Monday, July 13, 2009

Sleeping

Sleeping! forget about it! a thing of the past when baby comes around. Especially if your baby is anything like my baby bear. When he was first born he never wanted to be put down to sleep, someone always had to be holding him. We tried putting him in the baby swing, he would cry. We tried his vibrating baby chair, and he would cry. We would lay him in his cradle and rock him, and he would cry! cry! cry! The only way he liked to sleep was in mommy or daddy's arms. My personal theory is that he liked to be able to hear our heart beating. Made him feel like he was back safe in mommy's womb.

Eventually through trial and error we developed a little routine that began to work for us. First we got rid of the cradle, he really didn't like the way it would rock whenever he would move. We opted for the playpen; he didn't mind sleeping in it and it was portable. I could move it to be next to me when we slept. We also discovered that baby bear needed to be wrapped up tightly in a receiving blanket, otherwise he would wake himself up whenever he moved. Once we had him all wrapped up snug as a bug we could rock him or bounce him to sleep. No here is the vital step! once he was asleep you absolutely had to hold him for a half hour! no less! before you could put him in the playpen to sleep. If you didn't hold him long enough he wouldn't be in a deep sleep and he would cry when you put him down. He is a smart cookie and he knew when he wasn't safe in mommy or daddy's arms anymore.

Persistence was definitely the key! the more we kept at it, the less we had to hold him before putting him down. Then eventually he would sleep for longer & longer periods at night.

Momma Bear tip:

- Persistence!! slow and steady always wins the race ;P
- Be creative try different sleeping areas and techniques to find what will work best for you and your baby.
- Sleep when your baby sleeps or else you ain't going to get any!

6 comments:

  1. Parenting really is all about trial and error, isn't it? Our baby boys are very close in age - mine is just a couple weeks older than your baby bear :) It's nice meeting you, thank you for stopping by my site :) Are you in the USA?

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  2. It definately is! Is your baby boy good at taking his naps?? I just put baby bear down for his afternoon nap and he just does not want to take it! It was nice meeting you too. I am not fron the US, i'm actually from Canada.

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  3. It's nice to see more and more Canadian moms online :) Do you mind me asking which province you're from? I'm in Ontario. My little one is a terrific napper; he goes down for his morning nap and sleeps for 2-3 hours and then most days he has an afternoon nap around 4pm - but only for half an hour or so. Then it's bedtime at 8pm and he wakes up between 8-9am. It's a nice, predictable routine and I LOVE routines :)
    I see that your blog is fairly new, is this your first one?

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  4. You don't see to many Canadian bloggers do ya? I am from Ontario as well. You are so lucky!! My little guy is a horrible napper.

    I love routines as well, but trying to get him to adhere to one is almost impossible! he makes up his own schedule. We have him on somewhat of a schedule; idealy he would wake up at 7, which he does not he wakes up much earlier around 5/5:30 a.m. I feed him at 7a.m. bottle/solids. Nap 9a.m. usually about an hour. 11 a.m. bottle, noon solids. Nap 1p.m. idealy is would be for 2 hours but it usually ends up being 45mins/hour. Bottle 3 p.m., Dinner @ 6:15/6:30 then bath,bottle,bed. He is in bed by 7p.m. but he usually fights going to bed crying for up to 1 hr sometimes before falling asleep!! Hopefully this is just a stage and he will grow out of it soon.

    Yes, this is my first blog I am very new at this :D I like to write, not the greatest at it, but it is fun and a nice way to preserve memories.

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  5. Oh I know the struggles of setting a routine, but hang in there! I think the best tactic I tried was shortening his naps by 15 minutes or so ("accidentally" making noise outside him room) until I gradually controlled when and how long he napped for. I also found that keeping him up later at night (8-9pm) meant he slept in longer in the morning. It was a difficult task, grooming his sleep patterns, but it was well worth it. Good luck!!

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  6. I think I am going to try that, shortnening his naps. That may work. Fingers crossed! haha

    Thanks for the tips!

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