All right we’re nine months in and I would say a good solid week into a good sleeping pattern and I feel confident to share our highs and lows of what the pros call sleep training.
Let me preface this by everyone jokes you not gonna get any sleep when the baby comes but it’s nothing you really are prepared for in the I am pre-labor classes doctors appointments videos and books or at least I wasn’t. I don’t have any other children to compare to and of course everyone thinks their own is perfect but since day one atlas has been great about expressing his needs and we have been very attentive and listening for example tired hungry grumpy happy sleepy all the seven dwarfs we know his signs and symptoms. We also know that there are plenty of professionals out there who will charge you to take their classes to read their books and I don’t knock any of them because I’ve gotten a secret on the i’ve gotten a secret tip from an insider and Jose and I have been doing all those same techniques since day one.
We worked in creating the perfect space for Atlas we chose the darkest room in the house the coolest room in the house and since day one our goal was to put him in his crib. Our first challenge was mastering the swaddle between watching YouTube videos and trying different blankets we ended up going with a secondhand find of a zip and Velcro halo brand swaddle we use that until he outgrew it Atlas needed his hands wrapped in the beginning it was his saving grace. Once he learned the rollover we on swaddled one hand for a week and then once that was great we on swaddled the second one. We always tried new things on the weekends in case the sleep deprivation was high and between asking pediatricians and other “professionals in the industry “we tried three different sacks on Amazon and quickly got a return policy initiated with all three of them. We landed back with the halo sleep sack we wanted some thing waited but the thickness of this one worked perfectly his arms are free and he can kick his legs as much as he wants to fall himself to sleep.
As soon as we could we were initiating night from day we sleep at night we play in the day. We turn off the TV at a certain time we don’t turn it on until a certain time we do bathtime we do story time we do lotions massages and soft music every night is the same routine atlas loves his routines.
For the past nine months every night has not been sunshine and rainbows there’s been plenty of tears plenty of hair pulling plenty of asking ourselves why what are we doing wrong plenty of googling at 3 AM on how to get your baby to sleep but those are just the normal thinks he’s growing “growth spurts he’s teething coat pushing a tooth he’s like his mom and dad we don’t sleep all night either even if we wanted to. At first we would Russian on every little grunt every little movement try and rock him to sleep but then we learned that he’s an active sleeper we learn that he does make sounds in his sleep we also learned that he’s a hungry boy and as much as we try to wean off the night feeding we’re still down to one bottle a night and that’s OK he’s a growing boy if he’s going to be anything like his dad or his grandpa who still snacks in the middle of the night.
Another amazing tip or trick that we learn from the community was a five 1015 role atlas is smart and he knows how to get our attention but we also know how to trick him checking on him the same time will prompt a response for him to alert us to come in but if we change it double up the time so we check on him after five minutes and putting him down pat him on the back rub his head massage his hand leave the room quietly. 10 minutes later go back and do the same thing. 15 minutes later do the same thing. There’s time where we had to do this over and over two hours later staring at the clock. But it’s all worth it he’s worth it.
No you may be asking why was this post called sleep training the animals was this click bait? No not at all because even though I have learned a lot and shared a lot I think the biggest factor is the shenanigans that are animals display when it is sleep time for Mr. A. Naptime is there a noisy the dogs barking at the mailman. The later nap interferes with their dinner time so they’re Hooten and hollering wanting to get fed. In the middle of the night the cats who sleep all day love to barge in his room bring him toys and blankets and just run amok throughout the whole house. Thankful for the two of us in times like these I know some parents split the shifts but I can’t sit there sleeping peacefully knowing that my cats barging in while my husband‘s trying to make a bottle change her diaper and get our baby back down in the most common way possible.
So will continue to sleep train the animals and atlas and then hopefully our self will report back on the progress let me know if you have anything that worked for you or if any of these helped
Xoxo Britt
