The Sleep Issue

Our Sleeping Babies

As you have probably been reading, we have been having a few sleep issues here. Things are actually going quite well. Dylan is only feeding two times a night now, and is very easy to settle, if he wakes up between feedings. Jackson has been sleeping right through the night and waking at about 6 or even 6:30am!! We are planning on putting a digital clock in his room and setting a wake up time. We have set up a sleep and nap/quiet time, so now it's time to address those unpleasant early rises. I am shooting for 6:30am, however we may start at 6:15am. For now I am just going to be mindful of our bedtime routine, and the timing of it.

I am also making a record of Dylan's daytime sleep habits. Lately he's been having a two hour nap about two hours after he wakes up for the day. I'd like to preserve that, but try to cut down the late afternoon/evening nap. Ideally I'd like to have him on a three nap day routine, instead of a four or five nap routine. For a long time Dylan couldn't go more than an hour awake, before he was ready for a nap. Sometimes he still goes down with less than two hours of awake time, but rarely. In the later afternoon I am trying to stretch he awake time to three hours before we have him asleep for bedtime.

Right now he is having a bit of a hard time going down for his nap, as this morning he fell asleep on me when we were at the optometrist. That little snooze in the carrier, interrupted his morning two hour nap routine. I will now have to be mindful of his sleeping times as he seems to be putting himself on a bit of a schedule.

I learned so much about sleep (and what I did wrong) after started having major problems with Jackson. A book that I refer to is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It reads a bit like a text book, but is very informative. The book explains all about sleep patterns for all ages of babies and children, right up to teen years. The most in depth information s for 0 to 24 months, when sleep is critical. The nice thing about the book is that it doesn't tell you what sleep training method to use. It incorporates all sleep training schools of thought, so you can do what suits your family best.

This post stems from the problems that I have been having and a friends reference to a sleep trainer/nanny service. It's nice to know there are people out there reading my blog who care, and want to help out!

I remember when we were having our issues with Jack, we looked into a sleep trainer. I did a lot of research and talked to friends and family who had used a sleep trainer. The consensus of the sleep trainer was that the "cry it out" method was most often prescribed. There was also apparently a lot of pressure to have the baby sleep 12 hours in a row without waking at a very young age. We decided not to opt for the sleep trainer as we didn't agree with those two major points. There were some points of the sleep trainer that we did like, such as the consistancy of bedtime routine, and teaching baby to fall self-soothe. We just had to figure out a way to do those things that worked with our family.

It's so hard for new parents, or even seasoned parents. We are bombarded with information and advice from every direction. Following ones instincts when it comes to babies is virtually impossible. With Dylan I have tried to really follow my instincts and learn to read his cues. So far we're doing pretty well, and I have a feeling we'll be able to remain consistant with him and his sleeping routine. He is, afterall a superstar self soother!

And as far as little Jackson goes, well let's just say, we're still working on it!