We have been very luck with Everly, since she was a month old she started to sleep longer during the night. At exactly a month old we got our first decent sleep with her and Jason and I both woke up freaking out, thinking she had stopped breathing and the alarm did not go off on the baby monitor. All was well, she has just gifted us with some much needed sleep. Its only become better since then.
Everly swaddled and trying out the crib for the first time, it did not go so well, she liked the bassinet more
She currently starts her bed time routine around 7pm normally, we try to watch for her cues that she is getting sleepy and its time to start getting ready for bed. On a typical night she will get a bath,be put into her overnight diaper and her pjs, wrapped in her swaddle, sometimes a book is read, and one last feed or bottle before bed. It used to be she would get burped and it was like she was narcoleptic, she would give a big burp and be fast asleep. It was the weirdest thing to see. Now we often have to burp her when she is asleep because she has fallen asleep during her feed, and all we have to do is put her in her bed.
Fast asleep while at the Aquarium in the bassinet. It was easy to transfer from stroller to our room or hers.
Happy girl sucking on her fingers.
Everly will be coming up on 4 months old at the end of this month, this is often the time when families start to sleep train their children. How do you go about doing this with a little one who crashes when eating, and already sleeps through the night? It is very rare that Everly wakes up in the middle of the night, the odd time it has happened she is normally really hungry, will eat, and falls back to sleep no problem in our arms. However, if we were to just leave her she does not go back to sleep on her own. When she was a few weeks old we started trying the “Baby Whisperer Method” which to sum it up basically involved patting her on the back and shushing her, she falls asleep in our arms doing this, sometimes she will fall asleep if we have her in her bed and pat her on the back and shush.
So now what? How do I start to transition Everly to helping herself fall asleep on her own, especially the rare time she wakes herself up in her sleep? We do currently wrap her at night in a swaddle still, but with starting to roll we know this will be ending soon. She can only roll from her stomach to back right now, but this is a sign that its time to start letting her arms be free at night. We had swaddles that are all easy to leave arms out, no need to buy a new one yet… she is getting too tall for one of them now. We have also just started switching her to the crib. She has been in the bassinet since day 3, but is now too big for it.Now there is also the “Cry It Out Method”. I don’t think I could handle this at all, when Everly has her harsh crying moments its like someone is stabbing me in the heart, I cannot handle it. For me, there must be a reason why my body is telling me that this is not right and that I need to go to my child immediately. Sure there are modified methods of this, but even then I still don’t think its something I could do.
We have also used a sound machine with Everly since she was a week old, or so. We have a monkey, and a sleep sheep that we use, just depends which is nearest or has functioning batteries. We’ll often to it on so the noise starts playing when we notice she is tired, at times the sound from that is enough to get her sleeping. Do I start putting her in the crib and have this playing too and see what she does? Guess its a learning curve coming up for all of us. I know some use the Twilight Turtles or similar items, how do you find these?
What is the sleep routine you have done with your little one? I would love to hear what other families have done.
Maybe I'm missing something, but it sounds like you don't need to do sleep training of any form with Everly. She falls asleep easily and stays asleep through the night. I see no problem that needs to be fixed! :)I wouldn't worry about the few times she wakes up during the night. If she is hungry, like you said she often is when that happens, then that's what she needs!With transition to the crib, if it is rough for her, I would probably keep using the sound toys that you have used in the past so it is some sort of familiarity for her. Calvin also falls asleep easily. I feed him oatmeal, brush his teeth and put him in his pjs, and then nurse him so his tummy is nice and full. He either falls asleep while nursing or gets tired enough that he is asleep as soon as his head hits the mattress. On evenings I am not home, he gets a bottle of cows milk, although he doesn't really know what to do with a bottle, but he still falls asleep without much fuss. However, he still does not sleep through the night. A normal night sees him waking up for a feeding around 2:30. Sometimes I try to see if he'll fall asleep on his own, but usually I just take the 5-10 minutes it takes to nurse him cause it doesn't bother me. I can usually tell by the type of crying whether or not he will fall back asleep. When he was a few months old, I did have to do the "crying it out" thing. Not for night, but for naps cause that kid did not nap. He wasn't tired during the day, but of course my mom said "he should nap!" so I tried to make him nap, which consequently made his nights worse. But anyway…Crying it out. What I did was let him cry, but I would go into his room after a couple minutes. I wouldn't pick him up, but I would let him know I was there by putting my hand on his back or something like that. I would leave after a minute, or when he calmed down. If he started crying again, I waiting longer, like 5 minutes or something, before going in. And repeated this making the wait time longer every time. He fell asleep after only going in three times or so if I remember correctly. Also, with transition to the crib, Calvin had no problems. This was either because he is an easy going guy, or because I put him in there for naps when he was still sleeping in the bassinet for night. Has Everly slept at all in her crib?All this to say, I think you are doing a great job, and it sounds like Everly is getting all the sleep she needs! I wouldn't worry about trying to use all these methods just because she is 4 months old and apparently things need to happen at that time. Who cares if so and so does such and such. It sounds like you guys are just fine.:)