When Bonnie was born, I remember at night time in hospital it was always everyone else's baby crying most of the time and she was a pretty good baby. She was slightly jaundice though, so was sleepier than usual. The first night that I stayed at home, I remember getting up in the night to feed her and just kept forgetting I'd put her back in her crib and waking up panicking thinking I had lost her in the bed! The next night, I put her down and went to sleep at about 10pm thinking that I would hear her if she needed a feed and wake up. Fast forward to 6am waking up in panic that I had not woken in the night. She had slept through. Thinking this was just a fluke, I was surprised when she continued to sleep through night after night, and it didn't stop. From birth, my baby slept through and just continued to do so. People are forever telling me that 'it won't last' or 'you wait until it all changes'. It all might change- they may be right. But for now I'm enjoying the fact that she's now almost 8 months old and is still sleeping through the night.
So let's start from the beginning. Bonnie didn't have a routine and would go down to sleep any time between 6-9. She would sleep in her pram (coachbuilt so a proper mattress) downstairs at that time. We would carry on making tea, watching T.V, we didn't whisper around her and she would just sleep through it. I believe now that that's the reason why she is good at sleeping through consistent background noise. At about 10pm Bonnie would wake up, so I would feed her and take her up to bed with us where I put her down in her next to me crib. She would then sleep until 6/6:30am. I then put her in our bed where I would feed her and then she would sleep again until about 7:30/8.
When Bonnie got to around 3 months old, she stopped waking at 10 so I would just give her a dream feed at that time. She may not have even needed it but you know what she was a good sleeper and I wasn't temping fate. I did eventually stop doing this when she was 5 and a half months and she slept as normal.
The only problem I found was getting her down in the first place. We would do bathtime/winding down at 6 and we would spend around 3 hours trying to get her down to sleep. Once she was down that was her for the night, but getting her down was the problem. It took hours of rubbing her head and tummy to get her off to sleep. The other problem was her napping in the day was non existent. Sometimes she would go a whole day with just a half an hour nap. I hated to complain about her not sleeping in the day because I knew she was so good at night but dealing with an over tired baby on top of colic and reflux- they were the toughest days. I tried a sleep routine- I saw when her tired times were in the day and tried to make her sleep at those times and failed at it massively. It wasn't until I had introduced formula and she had a loose feeding routine that I started to notice a pattern in her naps. She now naps at 9:30 and 2:30 every day but she didn't get like that until after 4 months. She did have a meltdown every single day before her 9:30 nap but now I sing to her while she just cuddles me and falls asleep on my chest then I put her in her cot. I bloody love our 9:30 cuddles now.
Bonnie was 5 months old when she went into her own room. The original plan was to put her in her own room when we got back from holiday when she was 6 and a half months old. My logic was that there was no point putting her in her own room, only to go on holiday where she'll be back in with us again- we thought it would be an easier transition. So when I got rid of the first size sleepyhead and the new one came and I realised it didn't fit in the next to me, or any crib in the house apart from the cot in her room- (it's massive!) I panicked. My husband didn't see the big deal- just put her in her own room it's not a problem- but I just felt that it had sprung upon me and I hadn't had time to mentally prepare for it. The first night, I fed her (I breastfeed her before bed) and she didn't fall asleep while being fed. I was fully prepared for a battle at bed time but I tried just putting her down in her bed and walking away. To my surprise a couple of minutes later she was asleep. No crying, nothing. She had self settled. That gigantic sleepyhead arriving was a blessing in disguise!
The following night, I went to do exactly the same as I had before. I walked out of her room and she started to cry. Because she had self settled the night before, I knew she could do it again, so I stayed outside her door and every time she cried, I went in her room, stroked her head until she settled, then walked back out again. I did this for about 5 minutes and she was asleep. It took about 2 weeks of this to get her settled into that routine- sometimes she would go straight down, sometimes it took me going in and out to comfort her, and a couple of times if she got really upset I just stayed beside her and stroked her head until she fell asleep. But after about 3 weeks, she was self settling every night at 7:30 on the dot. The fact that she was in her own room helped, and she obviously relates this to sleep. I had started putting her down for naps a couple of weeks before which may have helped. What else helped was making her bath time later- we moved it from 6 to 7 and it helped a lot. Now we start it at 6:30 and she is down for 7:15. She then sleeps until around 6, where I feed her and she then goes back down for another hour or so.
So what helped from the beginning? I would say 2 things-
1. Swaddling- Bonnie was swaddled as soon as she was out pretty much. For bed, we used something called a grosnug by the fro company- it made swaddling easy. The reason why I believe it helped with the sleep so much was the first night Bonnie was up through the night was the night was the only night she wasn't in her gro snug. It's really odd when you put them in at at first- it's almost like it's too tight but it is safe- we zipped her arms in but when she was reaching the 12lbs limit we unzipped the arm holes.
Another swaddling blanket we had was one by merino kids. Bonnie hated the car and wouldn't sleep- she'd just scream the whole journey. But we found that this swaddle blanket had holes for the car seat and so we used it for car journeys and it magically made her sleep.
2. The sleepyhead. Now this is tricky, because it may have paid no part in Bonnies ability to sleep through- the thing is we'll never know as we have never chanced her not sleeping in one. The good thing is she's slept while we've been away from home with her and it must be a bit like taking her own bed away with her. A little home comfort.
Anyway, I think that's everything I have learnt so far about Bonnie and her sleep.
Thank you, Bon. You have been an absolute bloody legend on the sleep front, I got to say.
That's my girl.
A.M.L
LaLa x
No comments:
Post a Comment