As a friend is set to have her first baby soon, I thought I would share how I got my 2 girls to sleep through the night around 5 to 7 weeks old without sleep training. I have read all the books and methods out there and I came up with 1 that worked best for our girls. Of course, every baby and family is different but this is what worked for us. Please remember that every baby will sleep through the night at their own pace if you allow it and I believe that is the healthier way to go. It is our job to assist them in doing so naturally.
Here are the steps that we follow religiously:
1. Start cluster feeding 3 hours prior to set bed time. We start bed time at 11pm because we would like the baby to sleep through to at least 6 am. Doesn't mean we keep her up the whole time, we will let her cat nap between 7 to 9 pm.
2. Right before the last feeding, change baby's diaper and swaddle.
3. Give baby the last bottle. No assisted burping and allow baby to digest and burp on their own while sitting up at an angle. During the last feeding, your baby should be dozed off and sleeping. If you pat your baby to burp, you may wake her up. Gas naturally rises so by keeping her propped up, she should burp on her own. Rubbing her back may help. Try to not rock our bounce your baby to sleep.
4. From day one, we put our babies in their own room in their own crib. This is your choice. We bring baby to her room in the dark (no night light on). DO NOT TURN ON THE LIGHTS IN THE ROOM.
5. When you baby wakes up in the middle of the night, make a bottle (we use formula at night so it keeps baby full longer). We use bottle instead of nursing because nursing takes too long and keeps baby out of the crib and sleep routine longer. During the first 4 to 5 weeks, we do change the diaper while the bottle is warming. DO NOT TALK TO BABY OR TURN LIGHTS ON. We keep a dim night light in the room and turn on the night light during the diaper change and feeding. Feed baby, allow time to digest (15 minutes or so), and put baby back down in crib asleep. Repeat as necessary.
6. In the morning, when your baby wakes, turn on lights or open blinds. Change diaper and feed. At this point, keep your baby up.
For naps during the day, we keep the blinds open. The key is to have your child's body understand the difference from night and day. Once you establish that, your child will start to sleep longer and longer stretches.
Tips:
1. Prepare everything prior to going to bed yourself. When the baby wakes in the middle of the night, you want to minimize the crying time. The longer they cry, the more awake they are. Once your baby starts making noises in bed, you should start prepping their bottle. I pre-measure the water in all bottles the night before.
2. Keep diapers ready on changing table.
3. Get a wrap that is easy to change diaper with at night.
4. Make sure the onesie that your baby is wearing is also easy and quick for diaper changes in the middle of the night.
5. Once baby gets about 5 to 6 weeks old, get 12 hours diapers and skip the night time diaper changes unless they go #2.
6. Sleeping through the night is about 8 hours. They will gradually increase that time on their own when they are ready. Most parents would be thankful for an 8 hour stretch so that is a good expectation to have.
7. An overly tired baby will not sleep as well at night. Make sure your baby sleeps enough during the day. A well stimulated baby will also sleep well so you have to find the balance between enough stimulation during day and naps.
