Sleep... Baby.... Sleep!

I recently hosted my coffee group (well one of them, as I am lucky enough to belong to 2 amazing groups!) and we had one of the Baby Sleep Consultant team come round and present to us on sleep and everything else for 5 - 6month olds.  

Sleep Baby Sleep!

Wow, it was fascinating!  I was pleased to hear quite a few of the 'negative' sleep associations, we haven't really used, or we did when Emily was little and she has kind of just outgrown them herself, so that was reassuring.  These are things that help a baby to go to sleep but they need you to help with, such as using a dummy (especially if baby can't put it back in for themselves), rocking and feeding to sleep etc.  Emily has never really been a fan of a dummy which is fine by me - I only just recently saw a note on how to get your baby to take a dummy and that is after you feed them milk, you give them the dummy as they are in the sucking zone, but I think I only ever tried to use it when Emily was already too upset!  Whoopsie!  And of course we rocked and fed her to sleep when she was tiny, it kind of just happens that way as the little babies can barely keep their eyes open, but as soon as I learnt about eat - play - sleep, I was onto it and not rocking or feeding her to sleep and we soon moved past that, phew!

Some of the positive sleep associations we use are white noise, which we have on for all sleeps, especially overnight; a sleeping bag - nice and toasty, we use a Ricochet one from the Baby Factory; and sleeping baby in a dark room for all sleep - day included.  

We also talked a lot about routine... Ah the routine.... My friends and I often wonder to ourselves who these people are whose babies are in A Routine.  Ours aren't!!  Well, Emily kind of is, but the Baby Sleep Consultant really stressed that IF you want a routine, you do have to work on it and get your baby into it, and that way you know baby is getting enough sleep and food too. 

Now that Emily is almost 6 months old, this all actually makes sense!!  It sure didn't at the 6 week mark when I was like, right Baby we are getting into a routine!!  Which didn't work almost at all, however now I feel I know a lot more, am more confident and am willing to give it a go.

So our routine is (roughly the same as before, but we are tweaking it now!):

• 7am - wake and feed (no solids yet as she isn't showing much interest so early in the day)
• 9am - 10am - nap for 45mins - 1 hour... and yes... it is suggested that you wake your baby if they are still asleep at the 1 hour mark!  It goes against everything in me but it is apparently meant to help them sleep better for their 'lunchtime sleep'.  Yes THAT long one! 
• 10am - 10.30am wake up and play etc - usually photoshoot time!
• 10.30am - 11am feed and solids
• 12pm - 2.30pm - sleep time.  This is like the holy grail of sleeps apparently.  And yes.  Babies are capable of sleeping for ages here! Hmmmm..... That remains to be seen!!  If Emily wakes when I put her down at midday or so, after however long (it may only be 45mins), I would usually get her up... but oh no, you are 'meant' to resettle baby and get them to sleep for longer.  How??  I will cover that in my next post!
• 2.30pm - 3pm - feed
• 4.30pm - 5pm - short walk, round the block for a last snooze
• 5pm - feed (I have added this extra feed in as I don't think Emily is ready not to have it, it's kind of our cluster feeding)
• 5.30pm - solids
• 6pm - bath
• 6.15pm - feed
• 6.30pm - bed

My Little Bear

At the moment we are working on Spaced Soothing, and my next post will explain what it is and how we are going!  

Sweet Dreams all!