11.08.2008
Go to Sleep
When your baby was, lets say about 9 months old--what was his/her bedtime like? Did he/she cry a ton in the crib, while you listened in the other room? Or did you rock them until they were asleep in your arms? Or do you just let them stay up until they just crash? Bedtime rituals? I want to hear it all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Oh man- Apollo still sleeps in our bed. Up until he was about 18 months, I had to nurse him to sleep. Now, we read to him and then turn the lights out and he crawls around the bed until he gets tired then he snuggles up to one of us and falls asleep. It takes about an hour for him to get to sleep, though. He likes being read to. He always asks for a "bok" when we are in bed.
At nine months...I think I was still bouncing Rachel to sleep. We had one of those exercise balls and I'd sit on it and bounce-rock her to sleep while singing along to primary songs.
My friend Melissa also rocks her baby to sleep...fast! The faster you rock, the dizzier they get...the faster they fall asleep....right?
Now that Rachel is older, we just do the same bedtime ritual. It always involves a lot of tears and insisting that she has to go potty (on her part). We get her in her jammies, and then read scriptures (this is her last opportunity to nurse until morning) and then we brush her teeth and have prayer.
We go into her room, sing one song as a family (usually I hold her and rock) and then we plunk her in bed and run away.
She'll then spend the next several minutes yelling at us (not crying, really, just yelling at us) and then when she settles down she just goofs off in her room until she falls asleep.
We have no idea what she does because we only go in there if we hear a "bang" followed by screaming.
I only know that she ends up on her bed asleep sometime in the night.
That's all I care about, really.
Good luck with things.
And you should post this on The Mother's Lounge.
And, I'm an advocate for prayer. Seriously, if you're having trouble with Michael sleeping, pray about it.
One night...a night I couldn't stand being a mom any more...I prayed my heart out and begged that my baby would just be allowed to sleep through the night.
And she did! And it was such a blessing. She's been a much better sleeper ever since then.
Sorry- I found your blog from facebook! it's so cute. With Paden when he was 9 months old he was still waking up every three hours - finally I had to just let him cry all the time - I have always just set him down - turned on a lullaby and gave him a blanket and his bear and he usually falls asleep right away ( or cries for about 5 minutes, it gets easier as he gets used to it...at first he would cry for a half hour or an hour...but now he knows when it's bed time and usually falls asleep fast - oh and milk!! I know you aren't supposed to but it's a life saver and I take it out of his room once he is asleep - Oh and he goes to bed at 8 and wakes up at 6! I tried putting him to bed at 10 or 11 but he still wakes up at 6 and grouchy so
I'm one of the horrible mothers. I give Lela a bottle to go to bed. When she was younger I would feed her then put her down immediately. Now it just goes down with her and I take it out before I go to bed.
We have always had the same night time ritual. Bath, Teeth, Diaper, Lotion, PJ's, Toys Up (we just added that one) Prayer then Bottle in Bed.
If she cries, we just let her cry it out, I feel that she needs to learn that it's bed time, time to sleep and that's it. Unless of course it's a pain cry, then every child needs their mommy.
It's worked out very well. She'll go to bed around 6:30, usually earlier and I'll get her a bottle in the morning around 7.
We're weaning her off of formula so eventually it'll be a water bottle then no bottle at all.
Lela gets the sleep she needs and we get a happy baby. Remember that book you got at your baby shower, healthy sleep habits happy child (or something like that) that's helped us out a ton!
Thanks for all the advice. I've actually read that book that I got from my shower, however Richard hasn't. BUT, he'll read your responses. He is more patient and will take the time to rock baby, because he doesn't like to hear him cry. I, on the other hand, find that crying it out seems better to me because then he's not distracted by the tv that richard watches while he's rocking him, or toys, or everything. Anyway...I just wanted to get input to see if one way was more efficient than the other
My question is - how does he sleep during the night? If he wakes up a lot and thinks he needs you to comfort him, then it might be helpful to let him put himself to sleep at bedtime. That way he learns how to put himself back to sleep when he wakes up during the night. If he's does great during the night, then there's nothing wrong with rocking him - it's a good bonding/cuddling time. With Kelsi I usually rock her for a minute or two, then lay her down. Sometimes she goes right to sleep, and other times she cries for a bit and then puts herself to sleep.
Post a Comment