Hi Love! Now that we are in full swing of 2021, and I hope you have been able to find peace, joy and happiness in anything you come across to help your own mental space this year. For my mental space this week, I found new places in my home that brought me peace to work from, and in the evenings binged Virgin River on Netflix. I will definitely share my favorite Netflix binge shows over the last few months very soon!
Now for the good stuff: My most commonly asked question as a Mom, Tips For Getting Baby To Sleep Through The Night! Every mom’s goal. I promise, ask every tired momma. With Brantley, my first, things were so overwhelming. One thing I didn’t really know that is the key to every baby, is the TRY IT ALL idea. Basically when whatever you’re doing isn’t working for baby you go one by one down the TRY IT ALL list until something works. Brantley had some digestion issues that once we got figured out I could really work on his sleeping that was much needed for all of our sanity. 13 months after he was born baby sister JP (Judith Penny) made her grand entrance and I implemented that same routine straight out of the womb with her as well. I did however keep that TRY IT ALL list close by because well, they’re individuals and may not like/need the same things! Remembering they’re in fact little people with opinions/likes/dislikes even at 1 day old helps to truly bring things into perspective when attempting to TRY IT ALL.
For the first month with Brantley things were a huge struggle in regards to sleeping and eating. I found our groove by taking notes from all the mom’s I knew, young and old. I then read/looked into Taking Care Babies, Happiest Baby, ect. It’s a lot of information and I didn’t feel like I fell in anywhere specific so I took a little from here and there and made my own, but very similar to many methods out there. Basically what I found to be true for both of my babies is that if their formula/breast milk intake during the day was at least the minimum total amount they were said to intake in 24 hours at their age, then simply put The Babies Slept, and so did Mom! I followed the every 3 hours eating “rule”, and took the minimum average amount of ounces their pediatrician said they needed to intake in 24 hours for their age, split that into how many bottles they took during the day (6-7 bottles) and that’s how many ounces I would give them. I did push them to finish each bottle and would burp very frequently and let them take as long as they needed to finish it. However, with Brantley I let him eat whenever he wanted all day (5 ounces here, 2 ounces there, 7 ounce, ect.) as long as before bath he hit that total number. JP needed more structure. If they ever acted like they wanted more I did happily give them more. This let me then know they ate their needed ounces or more during the day, which meant that when they woke at night they weren’t hungry and actually were in need of tips to learn to self soothe back to sleep.
Once on their own bottle routine I then focused on their following their lead on nap schedules. Brantley easily fell into scheduled two naps a day until around 9 months old, which transitioned into only 1 nap. JP however needed a bit more structure to fall into a nap routine. Her groove was not 2 naps a day, just 1 long nap. Again, following their lead makes giant difference in everyone’s happiness. Both babies are rested and happy. Different strokes for different folks!
Now for the evening, when it’s time for bedtime in our house, we refer to it as the “Triple B Routine”- Bath, Bottle, Bed. I feel this really, really sets the stage for baby learning to understand it is “night time”. Which to baby means those long stretches of sleep Mom and Dad want me to get, and eventually just take one really long stretch of sleep through the entire night. Since routine and structure is something children of all ages thrive on, I was not willing to budge on Triple B being moved in schedule. We plan around naps/Triple B Routine. Both of the kids have thanked us happily with sleep for it! Best tips for getting baby to sleep through the night I found.
1st B:Bath’s- We found they are calming for our babies. We also use Aveeno’s calming comfort bath for the lavender calming scent to help get baby in that night time mindset. Then it’s warm pj’s (carter’s cotton footed pajamas) and to 2nd B: A delicious bottle and off to 3rd B: BED
We are full believers in sound machines. Hatch Baby is the best by far we have found, and our babies both relish white noise sound to sleep with. I turn the lights off and sound machine on direct after pj’s. Then sit down in the glider, feed them while rocking them to all the night time soothing things. I would then especially as infants would burp them well after the bottle while rocking, and then rock them to sleep. I found that fully rocking them to sleep and placing them to bed, that as they got older (two weeks makes a big difference as an infant) they would move around more when I was rocking them to sleep and took that as they wanted to get theirselves comfortable and would lay them down more awake every week until I was laying them down fully awake to self soothe to sleep. Here again, is a follow their lead thing that I have found very successful. Once Triple B Routine was successful with Brantley, I knew it was something I was starting with JP even in the hospital!
Also, a few other things that each of our babies and I needed to have at night from newborn age to aid in tips for getting baby to sleep through the night-
Mom: My only need besides sleep for baby was the Owlet sleep sock for night time so that when they were sleeping I could too!
Brantley: He loved to sleep in the dockatot, even the largest one they made until we recently move him to his big boy bed. Now he just sleeps with a ton of pillow. He also had to have a soft blanket to hold while sleep to help soothe him.
JP: She had to be swaddles until 9 months. We used Halo’s sleep sack swaddle as they kept her hands down the best. She would whale her hands and arms around on her face and wake herself up constantly. Then with time I followed her lead with giving her room to move her hands/arms around and eventually she moved to a sleeveless sleep sack, then completely out of sleep sack. She also loves her soft blanket to sleep with as well.
I hope you have found this insightful for getting your baby to sleep through the night. Basically we are their guide to understanding sleep and what nighttime is meant for. If you have any specific questions on anything, I’d love to help answer them! Feel free to leave me a comment below or reach out to me on Instagram and this fellow momma who loves sleep will be happy to help you and your baby get there too! P.S. I’m NO expert, these are just my tips for getting baby to sleep through the night.
** Please note: I’m not a medical professional and all things in regards to your baby should be ran by a professional. These are things that worked for me and our babies. Every babies’s needs are different so the TRY IT ALL idea is still one I use daily since the kids are constantly growing and changing in their needs.**
