All us new moms want to get sleep, right? The one thing my husband said to me over and over again while I was pregnant (both times!) is we really need to focus on getting baby sleeping through the night as quickly as possible. Easier said than done, obviously. We've had totally different experiences with each of the girls and I resorted to a Sleep Consultant just recently for Hollyn.
Well she has been waking only once at night from the day we brought her home- hallelujah! But, just recently, she started waking at her normal 3am and then wakes every 30-40 minutes after that. I can handle the quick wake up for a feeding or to give her the paci again but the consistent waking from 3am until I get her up for the day around 6am is literally killing me.
Let me just be the first to say, I do NOT do well without sleep... like I need a good 10 hours to function without a migraine and to be a pleasant person to be around. Haha! Knowing this, I wanted to get in touch with Lauren from Sleep and The City quickly before I became a walking zombie that would bite a head off if spoken to in the wrong way. Just sayin'! :)
After speaking through our situation with Lauren, I found out we're already doing a lot of the right things that she recommends to her clients. Win! But she gave me gave me some insightful tips and helped me fine tune our routine to get Hollyn sleeping through the night again. That said, we thought it would be resourceful to pull a post together to going through her top 4 for getting baby on a consistent schedule and routine- all of which we have implemented in our home currently!
I've praised this baby from day one with Hollyn and Lauren loves this because it makes for a consistent place baby sleeps. It's portable and convenient for taking your little one to a friends or Grandma's house making sure they're sleeping in their same "bed",
Let's drown those other kiddos out for baby when sleeping, yeah?! Or you vacuuming, showering, running laundry... you name it! White noise is key to have in a nursery and Lauren told me if baby goes to sleep with white noise, leave it all on night so when baby wakes up, they recognize the sounds of their bedroom. We are using this one from Summer Infant.
Sensing a theme here? It seems I've found a lot of the same product Lauren loves and is persistent her clients are aware of. We love the Ollie because it takes the guessing game out of swaddling. They're secure and comforted and leaves you flexible to leave your little one with a sitter because you don't have to be a master swaddler.
My in-laws just recently watched the kids for us while we had our monthly date night and my MIL loved the Ollie and how simple it was to get Hollyn to bed. Same routine we do and babies thrive on that!
Get those rooms dark! Do you want to take a nap when the sun is shining in? I sure do love my natural light and how it fills our house but you better believe we have black out shades in all the kids rooms. It helps promote more restful sleep and keeps them sleeping longer. All us parents want that, yes?
Two other things that are close runner ups for maintaining great sleep early on- routine and consistency. I think that's pretty obvious but Lauren kept saying that when we consulted and I couldn't agree more.
I hope you found this post to be informative. If you have a new one that isn't giving you the best sleep, give these steps a try!
