When my son was a newborn for the first two weeks he was in our room and we often liked to co-sleep with him. Then came the time for us to try out his own bed, which the transition worked really well for us. My son is now 19 months old
and only likes his cott, co-sleeping trials turns into more like 'jumpy castle' time at playcentres!!!! So the ‘teaching to sleep’ methods in the early days after being three weeks old really worked for us and laid the foundation for our son to love his room and cott.
As a newnorn, one of the most important things I learnt was to make sure that Codi firstly had been;
1. Fed, burbed
2. Had a clean nappy
3. A little cuddle from mum and dad
4. Sleep or tired signs
We then swaddled Codi for bed, and began to use the controlled crying methods and settling techniques. I can recommend two excellent books ‘Sleep Right, Sleep Tight’ and a ‘Baby’s First 100 days’. (See External Links below).
Here's the ‘quick’ version...I rolled Codi on his side facing away from me, gently patting, watching his face. Once I could see his was drifting of to sleep, I placed him gently onto back. At this point he would go to sleep. If not, I would walk away and take a few minutes away from the cot, and then I would come back and repeat, walk away and if Codi didn't settle I would let time pass, until he cried himself to sleep.
If anything, I gain one invaluable insight. The book explained how to notice peaks and drop offs in his crying and when his occurred you knew then that his was teaching himself to sleep. I found I had to perservere the first few times and thank goodness my husband was there for support. I really had to prepare myself, as the first time it was almost an hour, but as time went on this greatly lessened. It was definitely worth sticking to the techniques.
The good thing to is that I learnt to distinguish his cries and knew when I needed to pick him up for a cuddle or soothe. If I found Codi gave one continuous scream at the same pitch and intensity, I picked him and soothed him as he needed more burbing. The trick is not to give up on the technique, you just can take a little break from it.
To help with unsettled tummies, I also rolled up a towel and placed this between the mattress and the base at the end were his head would be and so he was raised slightly. This prevented any tummy problems from getting him to sleep with the techniques.
Now he loves going to bed! He loves to stretch his arms before sleep and get a kiss goodnight. He gives me a great big smile that another day has ended and he's now off to sleep. He immediately understands our sleep cues and process of winding down. Sometimes for his day naps, he will come and tell me it's time for sleep.
Codi now sleeps from 7am-8am and resettles himself when he is teething. In the year his has begun teething I have only had to going into his room twice to give him 'bonjela' (teething relief gel) at 5am in the morning.
Another trick in summer is to stick black cardboard on the windows to stop an early sun coming through. This will also stop them from waking at 5 am and finding it difficult to get back to sleep with light shining through. As Codi has two full size french doors that go out onto the balcony, I have black card board, roller blinds, sheers and then thick curtains. As his room is one of the coldest in the house. It's amazing how that night and onwards he slept an extra hour to 8 am.
So in short, it really works if you perservere and stay consistent in the beginning. If they get sick or have jet lag, in my experience it takes a week to adjust back into the sleep routine. But, from my experience, I always know he will get back into it. If it does become all too hard, you can pay for a 'sleep specialist' (I agree you do what you need to do in dire situations), but my motivation was to implement the techniques from the two books from day dot and for me, it saved me having to spend nearly a thousand dollars to bring a sleep specialist in.
However, I must say Codi is a really good eater, is quite regular with poos and wees during the day and doesn't get such a full nappy at night. If your child isn't, I would speak to your doctor before embarking on controlled crying. Anywhere from 12 to 15 hours in total of sleep day and night is fine, with bedtime and wake time between (6pm-8pm and 6am-8am). When they are older than a couple of months and controlled crying it just beginning and they are finding it difficult to resettle themselves back to sleep or getting to sleep or if they have developed an association, controlled crying and resettling can also be really useful.
In a perfect world, new moms these days are being encouraged by midwives and early childhood nurses to implement controlled crying after 3-6 weeks, to establish an early regime to provide a base to go back to when bubs experience the ups and downs of sleeping. Here is also another great minti article, on a mom's personal experience on implementing
teaching to sleep methods.
(February 2006) (
