So many of my friends are now new mom, new parents, some of soon to be mom and, Every time when I met them, they just so amazed about Parthʼs sleep schedule. I get so many compliments that i am so lucky he sleeps throughout the night since six months and so on. But wait, itʼs not about luck. Itʼs all about sleep training. So I am here to share my experience.
What is Sleep Training:
Firstly, in my life I never heard word ‘sleep trainingʼ. I am also a new mom But when I start reading then I realized itʼs important. I collect so many information from books, social sites, internet. Also, Thereʼre many groups On social site that supports sleep training and answers to your queries.
Some people thinks itʼs not good for babyʼs health. But I donʼt want to go into debate. Your child receive plenty of love during the day, and they see you every morning. So that is fine. Some people says they will learn eventually, if they wake up middle of night itʼs ok. I saw many kids in my family that donʼt have any schedule, they go to bed whenever they want like 12 am , 1am. Some of them are a 4 years old and still wakeup middle of night 2,3 time. But yes I will choose sleep.
Honestly, as a mom I feel sleep is most important for mom as well as babies. Mom needs sleep to recover, to have strength, patient, to have energy throughout day. I seriously never seen any negative impact on Parth. He is happiest baby.
What I believe is Sleep is a natural skill like crawling and walking. And though it is a natural skill, we help them to learn how to crawl, how to walk just like that we need to let them learn how to sleep by there own. Many power struggles over sleeping can be avoided if you help your child learn to fall asleep by himself as early in his life as possible.
Sleep training is all about to learn how to sleep by own. One of the most helpful strategies is to put him in his crib just before he fall asleep. And come out of the room. If they wake up middle of the night they have to know how to self-soothing. Babyʼs sleep patterns change very often in the first year of there age because they go through different development stages. It is called sleep regression. We hit every sleep regression like 8 month, 10 month and recently 14 months also. But it lasted only for 2 days.
Our Sleep Training Experience:
I feel proud somewhere when it comes to sharing our sleep training experience. Most babies spend more time asleep than awake during the first few months of their lives. And Parth was exactly like that. His sleep schedule was pretty awesome. He only wakes up 2 times at night for nursing at 10 pm, at around 2 am. After nursing, he immediately went back to sleep. But, at 4 months we hit by his first sleep regression. Suddenly he started waking up frequently at night. Every hour, sometimes every half an hour. And yes with fussiness and crankiness.
At Parthʼs five months pediatric visit, his doctor suggests us to encourage Parth to sleep throughout the night. His pediatrician said that Parthʼs weight is perfectly healthy to drop a night feeding. I was little nervous to drop his night time feeding at his five months of age. But somewhere in my head, I knew that it is a time to do something because I was completely in a zombie state. I started collecting information regarding sleep training.
Since I am a first-time mother sleep training decision was quite difficult for me. There are different methods in sleep training like Ferber, excision etc. what I do actually is, I put him down in his crib when he is awake but drowsy and never let him cry for more than 5 minutes. After 5 minutes I go to the room and check on him, soothe him but never pick him up. And stay there for a minute. But I never pick him up because if you pick them up, it will become a habit. Every time they want you to come and pick them up. Babies probably will cry for three to five nights until they accept that you know what is best for them and that you are going to stick to your resolve with confidence. And yes I was very strict, disciplined and confident about his schedule. They fill your confidence from your energy and from your body language. And when you are confident, it will be easier for you to be kind and firm.
Establish a bedtime routine is the most important part in sleep training. For example, bath, toothbrushing, and bedtime stories. Right now, he is on one nap schedule. I will discuss two nap schedule first. His routine is dinner ( I started solids at 5 months of age once in a day) before 2 hours to bed then milk, Bath and lotion with bedtime poems. On more important thing is no nap before 3 hours to bedtime. So that he can stretch his night sleep. We started at the age of 5 months. So I dream feed him before I go to bed for around one month. Once you create a schedule stick to it. Consistency creates a feeling of safety and reassurance the ideal atmosphere for a restful nightʼs sleep. It took 4 days for us.
At 1st night he struggled for 10 mins. He stretched his sleep till 3 am. At 3am he wakes up and cried for 4, 5 mins. And went back to sleep.
2nd night it took almost 25 to 30 mins. That time I went to his room every 5 min to comfort him and came back. I did it 4 to 5 times at that night. But he slept throughout the night.
3rd night he struggled for 10 mins. Again wake up at 4 am. But immediately went back to sleep.
A 4th night he goes to sleep within 4 to 5 mins. By this time he learns how to self soothe, And wake up around 5.30am to 6 am.
I believe, with time and practice, you will learn what works best for your child like, darkness vs night-lights, music vs silence, warm rooms vs cool rooms. Believe me, if you follow a pattern, it usually takes three to five days.
At initial days, 6 months to 8 months his schedule was
From 9 month he dropped one nap and shifted to 2 nap schedule
Current one nap schedule (18 months)
I found out one chart on the internet that shows babyʼs wake time gap. That helps me a lot to form his schedule. And once you form a schedule then stick to it for at least one to two weeks. No weekend plans, no social life, nothing for two weeks. It is sometimes difficult but trusts me this is for you and your babyʼs long-term sleep. Because sleep is most important for babies at an early age for their mental and physical development. While reading one of sleep training book I came through beautiful lines which encouraged me, “children do not know what is best for them. The baby bird does not enjoy being pushed out of the nest, but the mother bird knows it is essential.” Hope you can discover a sleep pattern that works for you and your child.
What is Sleep Training:
Firstly, in my life I never heard word ‘sleep trainingʼ. I am also a new mom But when I start reading then I realized itʼs important. I collect so many information from books, social sites, internet. Also, Thereʼre many groups On social site that supports sleep training and answers to your queries.
Some people thinks itʼs not good for babyʼs health. But I donʼt want to go into debate. Your child receive plenty of love during the day, and they see you every morning. So that is fine. Some people says they will learn eventually, if they wake up middle of night itʼs ok. I saw many kids in my family that donʼt have any schedule, they go to bed whenever they want like 12 am , 1am. Some of them are a 4 years old and still wakeup middle of night 2,3 time. But yes I will choose sleep.
Honestly, as a mom I feel sleep is most important for mom as well as babies. Mom needs sleep to recover, to have strength, patient, to have energy throughout day. I seriously never seen any negative impact on Parth. He is happiest baby.
What I believe is Sleep is a natural skill like crawling and walking. And though it is a natural skill, we help them to learn how to crawl, how to walk just like that we need to let them learn how to sleep by there own. Many power struggles over sleeping can be avoided if you help your child learn to fall asleep by himself as early in his life as possible.
Sleep training is all about to learn how to sleep by own. One of the most helpful strategies is to put him in his crib just before he fall asleep. And come out of the room. If they wake up middle of the night they have to know how to self-soothing. Babyʼs sleep patterns change very often in the first year of there age because they go through different development stages. It is called sleep regression. We hit every sleep regression like 8 month, 10 month and recently 14 months also. But it lasted only for 2 days.
I feel proud somewhere when it comes to sharing our sleep training experience. Most babies spend more time asleep than awake during the first few months of their lives. And Parth was exactly like that. His sleep schedule was pretty awesome. He only wakes up 2 times at night for nursing at 10 pm, at around 2 am. After nursing, he immediately went back to sleep. But, at 4 months we hit by his first sleep regression. Suddenly he started waking up frequently at night. Every hour, sometimes every half an hour. And yes with fussiness and crankiness.
At Parthʼs five months pediatric visit, his doctor suggests us to encourage Parth to sleep throughout the night. His pediatrician said that Parthʼs weight is perfectly healthy to drop a night feeding. I was little nervous to drop his night time feeding at his five months of age. But somewhere in my head, I knew that it is a time to do something because I was completely in a zombie state. I started collecting information regarding sleep training.
Since I am a first-time mother sleep training decision was quite difficult for me. There are different methods in sleep training like Ferber, excision etc. what I do actually is, I put him down in his crib when he is awake but drowsy and never let him cry for more than 5 minutes. After 5 minutes I go to the room and check on him, soothe him but never pick him up. And stay there for a minute. But I never pick him up because if you pick them up, it will become a habit. Every time they want you to come and pick them up. Babies probably will cry for three to five nights until they accept that you know what is best for them and that you are going to stick to your resolve with confidence. And yes I was very strict, disciplined and confident about his schedule. They fill your confidence from your energy and from your body language. And when you are confident, it will be easier for you to be kind and firm.
Establish a bedtime routine is the most important part in sleep training. For example, bath, toothbrushing, and bedtime stories. Right now, he is on one nap schedule. I will discuss two nap schedule first. His routine is dinner ( I started solids at 5 months of age once in a day) before 2 hours to bed then milk, Bath and lotion with bedtime poems. On more important thing is no nap before 3 hours to bedtime. So that he can stretch his night sleep. We started at the age of 5 months. So I dream feed him before I go to bed for around one month. Once you create a schedule stick to it. Consistency creates a feeling of safety and reassurance the ideal atmosphere for a restful nightʼs sleep. It took 4 days for us.
At 1st night he struggled for 10 mins. He stretched his sleep till 3 am. At 3am he wakes up and cried for 4, 5 mins. And went back to sleep.
2nd night it took almost 25 to 30 mins. That time I went to his room every 5 min to comfort him and came back. I did it 4 to 5 times at that night. But he slept throughout the night.
3rd night he struggled for 10 mins. Again wake up at 4 am. But immediately went back to sleep.
A 4th night he goes to sleep within 4 to 5 mins. By this time he learns how to self soothe, And wake up around 5.30am to 6 am.
I believe, with time and practice, you will learn what works best for your child like, darkness vs night-lights, music vs silence, warm rooms vs cool rooms. Believe me, if you follow a pattern, it usually takes three to five days.
At initial days, 6 months to 8 months his schedule was
From 9 month he dropped one nap and shifted to 2 nap schedule
Current one nap schedule (18 months)
I found out one chart on the internet that shows babyʼs wake time gap. That helps me a lot to form his schedule. And once you form a schedule then stick to it for at least one to two weeks. No weekend plans, no social life, nothing for two weeks. It is sometimes difficult but trusts me this is for you and your babyʼs long-term sleep. Because sleep is most important for babies at an early age for their mental and physical development. While reading one of sleep training book I came through beautiful lines which encouraged me, “children do not know what is best for them. The baby bird does not enjoy being pushed out of the nest, but the mother bird knows it is essential.” Hope you can discover a sleep pattern that works for you and your child.
