Adventure: Sleep Patterns and Cues
- The Involved Dad
- Mar 7, 2018
- 2 min read
Since day one, it’s been a struggle trying to figure out any sort of sleep pattern that our baby girl had. After reviewing her logs it really didn’t seem like she had one. We had no idea when she we would be awake or asleep. It was her little chaotic world and we were just living in it. Don’t get me wrong, my wife and I were thrilled at being able to be a part of her world but we needed a little bit of order. A few days ago the Misses and I decided to start a pattern of eat, activity, snack, sleep. We also decided to cap daytime sleeping to 2-2.5 hours. Overall this combination worked out beautifully. For two whole days we could predict when she would sleep, how long, and about how long she'd be awake. Then, on the second night, things fell apart. You see, our baby girl would only really fall asleep if she had a bottle. So before bed we'd give her a little bottle, half an ounce at the most, and she would fall asleep. Our mistake, however, was that after that snack we wouldn't burp her because she would be sleeping. We soon learned that this was not good. On the second night we had a gassy baby that spit up multiple times. Needless to say, we all didn't sleep much that night. After realizing our mistake we've adjusted our plan. Upon waking, we'd change, put to breast, burp, supplement with some formula if needed, burp, activity, then swaddle and put to sleep. The system works great except the putting to sleep part. We still struggle with this and its hard because our girl likes to comfort nurse. We've been experimenting with a pacifier, which so far has been a hit or miss. Last night I had some success with a eat, activity, eat, burp, light activity, then rock her to sleep. But boy, was it a battle. We're not looking to sleep train our little one yet, she's only 3 weeks old, but we are hoping to establish a pattern. So far our pattern works except the putting to sleep. This has always been a struggle though. When we first brought her home we could not put her down for the first two weeks. We had to take shifts holding her while she slept. Those were the times I was very grateful for Netflix. So for now, we will enjoy being able to put her down, but will also continue to try to get her to sleep a much easier. I'd love to hear your suggestions. So leave a comment below.