There's a saying I see over and over again in the baby sleep books that generally goes like this:
Early to bed, late to rise.
Meaning: the earlier you put your baby to bed, the later they will sleep- the thought being that if you put your kid to bed too late they'll be overtired and sleep more poorly.
For over a month now I've noticed that Eloise tends to start rubbing her eyes around 6:15-6:30, and wondered if a 6:30 bedtime was what she was needing.
The baby books are also quick to point out that:
If your baby is already rubbing her eyes you are TOO LATE! You need to put her down before the first sleepy signs begin.
So: we starting experimenting with putting Eloise to bed around 6:15-6:30.
And you know what? If you put your kid to bed at 6:30, then nurse her at midnight AND at 5am, she MIGHT just sleep until 6:45! OR... just as likely- decide to start her day around 5:45am.
Hence, I call bulls*** on the baby books.
This sleep training apparently goes both ways, and Eloise is now schooling us.
She's decided that yes, OK, she will go down easily at night and self soothe when placed in her crib. This looks like her immediately putting her thumb in her mouth (no more pacifiers in bed!) and rolling side to side over and over and over and over, essentially rocking herself to sleep. She also miraculously moves herself from one end of the crib to the other; I always lay her down with her head at the top of the crib, and by the end of her rolling, she is all the way at the foot of the crib with her feet against the slats.
So: that part is great and we now have a bona fide self-soother.
BUT: this self soother is pretty determined to eat TWO times/night, and won't hear of it any other way. As evidenced last night with a stand off at 4:45am which resulted in 45 minutes of crying until we finally caved and fed her (having also just fed her at 1am!).
Also? This kid goes to bed JUST FINE when super tired! We can intentionally keep her awake a good 30-60 minutes after the eye rubbing begins, and she'll still happily and quickly pass out for the night.
Hence no more 6:30 bedtimes, as those are hard for us schedule wise AND seem to be telling her little system that a 5:45- 6am wake-up is OK (and who can blame her? That's an almost 12 hour stretch!). I much prefer working toward a 7-7 or 7:30-7:30 sleep cycle, and will see what comes of that.
For now, this determined little lady has us trained to STILL FEED HER 2X/NIGHT, thank you very much. Not quite what I was going for with the sleep training, but alas, it is still MUCH better than what we had going on before said training began.
Stay tuned....
Early to bed, late to rise.
Meaning: the earlier you put your baby to bed, the later they will sleep- the thought being that if you put your kid to bed too late they'll be overtired and sleep more poorly.
For over a month now I've noticed that Eloise tends to start rubbing her eyes around 6:15-6:30, and wondered if a 6:30 bedtime was what she was needing.
The baby books are also quick to point out that:
If your baby is already rubbing her eyes you are TOO LATE! You need to put her down before the first sleepy signs begin.
So: we starting experimenting with putting Eloise to bed around 6:15-6:30.
And you know what? If you put your kid to bed at 6:30, then nurse her at midnight AND at 5am, she MIGHT just sleep until 6:45! OR... just as likely- decide to start her day around 5:45am.
Early morning coffee date after a 5:45am wakeup
Hence, I call bulls*** on the baby books.
This sleep training apparently goes both ways, and Eloise is now schooling us.
She's decided that yes, OK, she will go down easily at night and self soothe when placed in her crib. This looks like her immediately putting her thumb in her mouth (no more pacifiers in bed!) and rolling side to side over and over and over and over, essentially rocking herself to sleep. She also miraculously moves herself from one end of the crib to the other; I always lay her down with her head at the top of the crib, and by the end of her rolling, she is all the way at the foot of the crib with her feet against the slats.
Rocking to sleep
So: that part is great and we now have a bona fide self-soother.
BUT: this self soother is pretty determined to eat TWO times/night, and won't hear of it any other way. As evidenced last night with a stand off at 4:45am which resulted in 45 minutes of crying until we finally caved and fed her (having also just fed her at 1am!).
Also? This kid goes to bed JUST FINE when super tired! We can intentionally keep her awake a good 30-60 minutes after the eye rubbing begins, and she'll still happily and quickly pass out for the night.
Hence no more 6:30 bedtimes, as those are hard for us schedule wise AND seem to be telling her little system that a 5:45- 6am wake-up is OK (and who can blame her? That's an almost 12 hour stretch!). I much prefer working toward a 7-7 or 7:30-7:30 sleep cycle, and will see what comes of that.
For now, this determined little lady has us trained to STILL FEED HER 2X/NIGHT, thank you very much. Not quite what I was going for with the sleep training, but alas, it is still MUCH better than what we had going on before said training began.
Stay tuned....
You thought YOU called the shots?
Kudos to you for recognizing those books are BS! I followed them and babycenter sleep site religiously and obsessed over sleep. Huge regrets that I didn't enjoy the time more and stop obsessing. :-)
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