Once you get past that first month or so the sleeping situation does get better. It is still difficult to sleep, or anything else Marilyn may have been implying, but at least you are getting more of it in a less sporadic fashion. As the months progress the baby will start to fall into sleep patterns, both at night and during the day. Eventually you can begin sleep training your baby. The books say you should not attempt this before five months of age and really it might be necessary to wait a bit longer, given that a growth spurt hits around five months.
What is sleep training? For the laymen, like you and me, it essentially means starting to train the baby to sleep through the night, go to bed with out a bottle, be put to bed in a drowsy but awake state, or all of the above. Whatever issue you may be having with the sleeping habits of your child you will be working with them (training them) to adopt better habits. Now, hopefully, you have been instilling good habits from the beginning that will assist in making this process easier; a regular bed time routine, a regular bed time, a regular wake time, naps, comfortable sleeping area etc. Since I am not an expert on the many different methods I utilized the local library and borrowed a book on this subject. After sifting through the numerous suggested methods my husband and I settled on simply working with our son and the habits that he already had. This is TY journey to the land of Nod.
Around three months TY started sleeping through the night. I mean, he went down around 8 pm and did not get up again until around 8 the next morning. I thought I had won the jack pot. To think that he would be sleeping through the night from three months on was fabulous! Well, I thought wrong. This lasted a month or two and then he reverted back to waking a couple of times during the night wanting to eat again. At four months we were given permission from our doctor to start him on solids. Again, he started to sleep a bit better, but still awakened several times a night, which increased during growth spurts to every hour and a half.
I started working with him during nap times. I thought that, if I could get nap times down, it was just one more step to apply the same things to bed time. It was also easier to work with him during the day when I was awake and when no one else was home sleeping. First, if he awoke before his regular nap time was over and appeared grumpy (still sleepy) then I would not pick him up and would not change anything in the room. By this I mean that I did not turn off his "white noise", did not make conversation and did not turn on on any lights. Again, with it being day time, even with the curtains drawn there was still a little light in the room, which was easier than at night. I would simply gently pat his chest and say "shhhhhhh" if he was crying. I continued this until he fell back asleep.
Sounds easy, but it takes a lot of time, patience and consistency. I started giving him a limit (gradually extended) so that if he continued to cry without ceasing I would pick him up and revert back to regular snuggling to sleep. If, however, he showed signs of going to sleep such as not crying for a period of time, I would continue. Kind of like and IF statement - IF, THEN, ELSE, - if he does this, then I proceed in this way, otherwise (else) I do this. Gradually he started to get it and I could put him back to sleep within five minutes this way. Of course I needed to be keen to signs that he was hungry or needed changing as it is only right and fair to tend to these needs first.
As he got accustom to this we started to employ it at night and I moved on to another aspect during nap times. Through the same process I removed the swaddling as he needed it to go to sleep, but would wake himself during the night if he got out of it. I have also started training him to go to sleep on his own. The settling step helps a lot with this as it has already gotten him better at soothing himself. At nap time he now will stop playing and turn to me for cuddles. I pick him up and take him to his crib. Once I lay him down and give him his blanket (he is seven months now and blanket was also doctor approved) 8/10 times he will work to make himself comfortable and then go to sleep. I simply sit beside his crib, sometimes with my head down and eyes closed, so as not to engage him or make him think I want to play, and pat him a little if necessary. TY is adapting this at night time himself as I have heard him awake and put himself back to sleep. I can also put him down at night for bed this way. It has reduced the bedtime routine by about a half hour.
At present he still requires some white noise, we use a static radio station, to sleep. I think this will be one of the last things I remove as it takes no effort on anyone's part to have it in place. Gradually I may start lengthening the time between his last bottle and bed; probably just push it to before bath time instead. He still wakes at night, but usually only twice and because he is hungry and needs his diaper changed. Last night he only got up once. Overall I think he is doing well and will progress to an all night sleeper in the next couple months. Till then I will just have to keep my slippers by the bed and the night light in the hall.
Sweet Dreams!
FBM
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