Babies & Overnight Sleep
To sleep train or not to sleep train?
When we first had Aria, we were told that we had to feed her every 2 hours, including at night, until she got back to her birth weight. Once we got there, we could go for 3 hour stretches at night and then continue with the feedings every 2 hours throughout the day (and just to note - that’s 2 hours from the START of the previous feeding). Aria would breastfeed for 30 minutes for a while. If I were to feed her at 2 pm and she would eat for 30 minutes, I would then have to feed her again at 4 pm. It felt like I was constantly feeding her. After a month, we were told that if she wants to sleep through the night, we could let her.
What I learned since then is that babies are creatures of habit.
It’s all about routine, routine, routine.
We’ve been rather fortunate with Aria’s sleep. She quickly learned that there was a nighttime routine, which put her in a “sleep mode”. We start with laying her down on the changing table and playing her special baby playlist (consisting of all the fun songs that we know she loves - a mix of “kids” music and adult songs that we love). We sing and dance around, as she kicks on the table and screams with delight. We undress her and pop her into the bathtub. The fun continues and we play with toys, continuing to sing along to her favorite songs. Then, we dress her in PJs and a sleep sack. We then bring her into a dark room with minimal light and feed her. Feeding is followed by burping. Next, I move to the rocking chair - I put in her pacifier and I rock her as we read a story or just a few pages. (I do want to note that reading the story is more recent - she had no patience to listen to a few pages before 5 months of age). Lastly, I turn on her sound machine and play white noise, and rock her to sleep.
Now I know people will come after me for rocking my daughter to sleep. However, she does go through sleep cycles on her own overnight (and during naps) without being rocked. It’s just our special moment together before a night’s sleep and at the end of the day, it works for us.
….To be honest, I don’t like the idea of formal sleep training. I know people swear by it to promote “independent sleep” but if I learned anything these past few months, it’s that we will figure everything out in time. As she is growing and developing, she is learning to sleep on her own without having to “cry it out”. Truthfully, I think I do my own version of it. If she wakes up overnight, I will gently pat her stomach and put a pacifier back in her mouth. I won’t pick her up unless she is really crying. Normally, she will calm down if I put my hand on her stomach so if she does cry out, I know she needs me.
I know every baby is different and every situation is different but this is working for us for now. If we feel the need to change anything, then we discuss and make small changes slowly. As she is growing, she is learning how to do everything naturally. We naturally have an inclination to sleep and I know that Aria is no different. She is learning slowly but surely, and for now, I’m going to enjoy my evening snuggles. She won’t want to snuggle with me forever!
