Baby sleep whisperer

... I am not. From day 7 of Yasmin being in this world, putting her down to nap became my Everest. I tried everything. Rocking, singing, lullaby, walking around with her in my arms. The girl would only sleep post nursing and in my arms. Which meant very tired arms for me during the first 2 months of her life. In month 3, she started getting used to sleeping on the bed. But, getting her calm enough to fall asleep was now the issue. She refused to just let the sleepiness overcome her, constantly fighting and crying until she just fell asleep from exhaustion. Then she'll be awake in 30 minutes. Gaaaah!

Surprisingly though, she was ok with sleeping at night. Once she fell asleep that is. Her bedtime is normally around 7pm. She'll sleep until 11pm, wake up for a feed, then straight back to sleep. She'll wake up around 1am for a feed, 3am for another feed then awake at 7am for the morning. So it wasn't too bad. 

Naps however wasn't getting any easier. So I did my research, googled the heck out of' 'how to put a fussy baby to sleep' and came up with a solution: ROUTINE. Being a creature of routine myself, I was very happy to try this approach. 

So, the idea is to watch for sleepy cues, set up a routine pre-sleep and to stick to it. Yasmin's sleepy cues were rubbing her eyes and staring blankly at something. I started a pre-nap routine of nurse, story, lullaby, lie down on bed, turn on white noise, sleep tight. At first, it would take me about 20 minutes before she finally dozes off. A week later, by the third time the lullaby had been on loop (her lullaby of choice is Little Snowflake by Super Simple Learning), she is ready to crash. She stays asleep for 45mins to 1.5 hours, depending on the time of a day. She likes to take a longer nap in the morning.

Once we got naps settled, I started sleep training her as well. The thought of having to go to work without a good night's sleep spurred me on. Full respect for all mums out there who have to go back to work when their babies are only 2 or 3 months old.

Anyways, the idea with sleep training is to slowly stop her from waking up at night for a feed. Now that she is on solids and nursing every 3 hours during the day, she should be able to go through the night without feeding. The first few days were hard. I tried everything to soothe her when she woke up in the middle of the night. Happy to say, it was worth it. She goes to bed at 8pm, wakes up at 11pm for a feed , 3am for another feed, then awake at 7am for the day. I know she should probably drop that 3am feed too but she wakes up just for a feed then straight to sleep so it's not too much hassle for me. She'll learn to drop that feed soon enough (I hope!)

I'm just relieved that she can now fall asleep on her own. No more endless rocking and consoling for me! And all this without her pacifier as well. Big girl already!