How to introduce sleeping routine?
Hi mums! I’m asking for some wisdom from those of you who have successfully implemented a napping/sleeping routine.
My baby is almost 4 months old now and he’s a fantastic sleeper, going to bed at around 8:30 after bath and sleeping through the night until 6 am or even longer. We’re slowly managing to push this routine earlier in the evening.
However, so far, we’ve been putting him to bed through holding and feeding him, and then carefully transitioning him to his cot after he fell asleep. He’d wake up a few times a night but he can soothe himself back to sleep so that’s been great.
His daytime napping routine is non-existent and he’d only fall asleep on me, in the pram during the walk or in the car at random times and for unpredictable lengths of time.
I’m reading online that I should be following a schedule and putting him down in his cot, allowing him to self-soothe, but every time I try that, he gets aroused, starts smiling at me or outright crying. This makes me retrieve back to what we know, which is holding him to sleep.
I’m wondering how I could even start introducing a more reliable sleeping routine during the day? And how on earth does one put a baby to sleep in any other way than through feeding and holding them 😅?
Help!
Show your support
Commenting so I can follow!! Xx
Following
My baby is the same, i try to practice the drowsy but awake thing but most of the time he is fed or held to sleep. It doesn't always work. I would second what the 1st commenter said, wake windows are key. I have used the huckleberry app to give me the "sweet spot" alert to put him down and that helped me see the signs he gives when he's sleepy. I'm interested to hear what other moms have to say too!
Trending in our community
I put my 3 month old in her bassinet (not cot) and rock her for a bit until she settles and then she tends to self sooth and go to sleep. This does not happen everytime, it's taken practice. I shut the curtain, make the room darker (we do it in the living room) and put white noise on. Sometimes she's out in minutes and I don't have to rock, sometimes she takes 20 mins, sometimes she actually cries and I have to pick her up and walk her around abit to settle again and we retry then. Every baby is completely different though, that's the issue😅 but that's what we do and it works for her. We also follow wake Windows so it's not a set nap time as such but more a time when she showing cues and her wake Windows has been like 1.5 hours approx. If i catch it at the right time she goes down easy, if I miss it she takes agesssss.