Thus, when Baby Claire was not able to sleep at night, or only be able to sleep until it was 11.30p.m or 12.30a.m, we were concerned about why she slept so late at night. After searching on the web, most mommies and expert mentioned about setting a good and suitable routine is essential.
When I first started out, which was when Baby Claire was around 3-4 months, I tried using the Noob Mommy's schedule because it seems pretty simple to follow.
When trying out the above routine, I noticed that Baby Claire took a small nap at 7p.m or 7.30p.m at her bouncer after I bathed her (while I took my bathe). However, she woke up around half an hour or so. Back then, I was thinking was 7p.m her body's clock saying "I need to go to sleep". Thus, I also began to read up on how to catch your baby's sleepy cues e.g. rubbing her eyes, yawning, fussiness, etc.
While I was still trying out the above routine, I came across Gina Ford's The New Contented Little Baby Book, and noticed that her routines seem much more feasible for my baby and decided to try it out. Example of such routine would be the one below.
Now Baby Claire is 9 months and we pushed her sleeping time to 7.20 or 7.30p.m (Schedules will change according to the age of your baby). We bathed her at 7p.m and after which, we feed her milk and read her a short story before we put her down on her cot. She managed to soothe herself to sleep within 5 to 10 minutes with no crying and she managed to sleep til 6.15a.m or 7a.m.
This is now her current schedule which I deviate slightly from Gina Ford's schedule to fit into Claire's natural rhythm of sleep.
- 7a.m - Wake up and change of diaper and drink her milk
- 8a.m - Eat her cereal with fruits
- 9a.m - Bathe
- 9.15/9.30 a.m - Nap
- 10a.m - Wake up and play at her play mat
- 11.30a.m - Lunch
- 12.30p.m - Change diaper and nap
- 1.30p.m/2p.m - Wake up
- 2.30p.m - Drink milk
- 3p.m - Sometimes we will offer her a snack like banana, biscuits, etc
- 5p.m - Dinner
- 7p.m - Bathe, milk and a quick bedtime story and put on her cot to sleep
- 7.20p.m/7.30p.m - Dozed off. (When she was younger, she dozed off at 7p.m and her bath time was around 6.40p.m, Since she is now a bit older, maybe she doesn't sleep as much as before)
Another thing which I would like to share with you is that most babies, at least for my baby will become sleepy after 2.5 hours (2 hours when she was younger). She does not take long nap, which means that she is not able to sleep till 2p.m or 2.30p.m. Normally, she will only take 1 hr or 1.5 hr of nap. Thus, if she wakes up at 1.30p.m. Her next sleeping nap would be around 4p.m. I will change her diaper, a slow walk around my flat's corridor because we enjoyed the breeze, and then back at home. After which, I will feed her some water, and put her down on her cot. Sometimes, she will climb and stand up on her cot (By the way, she has started standing up. A major milestone for her :P) and move around. After 5 minutes or sometimes 10minutes, she will sit down and doze off to sleep.
How is setting a routine useful? Doesn't it seems too rigid?
Well, rigid comes with predictability and gives you better planning. E.g. if I know that Baby Claire's morning nap is around 9a.m or 9.30a.m, we can plan our outing and have her nap at our car while traveling or in her pram during her morning nap. However, it is recommended that babies have their long afternoon nap at home. In addition, a routine also guides your caregiver on when and what to do to make your baby comfortable, e.g. when to eat, sleep, bathe, etc.
This picture was taken when she fell asleep in her pram when we had an outing at a park. :)
So what's is your baby's routine?
Stay tuned for the next blog post on sleep training.
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Cheers,
Deariebear Mommie
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