Samson really has settled in the last 2-3 weeks. Weeks 3-6 were hard. Like really hard, not gonna lie. But once we got past that, our little guy is as happy as can be, sleeping longer at night, growing like a champ, and gave us our first smiles. He seems to be pretty laid back, even through the dreaded “witching hours” that haunt me from Max’s early days (and even Seb would get pretty fussy). He still catnaps through that time period (or doesn’t nap at all) but he isn’t THAT fussy so I’m thankful for that!
Routine & SLEEP
I wanted to share what routine Sammy is on. Everyone is different; some people might think what we do is quite “rigid” and have baby on no schedule; while others need more structure than what we do. I try to be somewhere in the middle realizing we have other kids and I can’t sit around the house all day catering to his naps-Especially when I’m on my own on weekends/nights and the kids want to get out of the house ((also for my sanity lol!)
I know there are all kinds of books “getting baby on schedule” like Moms on Call, etc. but for me forcing baby to wake at certain times of day at only 8 weeks is hard. I also think with older kids its hard to have such structured times for naps when you have preschool pickups, or have to get out with the other kids activities. In addition, Sammy usually does a 4-7 hour sleeping chunk at night (which is great for a 2 month old) so I don’t really think I have the need to change anything right now!
I am reading “Moms on Call” however for other sleeping tips though and just for ideas so if you ARE looking for some more structure and just help in general I would recommend that book for sure.
Currently Sammy is on an Eat, Play, Sleep schedule. He honestly settled into that on his own and its worked really well. My two others were the opposite where they nursed before they napped. I tried to incorporate that schedule with Max & Seb but it just never worked with them and sometimes you just have to listen to baby! I do like the Eat, play, sleep schedule because he won’t be associating sleep with nursing (and me, for that matter) and me nursing him before naps when he gets older (bc tbh I love nursing them to sleep :) ) will be on MY terms, not because he needs it to fall asleep!
Sammy is different; he self soothes A LOT better than my other boys which I think helps. I’ve also been trying to be mindful of letting him TRY to self soothe before rushing to get him during a nap or during the night. What’s helped me a ton is the book “Bringing Up Bebe” and what the French call the “pause” where they wait and observe their child rather than pick them up right when they make a sound.
“When a French baby cries in the night, the parents go in, pause, and observe for a few minutes," Druckerman explains. “They know that babies' sleep patterns include movements, noises, and two-hour sleep cycles, in between which the baby might cry. Left alone it might 'self-soothe' and go back to sleep."
Let me be clear in saying that this is not cry it out by any means; its just simply observing and allowing baby the opportunity to self soothe. If he doesn’t, I intervene.
We have him on a one hour- 75 min wake schedule. So basically that means when he wakes up, he has generally one hour of awake time before he has another nap. His wake times I base off of research on wake times and ultimately how long he is able to stay happy for awake time. He eats, sits in his bouncy chair, plays on his activity mat, does some tummy time and when he starts to get fussy/and or hits an hour (usually they tend to coincide) we head upstairs. He naps in his swing currently. I would love to wean him off of that but I’m not sure that will happen anytime soon! He usually takes around 4 naps a day and sometimes (like Saturday) they are horrible cat naps…then other days he has longer naps (90 min-2.5 hours). Erratic naps are still normal at this age so I’m not super worried about it. Generally the morning naps are better and longer; later in the day they are shorter (30-45 mins!).
Bedtime is usually between 7:30-8:45pm. Sometimes he goes down really easy and puts himself to sleep after making noise/whining for a little bit. Sometimes he does full on cry for a couple minutes; usually I wait it out to see if he can overcome it himself. After 3-4 mins I usually go up to soothe him. Then there’s other nights I have to put him down when he is fully asleep..meaning I wait the dreaded 15-20 mins waiting for him to go into his “deep sleep” so he doesn’t wake up right when I set him down because he’s just not able to soothe himself. And thats totally okay, especially because he’s still so little and we all have bad days #amirite??!! I have been working really hard at the “self soothing” though because in order for baby to sleep well, they have to know how to put themselves back to sleep. So this is pretty much #1 on my list of things to conquer.
Last night I had all 3 kids for bedtime….so let’s talk about that. Ha. I’ve had them on my own for bedtime on my own probably 8 times now. Every night is different because Samson still doesn’t have a “set” bedtime so I never know how its going to go!
But last night went SO WELL. Do you ever have those nights that everything goes well and you can’t. even. believe. it. Like am I the BEST MOM EVER?!! haha. ((and then the next day is a complete shit show!) But anyway, I got the baby down ((the boys had a snack and watched a Disney movie)) and the Routine was as follows:
Lullaby on (I have an app on my phone)
Draw blinds, etc
Massage with lotion, Change into jammies, wash face
Turn Lullaby off, nurse one side
Turn white noise on & swaddle (this is the swaddle we use, I love it because it doesn’t ride up around his face)
Feed other side
Put down awake
This whole process took 30 mins.
I put him down fully awake and he made a few noises but went to sleep on his own! And I was able to give the older two full attention after 7:30 pm and put them to bed without a screaming baby in the other room. Like I said, this doesn’t always go this way, but I sure felt like a ROCKSTAR last night. lol. He did wake up after his first sleep cycle and cry out, but it was for about a minute and he went back to sleep on his own.
And if you are reading this, and your baby is the same age as mine/older, screams every time you try to put them down, and NEVER self soothes, PLEASE DON’T COMPARE. Like I said, my oldest I never could have even attempted to put him down “drowsy but awake” this early on. Every baby is different and getting them to learn how to sleep is HARD. They all do it on their own time and you just have to listen to them and see what they are ready for. Listen to your momma instinct!
Last week Samson had a little cold so I had him sleeping in the rock and play to keep him elevated. He seems to really like sleeping on the angle and had his best sleeps in there. Nighttime sleep in the Rock and Play the last week has been AMAZING so this is why I’m resisting moving him from there. Do you blame me?? He has been doing 6-8 hour stretches at night. So basically he goes down at 7:30/8:30ish and then sleeps through til 2 or 3 am. Last week he even did a 8:45 pm-4:30 am. #GOALS.
Before he was sick he was sleeping in the dock-a-tot and was doing one 4-5 hour shift right when he went to sleep. I’m working on getting him in the crib without the dock-a-tot but it didn’t go so well saturday night. I’m not sure if its because he was so overtired from the short naps he had so I’ll keep persevering.
And don’t get me wrong-sometimes after his “long” stretch of sleep (the 5-7 hour window) he might get up every 2 hours after so some nights are harder for me than others!! Especially if he goes to bed earlier (like 7:30/7:45) and then he’s sleeping 7:30-2 am, and then up again at 4, and 6 am. Ick.
I’ll keep you all posted on how this progresses and anything I can pass along to you!
