My kids have never been good sleepers. I’ve always just kind of accepted that I wouldn’t sleep more than a few hours at a time until around a year. This time with Georgia has been so different, I’ve really tried to start with healthy habits I learned from trial and error with my first two from the very beginning. I have so much more success with Georgia so I wanted to share some tips I’ve picked up this time around.
- Try to not to breastfeed to sleep. I don’t abide by this every time, but usually, I try to unlatch her when her feeding slows and then cuddle her the rest of the way to sleep, and then plop her in her bed.
- I cosleep, kinda. Cosleeping isn’t for everyone but it definitely makes the night wake ups so much easier. When she does wake I just quickly feed her and back to sleep she goes, and I don’t have to wake up. The reason I said kinda is because Georgia sleeps in a Dock a Tot beside me, I love this because she has her own little space I don’t have to worry about smushing her or blankets near her face etc. Autumn slept in the Dock a Tot too and it was amazing. I remember looking at the price with Autumn and thinking wow that’s so expensive for a pillow! but I promise it’s a game changer!
- Swaddle! I never really swaddled my first two because I couldn’t swaddle properly so it never really worked. A friend told me about the Ollie swaddle and it has tooootally changed Georgia’s sleep. The first night she was in it she slept 8 hrs in a row! she was like 6 weeks at the time, it was amazing. Clearly, the power of a nice snug swaddle does really help them! Now even just putting her in her Ollie and snuggling her calms her if she is overtired or upset. And lastly, swaddle at nap time too!
- Routine. Start a routine very early, it doesn’t have to be a huge song and dance but just try to make it the same every night. For us it’s bath (we don’t do this every night but when we do it comes first), foot rub, jammies, swaddle, nurse, sleep.
- Give her a bedtime. With my first two I never really tried for a set bedtime until at least 6 months, and I’m not sure why. With Georgia her bedtime is 7:30, which means I start her routine around 7. I started doing this around 8 weeks and now it’s pretty consistent that she’s asleep by 7:30-8:00pm. This is great for them but also great for you! It is so nice to know when they will go to sleep every night and you can sit down and have some quiet me time at the same time most days.So those are a few of the things I’ve done differently this time. Let me know what sleep tips worked for you in the comments!thanks for being herexo
Emily
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