Friday, July 8, 2011

Sleep Scehdule.. Yawn!

Wow I am a slacker. Really need to POST.MORE.OFTEN!
Things here are going well. My main obsession with our little boy is.. *drumroll*... sleeping! I swear after almost 6 weeks of not having a full nights sleep, I am obsessed with him sleeping through the night. Now, I know he is only 5 1/2 weeks old, and I can't expect that he will sleep through just yet, I am super keen to get him into a routine so that the transition to sleeping through the night is easy and when he's ready he will just do it.
I have consulted a number of books and strategies to help with this.
Firstly, a friend lent us a book they swore by. It is called 'Baby Wise- Giving your Infant the Gift of Night Time Sleep' (more like giving the sleep deprived parent the gift of night time sleep!). I think it has a lot of really, really good points that I agree with. For example, having a routine and also highlighting the negative aspects of what he calls 'child centred parenting'. Main problem here is I don't think he really emphasises what to do when your little one cries and cries through the night, apart from just letting them 'cry it out'.

Next, my cousin recommended 'Save Our Sleep' by Tizzy Hall. Again, some good points, good routines etc, deals exactly with how to let your little one 'cry it out', but alas, the crying it out thing just doesn't seem to work for Hudson. Trust me, we have tried. Put him to bed, followed everything the book said to do. He wailed and wailed and wailed, didn't seem like we were getting anywhere. Honestly. So, gave the little guy his dummy (which Save Our Sleep does not recommend), straight away he calmed down, and about 10 minutes later he was asleep (which is when we would promptly go in and do the 'stealth dummy removal'). Trust me, we have tried every different soothing technique and the foolproof, works 99% of the time strategy for Hudson is his dummy! The poor little guy often needs it to soothe himself.
Ok, so the next thing we've consulted is 'The Happiest Baby on the Block' DVD. I think this one is great. Has some really good tecniques to calm your baby down. Great DVD (Hubby liked it too as he didn't have to read a book, could just watch the DVD!). And lastly, I have just ordered the 'Mom's on Call' book and DVD, so we'll see if this one has anything different to say!
So far Hudson's schedule goes like this:
7am- feed/ play/sleep
10-11amish- feed/play/sleep
1/2pm-ish- feed/play/sleep
4/5.30-ish feed/bathtime with Daddy, Put to bed in his bassinet for the night.
9-9.30pm- I wake him for a feed (still deciding if this is the best strategy- for me to wake him or just to let him wake on his own?)
He then sleeps until around 1am-2am, he wakes for a feed.
Then he sleeps until around 6.30-7am when he wakes for a feed.

I am hanging to get rid of the 2am feed, but I know that could take some time!

1 comment:

  1. Wow! So many books to read. I have absolutely no advice to give you except - hang in there!

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