Wednesday, June 10, 2009

We have a sleeper!

Jack has been sleeping pretty well for the last 3-4 weeks now. His first stretch of the night is usually around 5 hrs, and then he does 2-4 hrs, and another 2-4. WELL, starting about 5 nights ago, he's moved the first stretch up to 6-8 hrs! The first time he slept past 7 hrs, we were scared that something was wrong with him.

For the new moms out there, here are a few things we've done differently that has made such a huge difference:
  • pushing naps during the day. After approx 60-90 minutes of being awake, I try and get Jack to rest, either on me, in his bassinet, or just some quiet time in his swing (which I can usually get to turn in to a nap!). This has been the BIGGEST difference in him being a better sleeper. Rather than make him sleep on strict schedule during the day, I've just been following his cues (rubbing eyes, getting cranky, bored with his toys, etc) and it's worked out well
  • trying to set up some sort of a bedtime routine. Every few days he gets a bath (and plays so hard during his baths that he usually passes out really soon afterwards). The routine is, play before bed, 20 min diaper change/play time (Troy and Jack can turn a simple diaper change in to an all out playtime and sing-a-long), boob and a book (Troy reads our nightly bible chapter while Jack is having his dessert), and then J gets put in the bassinet.

Here are a few more photos of the little man!



4 comments:

E said...

Yeah, we do all of that and we don't have a sleeper. Can Jack please talk to Lyla?

Sarah said...

^only if Lyla will teach Jack how to roll over

Anonymous said...

Nice work! It's so true that sleeping good during the day makes them sleep better at night! Kaidin did 8 hour stretches of sleep until he was about 6 months and then he went 12 hours. Jack seems to be highly advanced though so he may get there sooner. :) Keep pushing the naps!

flojat said...

Love the first picture (more precisely, the look on your face.) And yay for sleeping rock star baby!