Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Learning to Deal

Nathan has been hard at work learning how to deal with a nighttime routine. Usually, once he gets to sleep he sleeps for anywhere from 5-8 hours...it's just getting him there. He generally falls asleep around 1:oo or 1:30 am. That's WAY too late for my non-teenage body.

We know that consistent routines are key and that infants crave a schedule. Even in the womb, they receive nourishment from mom in consistent, frequent increments of time.
(Man I love my major! All these little facts are so fun!)

We haven't really had a routine until now. It's been more like,
"HONEY! GRIPE WATER! He's gassy again!!"

Now that we're pretty much past the colic stage (fingers crossed), it was time to find a balance between the Ferber method and the family bed/co-sleeping method. I ended up loving a method called Touchpoints by T. Berry Brazelton. He seems to be very down-to-earth and is able to see both sides of the extreme when it comes to all things children, and comes out with a middle ground. I'd encourage you to read it if you haven't!
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH7vHOfEPPZVmDXNOffTp0g0cNFLUGqIB_KjCU-_HG0r2mp_npQ4OYGFuO78SlkbGJE2fpgyUs7QjNROeh8GMlQzSw6mM1IFFPfbbwszFO0MsZ65vpayLEcgGz3qrBGwAnK8N0mCTXUxR6/s400/touchpoints.jpg

So, here's the routine we've come up with:
1) Get into jammies
One day this will also include brushing his teeth...when he has a few!
2) Family Prayer/Scriptures
This lets us know that it's getting close to our bedtime, too!
3) Read 2 books
Our favorites are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear"--love those colors!--and "Goodnight Moon".
4) Turn on his lullaby cd and nurse--last night feeding
Even if he's not quite hungry, topping him off helps him sleep a lot longer.
5) Lay him down in his crib, give him his binky and his whoozit toy.
We love this toy and so does he. It's a round, plush toy with lots of fun textured shapes attached. It's firm and round enough to not block his breathing, yet heavy enough that he doesn't fling it out of his reach. He particularly likes to rub the yellow star shapes on his face :o)
http://var.putoys.net/whoozit-baby-activity-toy-ages-0-1-ea.jpg
This has probably been one of MY favorite baby toys as well!

We have springs that go on the bottom of the crib that help rock him to sleep if he jolts or moves around. Usually I stand there for a couple minutes and rock his crib, but soon I don't think we'll need it.

Oh, and with the binky thing, the majority of what i've read and heard says it's fine to let him have it, if he can keep it in his mouth. This little man keeps a death grip on his binky. He usually only lets it go in the morning and it's still warm when I pick it up in the morning, from being in his mouth! (Not to mention he has huge binky lines on his face...)

Tonight is night #2. We've already noticed how much easier this is on us, and he seems to do really well with it. We tried to do a simple routine that we can copy anywhere we are. We wanted to include baths, but we realize sometimes we might not have his bath cradle, or have time for a bath.

As far as the time table goes, his schedule now starts at 12:30. We'll do this for a couple nights and move it up to 12:00 for the next couple of nights, and so on/so forth until he sleeps at a decent hour!

Wish us luck! :o)

5 comments:

  1. Good Luck Alaina! I wished I would have read more books when I first became a mom. But I didnt want to do what everyone else was doing, that's my stubborn side. I could have easily done your routine and I wouldnt have had to wean my kids from MY BED!! That gets harder the more kids you have. I usually let my kids cry it out but when they share a room with older siblings who have to get up and go to school. And I refuse to get up and rock them. Oh well you live learn. You are awesome!!

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  2. Good job! It sounds like you've come up with something that will work great. I've learned that a lot of the bedtime "training" or other routines are not only for the kids, but for me! If I get myself trained, then it's a lot easier to train the baby. :) Keep up the good work.

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  3. you were probably smart to not include a bath... we start our routine with a bath and it always confuses him if he doesn't get his bath... he seems to think its a nap time rather than bedtime if theres no bath... lol

    good luck!! now I feel really lucky that Rocco's bedtime has naturally become 6:30/7!

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  4. Good luck with everything! I swear by having a bedtime routine. As soon as we started doing one, Blake started sleeping better and became SO consistent at eating and waking. It seriously was clock work every night he'd eat at the same time, fall asleep at the same time and wake up again at the same time (usually within only 30 min difference). I agree it's smart to leave a bath out. It works for some, but didn't work for us. Now we have a morning routine that includes a bath and he's more happy. So, kudos to you for trying a routine! And good luck getting him to bed earlier! That would be so hard to have his bed time so late.

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  5. We love your little baby! And I am sure glad you are going through this before me. So, you can give me all of your mothering advice!

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I'd love to hear from you! :o)