And around what age do you think you can start or implement these things? Thank you =)
Suggestion:
When your doing the night time routine, don't wait for them to fall asleep. That is the number 1 mistake mothers make because then the baby relates you to falling asleep and will have a harder time falling asleep on their own which is a life skill that they need to learn. I started with my son around 2 months, and it was difficult at first. I would feed him, and as his eyes were getting heavy, I would bring him to his crib, and see what would happen. The first few days were difficult because he would whine, not cry, but whine. But after about 15 minutes, he would be asleep. And after a while, it just got to the point where he realized what he had to do, so he would move around for 5 minutes or so to get in comfy position and would fall asleep for the night. I think it is best to start within the first 3 months, just because babies that young are very impressionable and have the brain capacity to realize that if you rock them to sleep, that is how they are suppose to fall asleep.
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I am the mother of three children, and I did this from birth onwards. I breast fed them all, and after being fed, I changed diapers, cuddled and held them, but if they were tired, I swaddled them and put them in their beds.
I hardly ever, ever rocked a baby to sleep (maybe once or twice when teething), but in general, my goal was to teach my baby how to settle themselves and go to sleep on their own.
We live in a culture that says that babies should be held or rocked to sleep – and that is fine, but if your goal is to have your baby fit into your family, then why start a habit that you are eventually going to have to break?
As I say, I cuddled and sang to them, held and fed them, loved them and danced with them, but when they were tired they went to bed swaddled, drowsy but AWAKE. From day one.
With my eldest I used to rock him to sleep and it was fine at 1st but when he got to around 4 months it became impossible to put him down ,it was a nightmare .So every night I would bath him give him his last feed, wind him and wait till I could see he was getting sleepy, then while he was still awake I would put him in his cot and let him cry it out,it was a case of having to be cruel to be kind. I would check on him every 10 minutes or so , make sure he was comfy etc…The 1st night he cried for about 40 minutes then went to sleep ,this got less every night it took only about 3-4 nights and he would go to sleep with no fuss it was great. He is 5 now and goes to bed on his own . I have a 1 year old and when he was only a few weeks old I did the same it was very easy.Important thing to remember is don't give in, dont pick them up unless you have to ,it is hard sometimes but well worth it.Also dont sooth the baby by talking just leave the room , good luck.
I think the key is setting up a routine. My son is 9 months old now and our routine every night is that he gets a bath, then a bottle, and then to bed. We've been doing that since he was 2 or 3 months old.
In the beginning I would hold and rock him until he fell asleep. I did not start practicing the self soothing until he was around 6 months old. Then, if he was not asleep already after his bottle, I would let him lay in his crib for a couple of minutes before picking him up and cuddling again. Slowly as he got older, I increased the time.
I'd say about a month ago (7 or 8 months) I added in reading him a little book as I give him his bottle. The goal being to get him to relate the book reading to the same relaxing and comforting as the bottle gives him. Then when he is older we can transition to just book reading.
Now a days he is usually still awake when he finishes his bottle. We cuddle for a bit so that he can relax and then I put him in his crib. He almost always goes to sleep on his own. I think its all about the routine. HE knows from what we have done in the last 40 minutes that its bed time…. since we do it the same way every day.
Since it includes his bath time, I don't think that 40 minutes is that long of a bedtime routine. It gives my son time to slow down and it gives us some cuddle and bonding time.
That is what I do with my son and from the point that he went into his crib that was what we do. He is normally very tired at bedtime so we put him in his crib, put his seahorse on (its musical) and lights out. He is usually asleep within minutes.
If you want to start it then do… transitioning can be hard. Try rocking them or nursing until they are almost asleep and then put them in awake and go away. Keep it up and put them in more awake and hopefully eventually they will understand that crib equals sleep.
Good Luck,
Kim