When I have babies they seem to me what a normal baby should be,
which is, waking every few hours to eat throughout the night, and not
sleeping 8 hours until they are around 4 months. Then you have friends
whose babies are sleeping at 8 weeks for 8-10 hours a night. Sickening.
Whenever I seem to ask people they say they read BabyWise. Now I never
read this book because AAP is against it and I have always felt that it
is totally fine to nurse them whenever.
With Bella, I
definitely did that, and would hold her whenever, never feeling like it
was spoiling her and I felt it never did. She was a great sleeper
sleeping 10-12 hours around 6 months and is still a great sleeper now.
With Gaines, I tried to be better and feeding him around every 3 hours
and doing the whole eat, awake, sleep, but it didn't seem to help him
sleep anywhere close to 8 hours at 8-10 weeks. It took him the same
amount of time as Bella to start sleeping long periods at night.
I
have always read the book Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, and it was
my bible for sleeping. I can totally relate to that book and I loved how
it was written, and it just made sense.
This time around, I wanted to read BabyWise and see what the magic is
that everyone talks about. So off to the library I went to check it out
to find out, whats the big secret? Because let me tell you, I would
love my baby sleeping 8 hours at 8 weeks!
Here is what I
got out of the book, and I would love feedback on if you did it, what
worked best for you, or you did nothing and just were born with an
awesome sleeper. Because my kids don't seem to be that way. I consider
mine "normal newborns" unfortunately :)
First of all, I couldn't stand reading
this book and thought it to be so pooorly written! I can't tell you how
many times I cringed and had to stop reading because I couldn't take it
anymore. I felt like the person who wrote it sat down, wrote out what
he felt, and never had it edited. There were wonderful lines like, "This
is fact." And then proceed to tell what they felt was fact when it
wasn't supported by any doctor or research. Or there was something I
totally laughed out loud when reading because it said something like,
You can injure your child by picking her up too much. I don't have the
book anymore bc I rented it, so I couldn't tell you the page, but gave
me a good laugh.
But I pushed through it to find out the big secret. Here's what I can remember:
- Get them on a 2 1/2 to 3 hour feeding, awake, sleeping schedule.
-
Try to stick to that schedule as much as possible, and if they are
sleeping when its time to feed again, wait another 30 minutes and if
they don't wake up, wake them to feed.
- You be the judge on if they really on hungry and need to be fed earlier if needed, but still try best to stick to schedule.
-
Put them down awake, never asleep so they can learn early how to fall
asleep on their own. (I seriously tried this with both my kids and
neither of mine ever went for it. I usually had to nurse them to sleep
or rock or something. And maybe that's my problem. I would even try just
patting their back but that never worked to get them to sleep unless I would have done it forever and we all know you don't have time for that with other kids.)
-
Don't run to them when they wake up or cry. (Going along with the last
bullet, here is my question to those who followed this book. So when you
put them down for nap awake and they start screaming, b/c I know my
would usually get to that point, would you just leave them? Are they
suggesting a subtle letting them cry it out from early on? I want
thoughts on this one! I have no problem with letting my kids cry it out,
that's I train them to be good sleepers, but later on. Never as a
newborn. So I want to know if this is part of the package)
- And
what seemed to be one of the biggest points I felt from this book along
with the 3 hours schedule, was making sure they get a full feeding.
Meaning, both sides dry, so they aren't feeling the need to snack later.
I am all for that. Bella was hard b/c she always fell asleep and
it seemed impossible to keep her awake. Gaines on the other hand,
rarely fell asleep nursing and was good at the whole - eat, awake,
sleep. Yet, he wasn't sleeping anywhere near 8 hours at 8 weeks either.
So
there you have it. Let me know if you read this book, your thoughts,
how you got a magic sleeper real early on because I would love to have
one of those. Maybe 3'rds the charm! In only 9 more weeks!!
10 comments:
Just start adding donuts to your diet once a week from now on. Then you will have a 10lb+ baby that will sleep 6-7 hours a night from the start. No waiting until 8 weeks:) Oh and maybe add some peanut butter m & m's to your diet too. I tried to let Kels cry it out as a newborn and it just made me feel like the worst mom ever. It did not work. I like Healthy Sleep Habits way better because they give you both options and explain everything. Plus I think I got lucky with the 10 pounder.
Well, my 10 pounder didn't really sleep through the night until he was 15 months old, so I guess I didn't get very lucky with that! I have the book because I found it at a yard sale for a quarter--but I haven't read it yet. I never liked cry it out before, but I have found that sometimes I have to and it will work (I know that you use this method). But I would never let my newborn cry it out. Let me know what you do--I may have to read the book I bought. :)
I have used this method with both of my kiddos and they have both been awesome sleepers sleeping 8 hours or so by 9 weeks. I use my own method of babywise. Meaning,I have taken bits and peices of what they have said and applied it but I never did the whole method exactly like it was written. For example, I can not let my little newborn cry it out but I felt like at 6 months old, they were old enough to cry it out and understand. It has worked for both of mine and I don't feel like any trusts has even been broken between us. I do like the feeding schedule idea but I am not super nazi about it. If they are 30 minutes "late" for a feeding, it's no big deal and we just adjust the schedule for the rest of the day. Oh and with Ellie, after I fed her in the middle of the night night, I would lay her back down in her bassinet to fall asleep on her own (after loving and cuddling her first) just so she could get the idea of night time is for sleeping, not for playing. She never cried and would eventually just fall back to sleep on her own. I would always lay my hand on her though so she would know I was there. I think it's important to take what you like from a book and apply it but nothing says you have to do it exact. Good luck!
I agree a lot with Ashleigh. I read the books and my sister in law follows babywise exactly. I just hate hearing a newborn cry. I think that by 5-6 months is when I started letting the twins finally cry it out and I really stuck with an exact time for naps and going to bed which has been THE "KEY" in my opinion. With my first baby I had no TIME/schedule and that really made naps and going to bed hard. I am now all about keeping to the same time!!! Good luck! It is always hard though and really each child is different.
I have always been good at sticking to the same nap times each day and bedtime and keeping them on schedule that way, but were yours sleeping through the night at 8-10 weeks, or just when you let them cry it out? I'm beginning to think this is a genetic thing of babies sleeping through the night early on. I guess we shall see with this next one, haha.
Good luck! ;) I just do what comes naturally. Each of my babies were different. I was much more chill the 3rd time around. I made myself alittle crazy trying to stick to a schedule with #3. But, I just couldn't stick to a newborn sleep schedule with 2 other kids. So I didn't and it worked out. No sleep for mommy is hard though. Especially when daddy is never around. I just had to remember that it's only a short period of time. A season, if you will. ;) I have to tell myself that I'm not going to get sleep tonight and I can do it. (I had to tell myself this pretty much everyday) If I expect sleep to happen and it doesn't, that's when I turn into "cranky" mommy. Anyhoo, it's going to be great!
I must agree with you on genetic. So my first didn't count because I didn't know what I was doing and finally read healthy sleep habits and had her cry it out at 9 months. On number 2 I was going to be so good. (except I was going to wait until 3 mo to cry it out). Well, I didn't have to wait, Shane always went to sleep on his own from day one. You just laid him down and he'd go to sleep on his own. Did that mean he slept 8 hours though? no, he didn't even give me longer than a three hour stretch until he was 3 months old and I was very good about feeding every three hours during the day and putting him down for naps. Number 3, did the same thing (although she was not good about going to sleep on her own as well so she'd get rocked/bouncer chair), but she started only getting up once during the night (so only once between 10:30 and 8am) easily by 6 weeks. Although, she did weigh about the same as Shane at birth, but has remained a smaller child (<30%) while Shane grew to >80%, so maybe he just needed to eat more? Anyway, just do what works for your sanity and to keep the child growing healthy and it will be FINE! You are a wonderful MOM!
I haven't read baby wise but like you Healthy sleep habits is my bible. I don't agree with letting a newborn cry it out. I always waited until four months. But like the book said I would never keep them up more than two hours and watch for signs of when they are tired. My first two were normal non-sleeping newborns but my third was amazing and slept 8 hours at 6 weeks and 10 hours at 8 weeks and I wasn't doing it anything differently then the first two. I think it depends on the child. Maybe you will get lucky with the third like I did! Good Luck!
I rocked Jordan to sleep and didn't let him cry it out. Big mistake for me. He still has trouble falling asleep in the beginning without a fan for noise. He slept through the night at 4 months. Kasey I put down awake and let him cry it out many nights. He has NO problems falling asleep and slept through the night at 3 months. I also had mine both on a schedule. In the beginning, I woke them both up during the day when it was feeding time when they were a few weeks old. I don't think many kids sleep at 8 weeks. I think it's more of the exception. There is a big difference for me though in laying them down awake. I can say that at my age, I can't imagine having an infant and getting up again all night. Ugh. Good luck.!!!
I tried my best with all three of my kids to do Baby Wise and here's what I believe: Some kids are just better sleeper from the get-go than others. My girls FINALLY slept through the night at about 6-7 months after I let them cry it out. Crew slept through the night at 3 months--totally on his own, I did nothing different. Baby Wise is okay, but it's not "magic" in my opinion.
Your dresser/bed looks fantastic! You are amazing to do that at 8 months pregnant! So sorry for your cold weather!
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