I know I cannot be the only one that feels this way?! Pretty certain it’s bread in our children as they are born, that they must fight their sleep, tooth and nail. My mom told as infants and toddlers, we did, and I know from all my other mama friends that Sofia Marie is not the token one. We struggled with this a lot at the beginning, however with much perseverance tears, and sleepless nights, my husband are very pleased with where we stand today with her. Sticking to a routine, and very rarely veering from it, is what did it for us. We knew that we would miss a lot of things in life; afternoon picnic, bbq’s at the beach, dinner out with friends… however our sleep and sanity were more important, and we knew this was temporary. Just until naps became less frequent.
For those mother’s struggling, I thought I would share our schedule with you, in hopes that maybe, just maybe our routine will work for you. And then you too, can function with both eyes open again. I know every child is different, and this is why their are so many authors out there that claim to have the “perfect routine” at a cost of $24.99 soft cover and $34.99 hard cover, however today you can have mine, for FREE. Note lovelies we swaddled Sofia up until she was a year and now she sleeps in a sleep sac. This was very important for us as Sofia was a reckless sleeper, waking herself every 5 minutes with her kung-fu hands and swift kicks. Do what you feel comfortable with, and baby enjoys.
1 day old – 6 months
* naps every 2 hours during the day | evening wakes get a bottle
We let Sofia nap every 2 hours, for as long as she will sleep. If she wakes before 30 minutes, we would do everything we possibly could to get her back to sleep again. If she slept more than 2 hours, we would wake her, but this did not happen often, if ever. To wake a baby the best we found was to open her bedroom door, allowing light in for 5 minutes. If she still was not awake, we would open her blinds for another few minutes. If not awake yet, we would go in and slowly rub the palms of her hands whispering sweet nothings to her. This always did the trick. A nice peaceful wake.
6 month – 11 months
* naps twice a day | evening wakes get cuddles | no evening feeds
We let her nap 2 times a day, for up to 1.5 hours each time. If she woke before 30 minutes, again we would rock her back to sleep. If she slept longer than 1.5 hours we would wake her. We found that more than 3 hours a sleep in a day would make for a eventful evening, and by eventful I mean NO SLEEP.
11 months – Present day
* naps once a day
We transitioned to 1 nap a day just before her first birthday. We found we struggled too much with putting her down for her naps {taking us up to 1 hr to get her down}, that it was time to make the change. She slept at the same time everyday, never changed based on an early or late morning, and always goes to bed at the same time in the evening. She naps from 1:30pm to 4:30pm and goes down in the evening at 10pm, if she sleeps past 4:30pm during her afternoon nap we wake her.
I hope you can take inspiration from how we have scheduled Sofia Marie, who knows it might be the trick to getting your babies to sleep better, live a happier childhood, and bounce off the walls with energy and excitement It worked for us, however it was not easy getting to this point. So please, by no means, think that it was just as easy as I wrote above to get her into this routine. Their was lots of tears, both from baby and parents, and many many breakdowns. Eventually though it pays off, and the first night you get a sound sleep you often wonder what the tears were shed for. It’s funny how quick our bodies and minds can erase the past. Hence woman going through pregnancy and birth more than once….
Any questions at all please comment below, I would be ‘over the moon’ happy to answer your queries, or on a more personal level, send them to me via e-mail at lovinlittlemissmama@gmail.com
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