My Baby Wont Sleep

If your reading this there is a fairly good chance you are where me and my partner were just a short time ago. Our then 3 month old daughter Lily, had decided that she was going to sleep all day and wake all night or so it seemed. We were pacing the bedroom in the small hours arguing about whose turn it was to get some much needed sleep. Anyway I began searching the internet to find solutions and there was a multitude of information out there and to be honest I didn’t rate most of it. It varied from leaving your baby to cry for an hour at a time (which to my mind borders on neglect) to changing your routine to suit babies (is your boss really going to accept that you have now decided to take a nap at 11am because that’s what baby wants?).

Hence why I decided to write this blog see I do have some experience, I also have an 11 year old, Leah. Her bedtime routine was perfect but I put a lot of this down to her being 9 weeks premature meaning she spent the first four weeks of her life in hospital. Self soothing was all she had ever known, but there were times when her routine was broken and her sleeping pattern had to be re-taught and I am going to share with you how I did it with her, what I call the old fashioned way.

You may notice that I mention routine and to me that’s what it’s all about routine, routine, and routine. This started about 7pm when she went for a bath. I can’t emphasise how important I feel this step is. It means your baby gets lots of 1 on 1 attention and a play time whilst being soothed and relaxed ready for bed. Then whilst getting baby ready for bed, cut down on the playing and stimulation so her body begins to slow down. Give your baby their feed somewhere quiet. The living room with the TV on and siblings running and screaming isn’t the atmosphere to go for here. Once the feed is finished you can look to put baby down in her crib or cot and here is where the real hard work starts, but trust me it will all be worth it in the end.

The way I tackled this with my eldest daughter was, as I put her down I would sit next to the crib or cot not making eye contact just sitting quietly and still. If she began to whimper or cry I would gently stroke her through the bars and quietly reassure her until she gently drifted off. This would then be repeated on the second night but this time I would sit a foot or two from the crib again near enough so I could reassure her and touch her if needed.

I carried this on for probably about a week getting further and further away every night until eventually I was sat on the stairs, again so if she got upset she could hear my words of reassurance but couldn’t necessarily see me.

I will not kid you this is hard and takes a fair deal of commitment on your part but the rewards make it all worth it. At the time this meant that she wasn’t left to cry for extended periods, something which I find too heart wrenching to allow. Also following on from this it meant that within a week or so of starting this I could put my daughter to bed, walk down stairs whilst telling her I love her night night god bless etc. She would promptly self soothe and me and my partner could have some valuable us time.

As I referred to earlier I call this the old fashioned method as there is now some great initiatives out there to help if baby wont sleep or your baby sleep patterns are messed up or just general baby sleep problems.

The newer methods do tend to get instant results and if you are desperately in need of sleep these may be for you or you may prefer to look at the old fashioned method and prefer to put in the hard work for the results it will bring.
Whatever method you choose I wish you success and want to remind you that when you are pacing the bedroom in the early hours remember these two things, you are not alone we have all been there and more importantly it doesn’t last forever, a good nights sleep is only just round the corner so be patient with your bundle of joy.

I provide a link at the top of this page for a newer method which I endorse for fantastic results.