I promised myself that I would start blogging again in January, and now, it’s already February. Please don’t hold that against me; I’m not that great with setting goals and sticking with them.
Disappointed with myself for not doing what I said, (but more disappointed on the fact that I’m not serious with my goals) I decided to just open up a word document and just go with it.
So, babies.
What about babies?
I don’t know… should we talk about their sleep habits? Yea, lets.
So, sleep is the most important thing to me. All I need is some space to lie down; maybe have a blanket and I will sleep in 3-2-1. And if I have a pillow, I’m out in 30 seconds. When I was pregnant with A, (that’s my son) I was like a cat; every chance I got, I was snoozing away. I would sleep my regular 9 hours, (because I’m still a teen at heart) take another 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon, and sleep for 9 hours again at night. If you could stock up on sleep, oooohhh.
Anyway, you could probably imagine by now all the things I had to go through to teach A to sleep though the night. I read article after article and recorded everything they suggested. I probably have everything down to a science now. Aside from when he is sick, he’s become a really good sleeper. Here are some of the tricks that have worked for me that you might like to try as well.
- Have a fun and active evening – this is one of the things that I do to make my son tired enough to sleep longer. It helps for daytime naps as well as nights.
- A warm bath – When A was around 3 months old, I started giving him a warm bath every night. I used soap only once or twice a week because babies are clean and don’t need to be washed that often, and they don’t need soap to wash out all the moisture out of their bodies. So just a soak in warm water for 10-15 mins was enough to relax him.
- A little bit of massage and exercise – As I applied olive oil after the bath, I gently massaged and exercised his legs and arms as part of his nightly routine.
- Full bottle of milk and a clean diaper – I don’t bathe him daily anymore, but “diaper change” times are still a consistent routine. I wait until he’s about halfway through his bottle before I dim the lights and start changing his pajamas. Because once I dim the lights, he will start to get sleepy and won’t finish his bottle. I make sure he has a new pair of diapers and he’s done with his bottle before I put him to bed.
- Good night kisses – I’m sure this has also become something he looks forward to before he sleeps. He gets good night kisses from daddy, waves “bye bye”, and blows kisses to us before I put him in his crib. He then rolls over to his side and fake-snores until he’s out.
- Consistency – I can’t stress this enough. As long as everything stays consistent every day, he will sleep right through most of the time.
We have problems with sleep when he’s sick because we bring him into our bed; that’s not something he’s used to. If we do that for 3 days in a row, we will have about a week or so of crying before sleep. But I stay consistent enough for him to know that nothing will change and get back to his normal routine.
What kinds of tricks have you used to have your babies sleep through the night?
Sukersays 