How I got my baby to sleep!

How I got my baby to sleep!

This is the million dollar question!

I started this post with one idea in mind, but since it has taken me over 2 weeks to finish it, I am changing the content and starting all over. The idea is the same, but what I wrote before was no longer relevant. Unfortunately, a baby not sleeping during the day or night, does not help to keep up with things as good as one would like to!

Any way, back to the topic. I/we have been struggling for a month with the baby not sleeping. For about 3 weeks was total nightmare, no naps during the day, very difficult to get him to sleep and during the night, no more 4-6 hours stretches of sleep, instead 2 up to 3 hours, but also every hour waking up.

Two weeks ago I started trying toys to concentrate him on falling asleep. It worked a couple of times, he will fall asleep without crying after listening to the toy for some minutes, but the nap would not last more than 45minutes. Then, this stopped working again. As I mentioned in the post before, I tried some of the sleep training things I read about. But, you know how it is, not all that you read on the internet you should do. Specially when it comes to baby sleep training. It is a VERY IMPORTANT factor to mention, that the baby should be at least 6 months old in order to start with this sleep training, specially in the cases of letting the baby cry.

In any case, I abandoned all sort of training stuff and focused on the well being of my baby and paying even closer attention to his needs and cues. Let me tell you, sometimes it does not matter how much you pay attention, you either still miss it, or its just a phase you definitely have to go through and things will settle on its own.

So, what worked for me during the day, was to help him fall asleep for the naps, there was some crying -not a lot-, but he will fall asleep after some walking around the room. Then, I found an incredible thing/tip, babies fall asleep when having a cloth over their eyes. I tried that before reading about it and by coincidence, we were at the store and he was super tired but not falling asleep. I was wearing him, but at some point I put my jacket over him and he closed his eyes in a second. So, I thought I should try that at home as well, and yes my baby fell asleep. After, I decided to look for information about this, because I was concerned that maybe that was not something good to do to the baby, but to my surprise, it was one of the tips to help them sleep.

At around 4 months, babies are taking in so many things from the world around them, developing their brain at a faster speed, that it is hard for them to just shut down and fall asleep. Reason why, this tip, together with laying them in bed before they are completely asleep, or letting them fall asleep in your arms while still (not rocking), etc. Which none of these tips work for me by the way, but the cloth over his eyes works. Of course, important to mention, when he is tired and is ready for a nap, otherwise, he fights it. This is important to pay attention to, so the baby gets his sleep when he needs it.

In any case, my baby turned 4 months now, and things are beginning to settle. I am not saying he is sleeping through the night or anything close to that, but we have established a better routine. Slowly, but steady. He wakes up at different times between 7-9am and for one and a half hours is happiness, then comes the whining and rubbing eyes, sometimes even crying and then I know its time for a nap.

During the day he eats every 3 hours approximately. So, I breastfeed him at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm when its his time to go to bed for the night.
Between these times, he plays and takes his nap. He is not taking any long naps, like before, of 2 hours. His naps go from 45min to one hour, but he is following this routing pretty much to the point. Only trouble now, is that he naps most of the time in my arms, which is not ideal, but this is helping him to get the rest he needs during the day, to have a better sleep through the night.

Speaking of sleeping at night, last night, we had again a good night sleep. I put him down to bed at 7.30pm, had some issues and woke up half an hour later, but went back to sleep until 11.30pm, I fed him and he slept until shortly before 4am, one additional feeding and back to bed until 7am.

Most likely is still no time to celebrate that everything is going to get better, but we sure are in a good path for it.

I cannot tell you that things with babies are easy, and that after reading articles and blogs from other parents, you will master your own child. But, I can tell you to be patient, ask for support from your family and anyone willing to help; and things will improve, unfortunately it can be months of the same, but it can also surprise you from one day to the next.

I just want to say, be patient with your kid, what works for others might not work for your own, give your child love, that is what he needs the most. When he cries, is not to make you upset, or not to let you sleep, or not to let you clean the house or prepare a meal; when your baby cries, is because he needs you, needs you to hold him, to care for him, to be there for him, to ease his pain, any of them or all of them. HE JUST NEEDS YOU!

This post has no answers of what to do, it just has my experience with my baby, and the hopes that things improve at some point.

Thank you for stopping by!

All your comments are welcomed!