Secrets of a Good Night's Sleep - Episode 2

As mentioned previously, there are many possible wheres, whens and hows of sleep. Here's what currently works for us:

Where - We are co-sleepers. We LOVE having our children share sleep with us, but we also recognize the need for extra space while we sleep... so we have a side-carred crib. We also move our children out of our room gradually, as they become more mobile. Our basic rule for infants and toddlers is that they must be able to find us in the middle of the night if they need us. If they can't find us... they're too far away. So far this has meant that we move our children to their own room around 18 months. (Their "own" room is a relative term... so far all three of our older girls share one room, and the twins will also be sharing a room indefinitely.)

(I would like to mention that this last picture was taken about 5 minutes after the video posted below was taken.)

When - It is very important to learn the innate sleep schedules of each child. For me, this involved holding my babies non-stop for several weeks when they were newborns. I would mentally take note of when they slept, when they nursed, and when their "long sleeps" happened.

For my twins, a schedule like this one emerged:

7am-wake up

7-11am-mostly awake, nursing frequently, brief naps

11am-3pm-LONG SLEEP, still some nursing required, but mostly asleep

3pm-7pm-mostly awake, nursing frequently, brief naps

8pm-SUPER CRANKY, we missed the ideal bedtime window

This is still their approximate schedule, and if I hit the ideal bedtime window of 7-7:30... all is well. I missed it Wednesday night because I went to a La Leche League meeting (totally worth it), and J1 was very cranky for several hours and refused to sleep in the side-carred crib with his brother until Dave and I went to bed at 2am (up way too late watching the Olympics).

Our routine works best when it's consistent, and when we finish the routine 10-15 minutes *before* baby starts to get super cranky. Just like feeding... if you wait until your baby is screaming to feed them or put them to sleep, you've waited too long. Look for earlier signs of tiredness, or learn *their* schedule.

How - This is the tricky one. A good routine is very important, but you'll need to figure out what works best for you and your baby.

For my kids our routine looks something like this:

30 minutes before nap or bedtime - play with baby

20 minutes before nap or bedtime - change diaper, swaddle

10 minutes before nap or bedtime - lay down on bed with baby and nurse until drowsy or sleeping.

When you're consistent, the routine will become a signal to the baby that it's time to sleep, and you don't have to wait until they're sound asleep to leave them. Just a few days ago I actually hit the bedtime routine perfect with J2. I got him ready for bed, wrapped up and nursed, but he wasn't actually sleeping at the end of our nursing session. He unlatched on his own and started grinning at me. He wasn't even acting tired but I knew he would be super cranky if I let him get up and play, and I needed to help J1, so I left J2 there. 3 minutes later he was sound asleep.

Here's another neat trick we didn't learn until our twins were born - the Super Swaddle.

Episode 3 coming soon...