Lets be honest mamas : All about sleep

Lets be honest mamas is back! So thankful my blogger friend Hannah over at Hannah Renee Blog started this all. Last months post was all about cleaning/tidying up make sure and check it out if you haven’t already.

This month is I think every mamas favorite and worst topic to talk about. Sleep. We all want it, but sometimes it’s easier said than done. I feel extremely thankful for the amount of sleep I am getting these days because it wasn’t always this way.

Now if I’m not getting sleep I have no one but myself to blame 😉

How well does your babe(s) sleep? Sleeping through the night? Taking good naps? None of the above? 😉

I have to say I feel so incredibly blessed with how much little man LOVES sleep. In the beginning it took some getting use to how much he needed to eat to be able to sleep longer stretches but we’ve got it down now. He has been sleeping through the night since 7 months old. Once he started sleeping through the night I am pretty sure every angel in heaven rejoiced. I personally do not operate well on no sleep and was doubting my capabilities of ever wanting to ever bring another baby into the world because if this lack of sleep thing was going to be a recurring theme there was no way. haha. At 11 months old he currently takes 2 two hour naps. He is teething (top two teeth) and when he is teething he typically naps longer. So some naps have been 2.5-3hrs.

Have you or are you planning to “sleep train”? How did you go about it?

I did a very baby led sleep training. I don’t believe that every baby is the same. Every baby needs are different. I didn’t want to put him in the same category as any other baby. So I loosely followed suggested guidelines and let him lead and show us what he needed. I am a firm believer that he knows what he needs better than we do. So I trust him to show/tell us what he needs.  I am apart of the Respectful Sleep Training Facebook group and that helped me SO MUCH! (I highly recommend joining, they only accept new members on wednesday) I followed the baby wake times. Little guy has always been on the lower end of wake times. So if he needs to sleep longer than they suggest thats fine. Or if he needs to go to bed sooner than most babies do thats okay.

This is the wake time chart I used. 

Little man is currently 11 months old and typically does 3 hour wake times. Occasionally we do 4 hour wake times but thats rare.

Describe your baby’s bedtime routine. Are there any products or methods you do to promote sleep?

He LOVES bedtime/naptime routine. On the weekends I put little man to bed, on the weekdays daddy does. Its his time with little guy since daddy works all day. Some nights we do bath (typically 2-3xs a week). While one of us is bathing him in his Duck Inflatable tub the other one starts his bottle. After bath time we lotion him up (baby lotion or coconut oil depending on how dry or soft his skin is), put nighttime diaper, and pajamas. By this point he is so beyond ready for his bottle. We give him his last bottle of the night and hold him with his lovey while he drinks.

Once he chugs his bottle (no joke!) we put him in his crib. This is his favorite part. He LOVES his crib and loves sleep. haha. We zip him up in his sleeping bag (we’ve been using sleep sack for the last 7 months and its the BEST thing ever. Especially at this age. It prevents him from trying to climb out of the crib and indicates its time to sleep. My favorite thing about the aden +anais sleeping bag is how long it is. I have little man in their Large Sleep Sack and there is soooooo much extra. I won’t buy any other sleeping bag. Seriously. This sleeping bag is super light weight so he can wear it all summer.

I put 2-3 pacifiers in his crib along with his favorite blanket and loves. He has had that little lovey since he was born. He has always had to have something touching/over his face to sleep.

We also use a white noise machine. We have used this from day one. I’m sure we could take it away, but it definitely helps him know its sleep time.

For nap times we always sing a little song that I made up as we bounce along on my hip to his nursery “Its time to go to bed. It’s time to go to bed. Its time, its time, its time. Its time to go to bed” By this time he is giggling, bouncing and SO EXCITED to get thrown into his crib. We turn on his white noise, close the windows. I sing the song again while zipping him up in sleeping bag + give him his paci and “teddy” (lovey) We play a couple games of peek a boo while he’s flailing his legs in excitement and then I say goodnight and walk out.

We leave him in his crib until nap time or bedtime is done. That is the one thing I am very strict about. He must be in his crib for one hour for naps, and in the morning he isn’t taken out of crib until 7am.

Did you try to create a “sleep schedule” or is it more flexible around your day?

At 11 months old he takes a 1-2 hour nap at 9:30am and 1:30pm. We are pretty strict with this cause he loves his sleep and he is like mama and NEEDS his sleep. He is a great sleeper so even if we aren’t home he will still sleep. I just make sure we have his blanket, lovey, sleep sack and white noise and he is good.

How do you feel about co-sleeping? If you do co-sleep, how and when do you plan to transition to a crib/bed?