Sleep training - 12 hours straight!!
Dear Friends,
My daughter is nine months old now, and while we are all at home, trying to save the World from the pandemic, my husband and I decided to sleep train our daughter.
In this blog, I am going to share our experience and all the steps we followed to get here.
Let me tell you, it is a very difficult task, to sleep train your kids, and especially infants, but trust me, a good 12 hour sleep is a game changer for the baby.
The one thing that all Moms want is a fuss free night. I have read some blogs, with details of sleep training , and the most common trick all the mom's follow is to set a bed time routine.
May be bath and a story, or you can rock your baby to sleep, may be just play with your baby on the bed and let it fall asleep on its own, you just need to figure out what works best for you and your baby.
What worked for me?
Bed time- 8 PM - 8.30 PM
As soon as she starts rubbing her eyes, pulling her ears or yawning, I immediately pick her up and start to walk and sing her a song. When she is almost about to fall sleep and not in a deep sleep state, I place her in her crib, on her stomach. She has been sleeping on her stomach since she turned 2 months old. You can place your baby it it's most comfortable position.
At first, she would get up and start crying and I would try and soothe her again back to sleep, but since last week, we have decided to let her self soothe. She cried for about 3 minutes and fell back to sleep. We just couldn't believe that only 3 minutes of self soothing could actually replace another half hour of walking and singing.
Next Round- 10.30 PM -11 PM
She usually is up at this hour and demands some more soothing and carrying around, I would rock her or feed her, till she falls back to sleep.
But then my husband and I , teamed up together and decided to wait and watch, we had set a timer for 10 minutes and then planned to enter the room if she continues to cry even after the timer goes off.
It was a very difficult decision, as no parent can actually resist soothing their child, and who wants to see their infant cry. This time, she cried for about 1 minute and 15 seconds, before falling back to sleep , and we were amazed and I was literally jumping up and down in joy like I had won an Oscar.
Imagine, this was our first day of sleep training and we were actually preparing ourselves mentally for the worst night, but surprisingly it turned out be our best night in months, we haven't slept that long undisturbed in months.!!
Wake up time: 8 AM
She woke up the next morning at 8 am, and skipped all her other usual dream wake up times of 2 am , 4 am and 6 am.
We were thrilled that our little trick to let our baby sleep alone in her crib for the entire night worked wonders.
Pro tips:
Healthy habits and a healthy lifestyle is the best gift you can give to your future generations. So, make the best use of this lock down period and sleep train your infant.
You may not see the same result, but once you start to sleep train, do not try and soothe your baby, let it self soothe and be patient, it may take longer than expected , but if you interfere then your infant may get confused and cry for a longer duration than expected. We have been lucky she hardly cried at night, but I have also read articles on sleep training by other Mom bloggers and they started out, with their infant crying for 30 minutes to 45 minutes straight on the first night, and by day three, most of the infants are sleep trained.
From my experience, I will suggest you all to start sleep training immediately after 6 months, since your baby will be on semi solids and feed times would have drastically reduced, you will have a 12 hour sleep trained baby by day 3.
P.S
I am actually up at 6 am now, and it has been 3 days that I have even started my yoga routine in the morning, and I feel so much more at ease that my daughter is getting a good night sleep, which is extremely important for both physical and mental development.
Love you all,
Goodnight
My daughter is nine months old now, and while we are all at home, trying to save the World from the pandemic, my husband and I decided to sleep train our daughter.
In this blog, I am going to share our experience and all the steps we followed to get here.
Let me tell you, it is a very difficult task, to sleep train your kids, and especially infants, but trust me, a good 12 hour sleep is a game changer for the baby.
The one thing that all Moms want is a fuss free night. I have read some blogs, with details of sleep training , and the most common trick all the mom's follow is to set a bed time routine.
May be bath and a story, or you can rock your baby to sleep, may be just play with your baby on the bed and let it fall asleep on its own, you just need to figure out what works best for you and your baby.
What worked for me?
Bed time- 8 PM - 8.30 PM
As soon as she starts rubbing her eyes, pulling her ears or yawning, I immediately pick her up and start to walk and sing her a song. When she is almost about to fall sleep and not in a deep sleep state, I place her in her crib, on her stomach. She has been sleeping on her stomach since she turned 2 months old. You can place your baby it it's most comfortable position.
At first, she would get up and start crying and I would try and soothe her again back to sleep, but since last week, we have decided to let her self soothe. She cried for about 3 minutes and fell back to sleep. We just couldn't believe that only 3 minutes of self soothing could actually replace another half hour of walking and singing.
Next Round- 10.30 PM -11 PM
She usually is up at this hour and demands some more soothing and carrying around, I would rock her or feed her, till she falls back to sleep.
But then my husband and I , teamed up together and decided to wait and watch, we had set a timer for 10 minutes and then planned to enter the room if she continues to cry even after the timer goes off.
It was a very difficult decision, as no parent can actually resist soothing their child, and who wants to see their infant cry. This time, she cried for about 1 minute and 15 seconds, before falling back to sleep , and we were amazed and I was literally jumping up and down in joy like I had won an Oscar.
Imagine, this was our first day of sleep training and we were actually preparing ourselves mentally for the worst night, but surprisingly it turned out be our best night in months, we haven't slept that long undisturbed in months.!!
Wake up time: 8 AM
She woke up the next morning at 8 am, and skipped all her other usual dream wake up times of 2 am , 4 am and 6 am.
We were thrilled that our little trick to let our baby sleep alone in her crib for the entire night worked wonders.
Pro tips:
Healthy habits and a healthy lifestyle is the best gift you can give to your future generations. So, make the best use of this lock down period and sleep train your infant.
You may not see the same result, but once you start to sleep train, do not try and soothe your baby, let it self soothe and be patient, it may take longer than expected , but if you interfere then your infant may get confused and cry for a longer duration than expected. We have been lucky she hardly cried at night, but I have also read articles on sleep training by other Mom bloggers and they started out, with their infant crying for 30 minutes to 45 minutes straight on the first night, and by day three, most of the infants are sleep trained.
From my experience, I will suggest you all to start sleep training immediately after 6 months, since your baby will be on semi solids and feed times would have drastically reduced, you will have a 12 hour sleep trained baby by day 3.
P.S
I am actually up at 6 am now, and it has been 3 days that I have even started my yoga routine in the morning, and I feel so much more at ease that my daughter is getting a good night sleep, which is extremely important for both physical and mental development.
Love you all,
Goodnight
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