How I got my 8 week old baby to sleep through the night.

Now as a little disclaimer. I can tell you not every baby will sleep through the night until they are much older. Not every baby you have will be the same. That being said this is just what worked for us, and we hit the jackpot.

A Little About Us

Avah was born a week early at a healthy 7lb 6 oz. She was a great eater and a great sleeper from the start and we recognize how very very lucky we are. Avah was awake the first four hours after she was born then had a great feed and slept for three hours! Like I said it started out great!

Babies will naturally fall into a pattern on their own. It is what happens AFTER they have developed their own pattern that really makes the differences.
We as parents, especially new partners, are afraid to let our baby sleep it seems. Babies don't need you to give them a routine. They need help reinforcing the one they naturally fall into to. Just beware -every decision should be a risk/benefit decision, Glen and I choose to give Avah a soother for comfort even though we knew it could be a bad habit to break further down the road. Weight your options and decide what your comfortable risking.

Before We Began

When I was pregnant Glen and I made some decisions early on about how we wanted those first few weeks to look. We decided Avah would have her own bassinet in our room. Glen and I chose the bassinet for entirely selfish reasons, I already hog the bed and glen had to sleep in his four inches on the side of the bed, and he nor I wanted less space at night. But we didn't want to put her straight into her room because we didn't want to have to leave our warm room at night to go to her every three hours. Avah slept in our room, in her bassinet at night only and in her crib during the day. We thought this would be easier for when she transitioned to her room farther down the road (which is happening right now and it has been successful for the last week or so).

From The Start

0-6 weeks

With Avah, swaddling worked amazing. She hated it at first, but the more we did it and worked through it the more she began to love it. Now she needs it to sleep. We had no routine for naps. I just let Avah fall asleep where ever and whenever she needed. If she did fall asleep, she wasn't held a lot we put her down. Mostly we did this so she would get comfortable waking up without us there. We snuggled lots in the beginning. Can never love or hold your newborn too much.

Nighttime:

Nighttime started with a bath. After, she got dressed in her jammies and a hat and  mittens. Since she wouldn't sleep till about 10:30 11:00 ish we would play, kick around or hold her till then. Then at 11:00 she got diapered, fed for the night (usually till she slept) then with a full belly and a clean bum she would settle for the night. the first time she would go about 3-4 ish hours. But our main trick was that we didn't jump up and go to her bassinet when she babbled or coo'd. We would wait till she had a good cry out. (SOMETIMES! as terrible as it was we'd have to wake 30 mintues listening to her cooing before she actually cried) We'd turn on the light then, diaper, fed, swaddle and back to sleep. Normally this process would take about an hour. We diapered first because then if she fell asleep straight away we didn't have to get her all cold and stuff and wake her back up after eating. Our routine started very slow and very basic. It was perfect because we were floundering a little in the beginning.

Daytime:

To help with night/day confusion, when Avah was put into her crib to sleep the room was always bright and warm so she could see the natural lights and start associating light in her room with day time. We also put her in her crib so she knew if she was in her crib it was nap time and if she was in our room it was nighttime. During the day to incorporate awake periods, she was always fed when she woke up and left unswaddled then we would do sutff around the house or sit on the couch and talk. As soon as she got cold or yawned the first time, she got wrapped up.

Getting The Hang Of It

6-10 weeks

Nighttime: 

We had a great bedtime routine established. She was bathed, then we played, fed for the night and down. We found feeding her a good feed before bed and making sure she was dry really help us because this is when Avah started stretching things out on her own. we went from 3-4 hours to 4-5 hours to 5-6 hours and at 8 weeks and 5 days my baby slept 11-630! we called that a win! Now we thought this was a fluke and it wouldn't happen but for the most part she stuck to that pattern for quite awhile. We wouldn't get up and wake her up because she was gaining weight great so we knew she was eating when she needed, and we thought hey! if she isn't getting up to eat then she must not be hungry.

Daytime: 

We had a large hurdle around the 8 week mark... Avah stopped sleeping more then 20 minutes for naps but she would probably nap 6 times a day... I can say for some parents that might be totally fine. But it was really frustrating for me and I found it really difficult to get anything accomplished. We had a little mommy meltdown, and that when I decided we really needed some type of routine for naps too. Our problem was found to be the EASY method we were using. Eat, Activity, Sleep, You time. It worked amazing for us in the beginning, but we had a problem... Avah was awake about 1 1/2 2 hours by this time then it would take about 20 minutes to snuggle her to sleep so by this time it was 2.5 hours since she ate. No wonder she wasn't sleeping! She was waking up to eat! Exactly what we had been training her to do at night! But the timing was just off for us, So we partially abandoned the EASY method as part of the mantra is not to nurse your baby to sleep so they didn't associate that with sleeping. So the first day I decided to feed her if she was within a half hour of the three hour mark, I would at least try to feed her, if she wasn't hungry then at least I tried. So I changed her, fed her, burped her, and then started our newly decided nap time routine. I turned the noise machine on, pulled the curtains ( babies tend to lose nighttime/daytime confusion around 6 weeks and our curtains still let a lot of light in), then swaddled her. We would sit and rock and pat till she slept. The very first day! boom 3 hour nap! problem solved! She wanted to sleep but she was hungry.

Excelling

10-12 weeks

Nighttime: 

Avah was doing great over night, consistently making 11-730 every night by this point. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I was a lot less overwhelmed purely because I could sleep straight through .
Bedtime continues to be Bath, play/ snuggle, change, feed, swaddled, bed. BUT the beautiful thing is the closer she got to 12 weeks the earlier she started going to bed because we were letting her play a little less. As we transitioned her dream feed was at a later time, which sucked but it was an easy price to pay. She fusses when she knows she is getting put to sleep a little but she cries a minute or two and then she drifts off. We put her down with her eyes mostly open but tired.

Daytime: 

Another beautiful magic happened. Avah was used to our routine! So now when she was ready for nap she would yawn and start fussing a little. I'd check her bum and do a time clock estimate of the last time she ate. Fed her if needed ( My baby is preety close to 3-4 hours between feeds all the tiem now). and here's the beautiful part..... sometimes avah would be asleep before i was even done swadlleding her because she knew when we went in her room with the lights low and the machine on with the curtains pulled it was nap time!

As We Move Forward

12 weeks and on

We are trying hard to move Avah's bedtime earlier so we have more 'us' time in the evening. She's sneaky..she's got a new trick now... she desperately wants to stay awake to socialize... she can have droopy eyes and a flat emotion face and she will still fight after she is swaddled to stay awake. We just fight through it. We know she's tired but we know she just really wants to stay awake to be with us. We continue with our routine. She will learn that even if she cries 10 minutes she is still having a nap, because we know she is tired. And, in twenty minutes if she wakes up she'll cry for you but we leave her in her bed about 5 minutes before we go to her. She normally puts herself back to sleep in this time. If she escalates her crying to that frantic high pitch cry then we don't wait the five minutes we go in to her room but she doesn't come out. Avah is no longer sleeping in our room at night time. We figured, she was already sleeping through the night for awhile, might as well move her. And I can say not having her in our room is harder on us then it is on her, even if she cries at bedtime for a few minutes it worse for us to listen to because it breaks our heart. We understand what she is doing and that helps us have so much more patience with her.

Tips & Tricks

• Decide what you want early on
• Pick a routine you find easy and short
• Before 6 weeks - keep naps bright after 6 weeks- you can close blinds if you want
• Watch for the first signs your baby is tired then start the routine immediately - an overtired baby fights harder and doesn't sleep as long
• We use a soother to help calm Avah. Sometimes she needs it, most times she doesn't.
• When you know she hasn't slept long enough.... let her fidget in her bed a little.. they will probably drift back to sleep. AND! bonus... those times where you let her lay there five minutes and put herself back to sleep... she's learning HOW to fall asleep alone. 
• Decide was is worth the risk... if your okay with the possibility that your baby MAY become dependent on sleeping in your bed, and it MAY be harder to break it in the future.... then by all means co-sleep if that's what you want. 
• Don't give up. We had it easy. Avah fell into a routine so well. But, a few tough nights or days pays off exponentially in the future. 
• YOUR the parents, YOU are the only ones who can make the right choice... and a little selfish tip... not EVERY decision needs to be what is best for baby... it's okay to pick whats best for you. A new baby, whether it's your first, or third, is a big undertaking and you need your sanity still intact at the end of it all. 
• and most important... it's okay to change your mind. If something isn't working... toss 'er out the window. We thought reading a book at bedtime would work for us... it was just cumbersome and difficult.. so we tossed it.