Welcome Back!
Teddy is 15 weeks today and it’s wild to think he has only been here a little over three months because it feels as if he has been in our lives forever. I knew from day one that we would be sleep-training him and I am here to say that we have officially succeeded!
I first heard about sleep-training a few years ago and the more research I did on it, the more I knew it would be the right route for us once we were ready to start a family. I’m the type of person that performs best when on a schedule (I think everyone does to some extent), so to me, it just made sense that a schedule would be beneficial for a baby as well. A schedule makes them more predictable and has really been our saving grace as first-time parents.
I wanted to write this blog post for all the future parent’s &/or current parents out there currently debating sleep training or not. Simply because I want to give you the confidence in saying that if we were able to do it, then you can too. No night nurse. Just Colton and I using the tips we learned from an online sleep training course, combined with the tools our pediatrician gave us.
When I first found out I was pregnant, I immediately went back to reread all the blog posts from some of my favorite OG bloggers, who introduced me to sleep training in the first place. Only to learn that they seemed to have left a tiny detail out of their posts in that they had a night nurse the entire time who did the sleep training for them. It was super disheartening and I promise I say that with zero shade (I mean if you can afford to have the extra help, why would you not?) but I was initially inspired and set on sleep training because of them. They made parenting look so easy and sleep training sound so great. They gave me the confidence that I could do it too. Needless to say, this factor made me feel super defeated and lost knowing that a night nurse was something we wouldn’t have. It made me go from feeling super confident with our sleep training plans to super lost. Asking myself, “How are we going to do this?“.
Luckily, I came across a post in one of the pregnancy Facebook groups I had joined (sounds lame but it was awesome and so helpful) of girls talking about all of the self-taught sleep training courses out there and their experiences with them.
We decided to take the course by Taking Cara Babies, called “Will I Ever Sleep Again” and I honestly can’t recommend it enough. I really liked the fact that the course was video-based, as opposed to just being a book, so that Colton and I could take it together. The videos were easy to follow and explained SO much. We learned basic baby calming techniques (which was super necessary for us first-time parents), tools to teach our baby to self soothe, and all the techniques to help set us up for sleep training success. With no “crying it out” involved. Another thing I really liked about the TCB method was that her schedules are meant to be flexible. She made a special point to emphasize the fact that your baby will never, ever follow the schedule perfectly. They are babies, not robots. It’s a loose guide that is meant to be altered so that it fits into your life.
Before I go into further detail of our schedule and experience, I do want to point out a few things that I think are important and will make more sense as you continue to read but all in all, really recommend taking a course for yourself!
- I did a combination of nursing and pumping pretty much from day one. I wanted/needed to be able to have others (aka Colton) help me and this allowed us to trade off every other feeding.
- Newborn feedings are every 3 hours and the ultimate end goal/key to success for sleep training is to get your baby to eat enough during the day, making sure they’re getting all the calories they need so that they are able to sleep through the night.
- Newborn “wake windows” are only about 60-75 minutes and after 75 minutes they get overtired. When this happens to Teddy, it’s really hard to get him back down and it’s miserable for everyone…so we’re really aware of when he’s in the middle of a wake window and when he needs to go down to sleep
Birth – 3 Weeks
Our plan was to give him two weeks to do whatever he wanted but after learning while we were at the hospital that he needed to eat every 2.5-3 hrs, we kind of “fell” into our routine and created our schedule just by following the standard 3-hour rule we were given.
We started out with 8 feedings a day. 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm, 2am, 5am. We did this for the first 2-3 weeks until we were given the thumbs up by our pediatrician that he had gained enough weight and that we could start stretching out his nighttime feedings. Starting out with one, 5-hour stretch, and then going from there.
** Quick Note** When stretching out his feedings, if he ever cried because he was hungry, we would feed him. We never denied him food just so that we could stick to our schedule. We would just feed and adjust where needed. It’s a lot of trial and error.
3 Weeks – 10 Weeks
We initially tried dropping the 2 am feeding, but it wasn’t working out, so we tried dropping the 11pm feed (aka our dream feed) instead, and he did so much better! Making our schedule 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm (5-hour stretch) 2am, 5am.
This was our schedule for the longest amount of time. I would always take the 2am, Colton would take the 5am and then I would take the 8am. This was also a great schedule for us when Colton went back to work bc he would just feed him at 5am before getting ready and heading out the door.
It wasn’t always perfect and sometimes that 5-hour stretch was only 4-hours, making his feeding time 1am instead of 2am but when that would happen, we would just adjust his schedule accordingly throughout the day but always keeping his 8pm feeding and bedtime routine the same.
As time went on, we were able to drop the 2am, then eventually the 5am (this was the hardest) and by 10-11 weeks, he was pretty much sleeping through the night!
**Night Feeding Tip**
Keep your nighttime feedings as to the point as possible. Don’t worry about unswaddling them or changing them (unless they really need it bc it’s poopy or something). Keep the lights off (or as low possible while allowing you still see) and then save the active, unswaddling feedings for the daytime.
Blackout curtains and a noise machine are lifesavers!
Our Current Schedule
- 7:50 am: Wake Up! (open curtains, unswaddle, change)
- 8:00 am: Feed! (this feeding is the biggest of the day and he normally goes right back to sleep once he’s finished)
- 8:45 am: Nap
- 10:50 am – Wake and change
- 11 am: Feed
- 11:45 am – 12:15 pm- Playtime!!
- 12:15 pm – Nap
- 1:45 pm – Wake and change
- 2 pm: Feed
- 2:45-3:15 pm – more playtime
- 3:15pm – Nap
- 4:45 – 5 pm: Wake and change
- 5 pm: Feed
- 5:45 pm – play
- 615pm – time for the last nap
- 7:50 pm – get Teddy up, play, and prepare for his night routine
- 8pm: Start his feeding
- 8:30 (ish) pm: Complete bedtime routine and finish feeding!
- 8:45-9pm: Sound asleep!
So there you have it!! I know that sleep training isn’t for everyone but it has been incredible for us. We’re super flexible with the whole thing and it has just been nice having some sort of general guidelines to follow, that help make Teddy more predictable and has helped make this new chapter of our life just a little less scary.
If you have any questions, just leave them below!
xo,
Lauren
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