I am no expert at this, but this is something which I tried after reading tons and tons of articles online while I was pregnant and applying some basics to both the boys. And this is something that worked wonderfully.
The boys slept for 11-12 hours at night from the time they were 2 to 3 months old. Yes, you heard it right and I am not exaggerating. I had my cousins and friends tell me if it was even possible and how their babies didn’t sleep as much.
Sleep is something I completely believe in. According to @lukecoutinho, who I completely follow – all healing, growth, repair, and balance can only happen in a deep state of sleep. This holds for everyone even babies. A well-rested child is less cranky, eats better and is more playful than one who isn’t well rested.
I simply followed the number of hours, a child needed to sleep at every stage of life and how many naps they needed and stuck to it. Sticking to a strict sleep time always helped, even if that meant daddy is not back from work and doesn’t get to see the kids before they go to sleep. A schedule is a schedule and no one interrupts it. What we instill in the child when they are young stays with them in toddlerhood. My boys still sleep more than most of the children at their age.
How did we do it?
1. Stick to a schedule for sleeping and waking up – Don’t alter the wake up because you need to take them for fancy breakfast somewhere. The schedule differs from one baby to another. Most babies like to sleep early between 7-9 pm at the most. This schedule can be achieved while your baby is in the first month of their birth.
2. Follow cues for crankiness or fussiness – Put your baby to bed every day before they start getting cranky. My younger one would get cranky at around 7.30 pm everyday and I like most mothers would think it’s colic. But one day my help put him to sleep at 7 and did that the next day and the next and unnecessary crying never happened again. He started sleeping at 7 pm by the clock every day.
3. Sleep like a baby – people would often suggest babies sleep irrespective of noise or make your baby sleep on noise so that they get used to it. We have a different way of thinking about it. Babies would fall off to sleep in noise, but if it’s noisy don’t expect them to sleep through it the whole time. Their sleep will get interrupted at some point and they will wake up. So if a baby sleeps or naps for an hour they will wake up in half an hour. The result – a baby who hasn’t slept well, will not eat well and possibly be cranky too. Eliminate noise and make your child sleep. A white noise machine works wonders to eliminate outside noise and it replicates the sound of a mother’s womb calming the baby down.
4. Differentiate between day time and night time sleep – it’s ok to put the blinds down and let your baby sleep at nap times during the day. But at night make sure the room is dark enough that it feels like night rather than switching on a light for you to see your baby. Having thicker curtains helps them to sleep for longer hours rather than waking up at 6 am due to the light which signals their brain it’s time to rise and shine. The light stimulates them and wakes them up.
5. Make sure your baby is full when they go to sleep even if that means they nursed/ bottle-fed at 5 pm and they are put to sleep at 7 and you feed them every 2.5 hours and it’s before that time gap. A baby with a fuller tummy when putting off to sleep will sleep longer and better and is less likely to wake up screaming and howling for milk.
6. Most babies wake up anytime between 5-6 am and most moms think their babies are up. Follow point number 4 and try putting your baby to sleep again once they wake up. Don’t talk just whisper if needed so they know it’s not the time to wake up yet and no one’s playing or talking to them. Do not switch on the lights or stimulate them in any way. If your baby goes off to sleep within half an hour of waking that means your baby still needs their sleep. Keep doing this and you will see they stop waking up at the same time eventually and sleep longer.
Do pour in your suggestions too in the comments below.
Related: All about premature birth
