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Baby Basics: Sleeping Like a Baby

August 23, 2011 By 6 Comments

I posted these pictures in a post I wrote about Janna’s first week. However, I thought they were relevant for today’s post.

I am not sure whether I am qualified to write a post about sleep when most of my children haven’t slept through the night until they were school-age. Also, my children don’t sleep in a room of their own all night until then.

Crying-it-out has never been a method of sleep training I have been comfortable with. I remember when Julia was a baby, my mom told me how great of a sleeper I was. She said that around 8 weeks I started sleeping through the night in my own crib.

She said that I cried for a short time and then fell asleep. After a couple of nights I would fall asleep without crying. I tried it with Julia and after 10 minutes of crying I knew there was no way I could handle that method.

I guess my mom was blessed that I was such a good sleeper. :-) She says that I even took a nap in the afternoon after I got home from Kindergarten and still went to bed at 8:00 p.m.

Personally, I don’t mind that my babies and toddlers still need me at night. I am a parent 24/7, not just during the day.

When I tried co-sleeping when Julia was a few days old, I felt like I might survive having a newborn. Nursing my babies while they are snuggled up next to me in bed at night makes my life so much easier.

I realize that co-sleeping isn’t for everyone. However, for me, it feels pretty natural and goes right along with attachment parenting.

Whether you co-sleep or your baby is sleeping through the night in his or her own room, I think we can all agree that babies require quite a bit of sleep.

Janna has been my sleepiest baby and I don’t know that I have ever felt sleep-deprived during these past 4 1/2 months. Julia was a very light sleeper during her first year. I felt like I would just get her down for a nap and then she would wake up. She wasn’t fussy, but she just didn’t take very long naps. The boys have all been somewhere in the middle.

I do have to share that Joshua was a bit colicky. He was my only baby who wouldn’t always nurse to go to sleep or for comfort. I sometimes had to put a small blanket on top of his head, covering his eyes and ears, and use the stand-n-rock method (Hold baby close to your chest while standing and rock back and forth.).

Because Julia was such a light sleeper, I was determined to not have the same thing happen with future children. I realized that I had kept the house too quiet and the bedroom too dark.

Since then, I have kept my babies in the main areas of the house to take naps so that they would be used to sleeping through noise and not just in a quiet, dark room. I think this has worked out pretty well, especially with Joseph and Janna.

While I am a proponent of co-sleeping, I am also a proponent of safe sleeping. If you have a crib, playpen, or bassinette please make sure that it hasn’t been recalled and that is is safe for your baby. Safety while your baby sleeps should be priority number one.

When all else fails, I hold my babies. When they are older they won’t need me while they sleep. So, I personally don’t mind snuggling my babies while they sleep.

Now, I realize there are some that will say I am too much a part of my babies sleep patterns. This is why I have said I realize that co-sleeping isn’t for everyone.

I really do want to hear from you on this subject. What tips or tricks have helped your baby sleep “like a baby”?

Previous Baby Basics Topics:
  1. A Brand New Baby
  2. Cord Care
  3. Newborn Skin Conditions
  4. Tummy Time
  5. Clothing a Newborn
  6. When You Suspect a Problem
  7. Essential Gear
  8. Knowing Your Baby
  9. Trimming Nails & Suctioning Noses
  10. Baby Learning
  11. Jaundice
  12. Attachment Parenting

Filed Under: Baby Basics
  • Fifth Street Mama

    We are going to be doing some cosleeping and some rooming in with this new baby, due to lack of space in our house currently. I tried to do the same with Hudson but my husband would have crazy sleep episodes and panic that the baby was being smothered in the bed. Kept me awake more than the baby did. I also use white noise with my babies. It helps block out the startling noise and helps me to not hear every little noise that baby makes. Better sleep for both of us. Oh and swaddling has worked wonders for each of my older 2. Hopefully it will work for baby #3 as well.

    • http://blessingsoverflowing.blogspot.com/ Jackie

      I think white noise is a great idea. We always have a fan running in our bedroom and I can’t sleep without it anymore. I do think that finding a sleeping situation that you are all comfortable with is very important. If your husband and you sleep better with baby not in your bed,then that is what you need to do. I just wanted to share what has worked for me, not say it was the only way. I remember you saying that swaddling worked very well with your oldest two. What was the name of the blanket you used? Maybe someone reading this will want to know. Also, how much longer until your new little one arrives? I am so excited for you!

  • Bethanyhaid

    When I hear that some parents cosleep and sleep better themselves this way, I can never understand! I never sleep peacefully, and rarely at all, if I have a child in my bed. I am too light of a sleeper. I’ve been content to have a moses basket or mini crib in our room for the first month or so, and sometimes might to the 4 AM feed in bed lying down, but that’s as close as I get.

    Its pretty much the opposite philosophy as attachement parenting, but Babywise is what I used to learn about infant sleep needs and boundaries. There’s a Babywise Chronicles blog that has so many searchable questions and answers that was enormously helpful for me as a new mama.

    • http://blessingsoverflowing.blogspot.com/ Jackie

      Thank you so much for sharing! I appreciate hearing what has worked for others. I have heard about the Babywise method and I am glad to know that it works for your family. I think we all have to go with the method of parenting that we feel the most comfortable with and that works with our own families.

  • http://www.proverbs31living.blogspot.com Abbi

    We were definetely co-sleepers as well for the first year but then after that we did “kick” them out and they did cry a bit at first (which wasn’t easy!) but then pretty quickly started sleeping through the night. That worked good for us but I agree that each family needs to figure out what works for them.

    I have been blessed with kids that have napped well and usually pretty long.

    • http://blessingsoverflowing.blogspot.com/ Jackie

      Thanks so much for sharing, Abbi! It is good to hear from another co-sleeping mama. :-) I guess I should have clarified that once my children aren’t nursing at night I usually start them in their own beds, but most of the time they come into ours if they wake up in the night. Also, Julia started taking 2-two hour naps a day once she was one year old. That made up for the light napping as a baby. :-)