Bb is almost 9 weeks old! Just had our 2 month appointment and ped said to start working on independent sleep.
I’m going out of town w bb for 4 weeks in a few days (to stay w family) so my plan was to wait until we get there and get settled for a couple nights. That way bb feels more comfortable and doesn’t think I’m not there. I guess I’ll just really try to start putting her down drowsy which she’s usually okay with for a few minutes but then wakes back up entirely and gets upset. So I just end up giving up and holding her til she’s asleep. She always either feeds to sleep or is fed then rocked (or just held) til she sleeps.
We do have a bedtime routine that we’ve done since about 4 weeks old. We start it between 6:30 pm and 7:45 pm depending on when her last nap ends. Feed, bath (every night bc she loves it but only soap once or twice a week so her skin isn’t dry), jammies and sleep sack (despises swaddles since 2 weeks old), sound machine and lights out, feed again then bassinet. She’s slept through the night once already and usually gets 3 to 7 hours on her first stretch. Then another 2 hours ish depending on the first stretch, then once we hit around 6:30 am she’ll either fall asleep for another 10-30 mins or she’s up for the day.
My question is when she starts fussing or crying do I wait a couple minutes to see if she stops? How long exactly? Then talk to her and maybe pat her, but avoid picking her up? She’s definitely too young to eliminate all night feeds, but on good nights she only needs one maybe two feeds so that’s what I’m aiming for.
I know she’s too young for sleep training so I’m trying to figure out how to approach this. I definitely want to do this as gently as possible with minimal upset, but I also want to start eliminating these bad sleep habits. We need a lot of work on naps too (contact naps exclusively at this point), but I figured we’ll start with nights first!
Any tips are appreciated!
I’m going out of town w bb for 4 weeks in a few days (to stay w family) so my plan was to wait until we get there and get settled for a couple nights. That way bb feels more comfortable and doesn’t think I’m not there. I guess I’ll just really try to start putting her down drowsy which she’s usually okay with for a few minutes but then wakes back up entirely and gets upset. So I just end up giving up and holding her til she’s asleep. She always either feeds to sleep or is fed then rocked (or just held) til she sleeps.
We do have a bedtime routine that we’ve done since about 4 weeks old. We start it between 6:30 pm and 7:45 pm depending on when her last nap ends. Feed, bath (every night bc she loves it but only soap once or twice a week so her skin isn’t dry), jammies and sleep sack (despises swaddles since 2 weeks old), sound machine and lights out, feed again then bassinet. She’s slept through the night once already and usually gets 3 to 7 hours on her first stretch. Then another 2 hours ish depending on the first stretch, then once we hit around 6:30 am she’ll either fall asleep for another 10-30 mins or she’s up for the day.
My question is when she starts fussing or crying do I wait a couple minutes to see if she stops? How long exactly? Then talk to her and maybe pat her, but avoid picking her up? She’s definitely too young to eliminate all night feeds, but on good nights she only needs one maybe two feeds so that’s what I’m aiming for.
I know she’s too young for sleep training so I’m trying to figure out how to approach this. I definitely want to do this as gently as possible with minimal upset, but I also want to start eliminating these bad sleep habits. We need a lot of work on naps too (contact naps exclusively at this point), but I figured we’ll start with nights first!
Any tips are appreciated!