I never had to sleep train mini but abc? Well, she’s another deal altogether. I don’t believe in the Cry It Out (CIO) method nor does it work for us. I believe that babies cry for a reason and that it’s our job as their protectors to stop them from crying and teach them to self-soothe–but not by just leaving them to cry. And the CIO method doesn’t work for us. Hearing my babies cry hurts me physically and abc is rather persistent when crying.
I think that we’re having to sleep train with abc because we never had a sleep routine with her. With mini, I was diligent. Every night it was the same thing–still is: bath, book, song, to bed. When she was nursing, we would read while nursing and then sing and possibly dance. With abc, she signals she’s ready for bed, we nurse and she’s knocked out. It works on most nights but every now and again it becomes trouble. Because we won’t always be nursing, a sleep routine is super important to let her know it’s time for bed.
Here is the sleep routine that we’re trying out:
Bath/Wipe Down
We don’t give her a bath every night as it’s not good for her skin but we will wipe her down on the non-bath evenings. After being washed, she gets “greased” down with her baby butter that I made along with a nice, calming massage.
Book
I’m learning that her attention span is a little shorter than mini’s. I used to read “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” to mini nightly–abc nearly tore the book apart as I read it to her last night. But she loves being read to so I’m going to find another rhyming book that’s a big shorter.
Song
My kids have no standards for singing. They love my voice. For some odd reason, me singing to them is soothing for them. And I say odd because it’s not like I sang when they were in my belly. And my singing voice is way higher than my talking voice. And it cracks. Although they have no standard, singing will be apart of the routine. Either “You Are My Sunshine” or “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. I love both of those.
Nursing
I’ve gotta make sure the belly is nice and full! Right now we’re in the process of night weaning so I try and make sure that she gets nursed at her bed time and then before I go to bed. This way she ends up sleeping longer. Right now we’re averaging 6 hours. For a 22lb baby I think she should be going longer but that’s just me… Nonetheless, night weaning will hopefully be completed this week.
I’m going to try and make this our routine for naps as well. She’s rather consistent in letting me know when she’s sleepy since she tries to bite my face off during that time. It’s like she goes from my sweet, little gizmo to a full out gremlin in 2.7 seconds flat. I’m always left pulling her off my face wondering who through the bucket of water on my precious baby.
What sleep routines do you have in place for your babies?
