I did it....
Even as a newborn, when it's night time, the baby is in his cradle. If he woke up, we fed him and put him right back to bed. No talking, or playing. Cold hearted? Maybe. But this is boot camp people! Of course there were nights where he fought sleep and eventually we gave in and let him slept in the swing, but we did not wake up just because he decided to wake up. Even if we had to put the damn nuk in tweleve times. Which totally happened... every night.
Once he realized night time is for sleeping, we let him fuss for a few minutes beofore giving him the nuk. While hard on us, it gave Mighty Mouse a chance to self sooth. If you do not offer this opportunity, your baby will ALWAYS need help falling asleep. That's cool for some Mom's but not for me. Because I have three kids and need a friggen break. And wine.
We moved him out of our room. Obvious? Not for everyone. And yes he does sleep better when he isn't woken up by my pea sized bladder, snoring, our other kids stealthily army crawling into our bed, and early alarm clocks. Weird huh?
Finally we decided it was time to give up the nuk at sleepy time. We did this when we knew he could fall asleep without it, and wouldn't you know it, he did. And now when it's time for bed, we feed him, change him, kiss him, zip up the sleep sack and if he cries he cries... but he falls asleep in under ten minutes. And I don't have to rock him for an hour, nurse him to sleep or walk in twelve times to replace the nuk. So if your goal is to have a good sleeper, take a tip from me and work on it every night. Because in a few months you will have a well trained sleeper and some time to relax. Now where is my wine?
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