Our Sleep Plan - Support and Encouragement needed

[Heaven]

Ok DH and I have finally cracked it! We had to wait til we got to this point or we'd probably just give up if we tried to do anything. But now we're totally over having no sleep and we're doing something about it. We are using techniques from the no cry sleep solution.

I need encouragement to keep going and give this a good try. I need ppl to tell me not to give up when I feel like it's not working and to keep trying!

So...here it is:

Sleep Plan

My baby is old enough to sleep all night without my attention. She is biologically able to sleep all night, and many babies do. It will be good for my baby and it will be good for me. I am committed to doing things tonight that will help my baby sleep better. I don't want my baby to cry, so I am willing to be patient and make changes day by day. Soon we will both be sleeping all night long.

I will get my baby ready
- My baby is healthy
- My baby is eating well during the day
- My baby's sleeping place is inviting and comfortable

I will follow a bedtime routine

6pm- nappy free time
6.10pm- massage
6.20pm- bath
6.35pm- get dressed
6.40pm- book
6.50pm- feed
7.15pm- bed

I will establish an early bedtime

My baby's new bedtime is 7.15pm
We begin our bedtime routine at 6pm

Nighttime feeds

I will start by only feeding her twice overnight at 11pm and 3am. This is only 4 hrs between feeds and isn't too much to ask. I will not feed her every time she wakes just because it is the quickest way to get her back to sleep.

I will follow a flexible, yet predictable daytime routine

This is a rough outline of our typical day:

6.30am- feed and up for the day
8.00am- sleep
9.30am- feed
11.30am- sleep
12.30pm- feed
2.30pm- sleep
3.30pm- feed
4pm- solids
5.30pm- feed
not sure what to do here yet, very hard to get her to have a nap at this time of day
6pm- bedtime routine starts
7.15pm- sleep

I will make sure my baby takes regular naps

Times for my baby's naps are: 8.00am, 11.30am, 2.30pm

I will watch my baby carefully for signs of tiredness: decreased activity, quieting down, losing interest, rubbing eyes, looking glazed, fussing, yawning; and I will put my baby down for a nap at those times.

I will encourage naps with a daytime nap routine including: reading a book, quiet time in cot, putting on music, rocking to sleep.

I will help my baby learn how to fall asleep without help

I will spend daily quiet time letting my baby play in her bed.

I will encourage my baby to fall asleep for naps in these various places and ways: rocking in HAB, rocking in arms, pram. The book says at first to do anything to get regular naps during the day bc daytime naps effect nighttime sleep so I am going to keep using the HAB for now and tackle daytime sleep when we have the nights sorted out.

I will introduce a comfort toy

I will keep a comfort toy with us when we snuggle and when I put my baby to bed

I will make night time different from daytime naps

I will keep our nighttime quiet, dark, and peaceful

I will develop key words as a sleep cue

Our key words are: Sleepy time

I will use music or sound as sleep cues

Our music for sleep is the 'Peace Baby' CD

I will help my baby fall back to sleep in the night step-by-step

This is my plan to shorten the duration and type of my nighttime help routine in these steps-

Phase 1: Comfort until almost asleep
Phase 2: Comfort until baby's settled and sleepy
Phase 3: Comfort without pickups
Phase 4: Soothing pats
Phase 5: Verbally soothing baby

I will be patient, I will be consistent, and soon we will all be sleeping

I will have sleep success if I am persistent, consistent, and patient. I just need to relax, follow my plan, and do a log every 10 days. After I do each log, I will analyse my success and make any revisions to my plan. Soon my baby and I will both be sleeping.

[*charmalea*]

good luck ! sounds like a good plan , i have this book and i would like my DD to sleep through the night , but im just too tired to start a plan i hope it goes well for you !!

[Ginger]

best of luck heaven
are you starting today?

[Olive]

sensational plan sara!!
i thing the sleep cue is a great idea, its something i did from the night DD came home from hospital and its works very well!! we use 'sleepytime' too!

[Ella]

Wow congradulations it sounds like you have things sorted!!!

I think you are doing a really great things establishing a routine! We didn't know about self settling or routines or any of this sort of thing until I joined Belly Belly a month ago, so we have been up and feeding through the night for 9 months!!!!

I will give you some great encouragement. After starting a self settling routine, it has only taken DS 4 days to get to a point where he is asleep within 2 minutes of getting into the cot at night! and the funny thing is since I have started this routine he has been sleeping right through from 6:30pm till 6:30am!!!!

It is so lovely when you get there, and you will get there!!!

Let us know how you are going.

Only one tip, we had been aiming for 7:30 pm as bed time as I thought the later he was up the later he would wake, but he was waking at 4:30am. Since going down at 6:30 he has been getting an extra two hours in the morning! Maybe try that if the current plan isn't going so well???

[Heaven]

Thanks everyone and thanks for the tips!
It's really hard to get her to sleep any earlier but maybe we should try bc she's up for ages in the afternoon/evening!!

Ok, so this is the summary from my log last night:

Asleep time: 7.30pm
Awake time: 5.30am
Total number of awakenings: 4
Longest sleep span: 2.25hrs
Total hrs of sleep: 6.5hrs


We do another log in 10days to see if there's been any changes

[Mak]

Good luck Heaven! You sound very organised and motivated, I am in awe.... The biggest thing I struggled with when trying new routines was to remember it takes time and patience, hang in there! I look forward to hearing how you go. x

[Heaven]

Thanks! I am really not organised, LOL, I have had the book for ages but haven't done anything. And I had to post here to keep me motivated or else I'm likely to give up. Someone needs to kick my butt if I give up too soon. I at least need to try for 10 days and see if there's any improvement!!

Oh yeah, and we're starting tonight!!

[Snacks]

All the best for tonight. It sounds like you do have a great plan going and lots of good ideas.

[sloane]

good luck with day one, i hope it goes well & you see some changes in 10 days time

i'll be watching this thread closely for when DS is old enough to start going longer without feeds overnight!!

[MamaPan]

wow good luck heaven! i think this is fabulous, i might get that book for when DS2 is ready for me to put something in place as we sttruggled with DS1 for ages and he still doesnt sleep through. i guess all babies are different but it is great to be proactive about it. i love the sounds idea, sleep cue idea and also the cuddly toy - might start them with DS2 now!
best of luck - i will be watching this thread! xxx

[Arcadia]

GL hun!

Be kind on yourself too. This is a big change for you both, and may take longer than you anticpate...and that's ok! You're doing such a great job!

[Fuzzywuzzy]

That plan sounds so good - what could possibly go wrong? jks If only babies didn't have a mind of their own

Just wanted to say good luck and give you some encouragement. I especially like the music idea. We have been playing the same tune at bedtime for DD since she was born and it is only played when it's sleep time - I reckon it has been a huge help in getting her to self settle in her cot

[~ Mylitta ~]

Good luck! It sounds like you have thought things through really well and made a great plan! I really hope it works for you.

I would do the same kind of thing for Kyson if I was able to. Unfortunately in our house there is too much unpredictability to have a set routine. In the afternoon/evening I have to pickup up the two DSS's from school, organise them doing their homework and then organise dinner for them (which would be faster if both the boys would eat the same dinner, but we tend to have to make something different for the 9yo who refuses to eat a lot of things grrrr). In order to get that done Kyson's routine often goes out the window. I try to put him down for a nap around 4.30-5pm to get dinner done, but if he's unsettled, keeps waking, or refuses to sleep, then I don't have the time to persist with getting him to sleep. Tonight I resorted to making dinner with my cheeky little monkey wide awake in the hug-a-bub!

I'm really looking forward to hearing your results, because if things go really well then I might have to work out a way to do something here as well. I really should try to add a bit more of a night time routine for Kyson. The main thing I do at the moment is playing him two songs that I always played while he was in my belly...

[onthefly]

Just wishing you good luck

[fionas]

I'm a big fan of using words as sleep cues too (you can use them anywhere, don't have to remember to take them and they're cheap!). I used "sleepy time" too and still use it now that DD is 2. I also made it into a bit of a song. It goes like this:

Babies need a sleepy time, oh yes they do. Repeat x 3.
Mummies need a sleepy time. Daddies need a sleepy time.
Babies need a sleepy time, oh yes they do.

Used to sing that about 20 times. And funnily enough I've just started singing it again. Except now that DD is older she interrupts me and SHE tells me who needs a sleepy time such as Pooh, Roo, dolly, teddy, sissy etc. etc.

Also a big fan of a fluffy blankies. DD still has hers and she visibly relaxes when her head hits her fluffy blanky.

And don't worry if it takes longer to go from rocking to no rocking. I reckon it took a few months for us. But the rocking got shorter and I was more confident that it was actually going to work so it was less stressful.

DD got the hang of it in four days. Those four days were really tough. But it's really worth perservering. I do think the key is to rock them until they're sleepy and calm but not fully asleep and let them tip themselves over the edge.

[kelebek]

GL and looking forward to hearing how it works for you

[Jellyfish]

Good luck

I definitely think day naps are very important. As soon as we got Imogen into a bit of a day sleep routine (and it is similar to your outline - 9am for one hour, 11am for one hour and 2pm for two hours), she has been sleeping from 8pm to 8am with one wake up at around 5am. I am thinking of trying to push her bedtime earlier for the same reasons you have expressed (mainly, she is awake for such a long stretch in the evening although she usually has a catnap somewhere in the middle for 30-45mins) but a bit scared to mess with things when they are working...

We also stopped co-sleeping which actually helped although I was a bit sad to let it go. I found I was too quick to try and soothe her when she was in our bed and more easily disturbing my sleep. I actually sat up and watched her sleep in her cot for a while, she would slightly wake, move around a bit and then settle back to sleep again. It took a few minutes and I was sitting there on the edge of my seat wanting to pick her up... it was hard to let her try and settle herself but I feel so reassured now, knowing that she can do it. She doesn't self settle during the day, I feed till sleepy, rock till asleep and then put her down. Maybe one day I'll tackle that but for now, I'm just happy that she sleeps and enjoying the cuddles while she is too young to push me away

Really keen to see how things turn out for you so keep us updated xo