or at least that's what i try to convince myself! aj is almost 3 months old and i'm trying to start some good sleeping / napping habits. for the first 2 months of his life, i took aj everywhere with me and he just slept a lot. at night, i only got up once for a feeding, usually at 4-5 am. so overall, i didn't really have much to worry about. i thought, wow, aj is such a great baby. =)
ummm...spoke too soon! 2 weeks ago, he started waking up at 2-3 am. he wasn't hungry but just needed to be soothed. this continued for days and i figured i better start reading those sleeping books!! so in the baby whisperer book, she recommends this "easy" schedule. well, it's not easy!! haahaa. she mentioned that you should stop swaddling after 6 weeks as the baby starts to discover his hands and can use them to self soothe. so i thought, easy enough! maybe he'll soothe himself at the 2-3 am waking. i don't know if he wasn't used to his free body but then he woke up every 2 hours instead!! he obviously didn't know how to self soothe so i had to get up and calm him down. sometimes it was quick and only took five minutes but other times it took almost an hour!
so then i bought another book, healthy sleep habits, healthy child and tried to utilize some of his tips. he emphasized the importance of napping and "window of wakefulness". so i decided to not go out for a couple of days and see if i can observe aj's napping tendencies without the distractions of going out and having the car seat or stroller alter his schedule. if he had great naps during the day, it would set him up for success at night. he also emphasized putting your child to bed earlier. he also dissed the baby whisperer at times; for example, dismissing the claim that sleeping has nothing to do with your stomach and "tanking" doesn't work.
well, i just have to say, i have no idea what parents write these testimonials about the effectiveness of these sleeping books because it is NOT a miracle worker for me and aj!! this whole putting your child down while he's still awake but drowsy and not overtired is not always that easy!! i do think it's good that i try to understand aj's sleeping patterns but then i end up stressing about his naps being too short or long or too few or many!
i think i'm just putting too much pressure on myself and certainly aj to try to get a structured routine now in preparation of going back to work in a month in a half or so. whatever...
2 comments:
I didn't find it "EASY" either. Hopefully AJ will fall into somewhat of a pattern like Max did and then you can start protecting the sleep schedule like HSHHC says. I'm pretty millitant when protecting Max's because it does help.
same here!! the whole EASY concept was so not working for us, and she seems to think that you can start doing it when he's a newborn...pssh, whatever. it's working more for us now, but we're not so strict about it. R used to nap soooo good, but now i'm happy if he sleeps for more than 30 minutes! have you tried keeping a sleep log? that might help you find a sort of pattern or routine. i'm just used to being sleepy these days. :)
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