Finley's a good sleeper in that he will sleep at night and doesn't have a difficult time falling asleep no matter how much he's slept during the day and/or evening. Since bringing him home, he's slept 95% of the time with us in our bed. We didn't plan on it, but he wouldn't sleep alone in his co-sleeper (small crib/bassinet next to our bed) and we all needed sleep so we reluctantly made a family bed. It was fine, in fact, it was very snuggly...but as time went on, we knew that he needed to transition.
He's a little young to "cry it out," so what else could we do? Consult friends with babies and endless google searches like "baby won't sleep alone" and "getting baby out of your bed." We learned a lot and got some great ideas. For example, we learned that babies do not fall into their deepest (REM) sleep until 20 minutes after they fall asleep, unlike adults who get there almost instantly. Therefore, if you want to rock your baby to sleep and then drop him/her into a crib, bassinet, etc., you should rock him for at least 20 minutes after he's closed his eyes and drifted off to dreamland. We polled the new moms we know and the web to come away with these assorted tips:
1. use a white noise machine on a heart beat or rainfall setting (mimics in the womb white noise)
2. baby should be tightly swaddled (we have been doing that, so it was good to know we were already doing something right)
3. at first, babies should sleep in a place that isn't very spacious (not a crib or co-sleeper) because they can feel the openness and aloneness of it and they don't like it
4. roll towels to put around the bottom half of where baby is sleeping, so he or she will "fit" into the space and feel snuggled
5. put a piece of clothing like a shirt that mom has been wearing that day as a sheet so that her familiar smell will comfort baby (apparently, I have a motherly scent these days)
6. at least 10 min. before putting baby to bed, put a heating pad into bassinet to warm it up so the transition from your arms won't be as jarring temperature wise
Okay, that's pretty high maintenance, right? Well, we figured let's try ALL of the above and see what we get in return. Finley's friend, Henry, lent us his padded bassinet to borrow that is just the right size for a boy of Fin's size and we put it in his co-sleeper so he'd still be next to our bed. We rolled up towels and put in a shirt I'd worn that evening. Another one of Finley's friends, Eliot, lent us one of her extra white noise machines (the sleep sheep) and it was ready to go.
Dan turned on the heating pad while I nursed and rocked Fin to sleep. Then, I took out the heating pad, smoothly made the transfer (after he was into his deepest sleep), turned on the rainstorm, and then slipped into bed. We held our breath and waited to see what would happen...suddenly two hours had passed and he was making hungry sounds because it was time to eat! Holy cow, two hours! He hadn't slept solo for close to 30 min. since his first couple weeks of life!
That's where we started New Year's Eve and it was interesting over the next few days to see if he'd develop a pattern. The second night, we only got 1.5 hrs to start with and it was harder to get him back to sleep after feedings throughout the night. But now, five days later we are into a good place. Last night he slept for 3 hours before needing to eat and that made for a total of 5.5 hours since he'd eaten last, a new Finley record. So he slept from 10:30pm to 1:30am, ate until 2, slept from 2 to 4, ate till 4:30, and slept until almost 6 when I lifted him into our bed where he slept until 7, ate until 7:15, and then slept until nearly 8:30!! Unheard of and quite mind boggling...especially since he's sleeping again as I type!
We're so proud of the kid and pretty impressed with ourselves for trying new things and sticking with them. Who knows what the next couple of weeks will bring in the nighttime hours, but this progress feels awesome. He gets more sleep, we get more sleep, and the world seems like a brighter, more wonderful place. Thanks for our friends and the internet for helping us achieve this terrific feeling.
Okay, here's an unrelated, but adorable picture:
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