how we sleep-trained our boys
When I was pregnant with our first son, Hunter, my cousin gave me a book about sleep training. I had never heard of “sleep training”, skimmed a few pages of this 100+ page book and felt completely overwhelmed. I was supposed to teach my NEWBORN when to sleep? And of course my husband never heard of this before.
Needless to say, I read, highlighted, and took notes from the book. Once Hunter arrived, I was too busy soaking up all the milk-drunk cuddles that I didn’t care if he slept or not…until week 7. My lack of sleep was catching up with me.
I decided it was time to try this “sleep training”. We followed an “eat, play, sleep” pattern (for about 9-12 feedings a day) and parent-directed feeding. The idea is that your baby will wake from a nap and have the energy needed for a sufficient feeding. A tired baby will briefly nurse before falling asleep, but then won’t stay asleep for very long at all. An overtired baby = a VERY crabby baby. It worked SO well with Hunter. He started sleeping 6-7 hour stretches at 6 weeks!
Beckham started sleeping through the night (7+ hours) by 8 weeks old. He’s now just over 2 months old and consistently sleeping from 10pm-7:30am and I couldn’t be happier!
“But my newborn is so sleepy all day? We barely have waketime!” I know it sounds weird to “force” your baby to nap. We DID NOT have a sleepy newborn by any means. He was barely getting sleep during the day and terribly cranky because of it. My husband and I noticed a DRASTIC change in his level of happiness after he started getting rest. This meant sticking to our schedule and using his crib for napping. On the other end, we never let him nap for an unlimited time during the day. The max time I’ll let him nap is 2 hours so we can stay on our schedule of every 3-4 hour feedings.
Long story short, I would definitely recommend sleep training and/or this method if you’re in need! 🙂 I’m sharing Beckham’s current schedule below and I’ve also linked the book we followed.
beckham’s current schedule (at 2 months old):
- 7:30am: wake, feed, play
- 9am: down for nap
- 10am: wake, feed, play
- 11:30am: down for nap
- 1pm: wake, feed, play
- 2-2:30pm: down for nap
- 3:30pm: wake, feed, play
- 4:30-5pm: down for nap
- 6pm: wake, feed, play
- 7pm: down for nap (this is where our nap is either hit or miss depending on our day ha!)
- 8-8:30pm: feed
- 10pm: dream feed (nurse baby if he’s asleep without fully waking OR it’s ok to feed and let them fall asleep immediately)
- 10-10:30pm: in crib, down for the night
You’ll notice that towards the evening I space the feeds a little closer together. Milk supply is usually higher in the morning/afternoon and starts to lessen depending on multiple factors (exercise, dehydration, etc). I personally think he doesn’t get as much milk as he would in the morning, therefore I’m sort of “bulking him up” before bed.
If you have any questions about this book, getting started, or about our process, please don’t hesitate to reach out! I’d love to help 🙂
