Whoever coined the term "sleeping like a baby", never met Jacob.
Sure, we had a short honeymoon period at the beginning where he slept a lot. Anytime. Anywhere. We even had a few weeks at the beginning where he was only waking up once at night to eat. Then we hit the 3 week growth spurt... Jacob went from eating for 30 minutes every 3 hours, to eating for AN HOUR every 2 hours! That growth spurt completely messed up his night sleep too.
Beginning about a month ago, we started a nightly bedtime routine. The Four B's- Bath, Book, Boob, Bed. We played around with our start time to find that perfect time before Jacob became too tired (ie. really grumpy and fussy). Around 5:30 pm we start the bath, then read a book or two, then I feed him, and it is off to dreamland (hopefully). He wakes up again sometime between 10 and 11 for a feeding. Unfortunately, he has gotten into the bad habit of waking up again between 1:00 and 2:00 am, but will only eat for about 6 minutes. I have tried to just get him back to sleep without feeding him, but I think he smells me and can't get over the thought that he is hungry. This week, Matthew and I have devised a battle plan. Everything I have read says it takes 4 nights for something to become habit. So, from about 12-3 am, Matthew is on baby duty. If Jacob wakes up, he goes in to sooth him back to sleep. After 3, Matthew goes to bed, and it is my turn. I usually end up feeding him about 3:30, and then hopefully he goes back to sleep again until our 'wake-up time' of 7:00 am. We have done this the past two nights, and so far, Matthew ends up soothing Jacob on and off for almost the entire 3 hours! On the flip side, I am getting more uninterrupted sleep than I have in almost 10 weeks! Great for me, not so great for Matthew. Hopefully, getting him to learn to sleep from the 10:00 pm feeding until 3:30 am, will help us all in the long run.
Then, there is nap time. And I always hear the other little gem of advice "sleep when the baby sleeps." Ha!
Nap time used to be a huge struggle. And if you follow Babywise there should be a nap in every 'eat, wake, sleep' cycle. I felt like my entire day was spent fighting him at nap time. I did a ton of research on tips and tricks to get a baby to nap. And, I have tried everything under the sun to get him to sleep. Finally, I have found some things that work for us. For bedtime, we have the Four B's. At nap time, it is the Five S's: Swaddle, Square, Shush, Shield, and Sheep.
Swaddle- Most swaddles, Jacob will bust out of in mere seconds. However, a friend of my mom's made a special swaddle blanket for me as a baby gift. This one ties in the front, so there is no way for him to get out. He is getting a little big for it, but it works great because I can leave his legs free at the bottom. (Thanks Joan!)
Square- We use GumDrop pacifiers. They are made by the same people who make those big round blue ones (Soothies). Supposedly, they help with nipple confusion. They are all we have every used, so I don't know how big of a difference they actually make. Anyway, they also sell these things called 'cuddle squares'. It is this 4 1/2 inch square piece of soft material that attaches to the pacifier. It came in a pack I ordered, and I am so glad it did! When trying to calm him down or sooth him to sleep, all we have to do is put that square up against his cheek, and it is magical!
Shush- This one, I usually don't even have to do anymore. But at first, I would put my hand firmly on his chest and make the shush, shush, shush noise. If he was really worked up, I would pat his chest and shush.
Shield- This one I read about on some message board, and it works like a charm. I noticed that he would intently stare at either his plaid bumper or the lovely (insert sarcastic tone here) geometric wallpaper boarder that is in his room, when I was trying to get him to sleep. I just place my hand to shield his eyes so he can't see anything, and within seconds his eyes are closed. The first time I tried it, I thought he would pitch a hissy fit, but he didn't. I do feel like my son is part parrot every time I do it though.
Sleep Sheep- This is a great white noise maker that has 4 sounds- heartbeat, ocean waves, rain, and whale. My personal favorite is the ocean waves.
When I first started a consistent nap routine, it involved about 30 minutes of me trying to rock/sway/sooth him to sleep (15 of which usually involved him screaming his head off!). Now, I swaddle him, give him a kiss on the cheek, place him in the crib, and about 5 minutes later he is asleep. No crying! It still astounds me every time he falls asleep without fighting me. There is a popular book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Although it doesn't give a lot of helpful information for babies under 12 weeks, (except to basically tell you to do whatever it takes to get them to sleep so they don't become overtired) it had a helpful quote that I have come to believe is so true. It says that with a consistent nap routine, babies will come to "expect and accept" sleep. Definitely seems to be the case for Jacob.
Our biggest challenge now is to get him to stay asleep. 30 minutes seems to be his limit for naps. Although according to that book, this is normal. His sleep will begin to consolidate around 12 weeks into fewer, longer naps. I can't wait! By the time I make sure he is truly asleep, lie down myself, and am able to fall asleep- his 30 minutes are up. I hear tales about these hour and half - two hour naps babies and toddlers take, and it sounds like Heaven! I have tried getting him back to sleep after the first 30 minutes, but apparently that power nap is enough to give him energy to really fight sleep, and me! I also would really love to work on how he wakes up. He usually wakes up really mad (I think because he should be sleeping longer). If I am in the room and start to hear him stirring, I can be poised and ready above his crib for when he firsts opens his eyes. Then I can sometimes get him to wake up happy. But good grief, I am not going to hang out in his room every nap! (Although, that is exactly what I am doing right now, but hey, at least I am multitasking)
I know this post will probably be really boring to anyone who doesn't have an infant. But, this is my life right now, so there isn't much else to blog about! Plus, I am really proud about the progress we have made in his sleep routines. Although, I want to make it perfectly clear- I am NOT bragging about him being a good sleeper. Because last time I wrote in a post about him only waking up once at night to eat, I think I jinxed myself.
