On Wed. Feb. 22, we had a Baby Cafe and the subject was SLEEPING

This is a HUGE subject for moms and babies. For many parents, sleep-deprivation and learning how to get baby to sleep are the biggest challenges to having a baby. We had 11 moms and 11 babies present at this meeting. Literally everyone in attendance was doing some form of co-sleeping, whether it was in a bassinet beside their bed, directly in bed with the parents all night, or in bed with the parents for part of the night and in the crib for the other part of the night. So our discussion was very in favour of co-sleeping, and the general consensus was that you don’t have to let baby “cry it out”, and the best way to prevent sleep-deprivation is to have baby in bed with you so that you can breastfeed throughout the night without having to get up so that you can quickly fall back to sleep.

All this sounds simple enough, however what do you do if you don’t want baby in bed with you? Or, in my case currently with my 4 month old, I’m sick of him waking every 30-60 min. to nurse from about 3am onwards. How do I get him to STAY asleep? There must be ways to help change these habits.

The moms at the Baby Cafe shared titles of some books that they’ve read that have helped them, including:

• The No-Cry Sleep Solution, by Elizabeth Pantley
• The Sleepeasy Solution, by Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivak
• The Baby Whisperer, by Tracy Hogg
• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Marc Weissbluth

I decided to hit the library because I wanted to know WHY my baby started waking so frequently around 4 months. I even mastered putting him gently to sleep in his crib a couple times in the evenings this week, except that he wakes up after 20-30 min., screaming. I know he is tired by 8pm, but I’m not ready to go to bed that early, I want to stay up and enjoy some time with my husband. So in our situation, I need to find a happy medium that incorporates a bit of crib-sleeping and a bit of bed-sharing. (currently he is sleeping at night 100% in bed with me)

I started with “The No Cry Sleep Solution” by Elizabeth Pantley. (it was the only book from the above list that was currently available at my local library branch). What I like about this book is that the author was also co-sleeping and breastfeeding and her method is all about helping baby to change their sleep habits without leaving them to cry it out. She also explains baby’s sleep patterns and why they may be waking up so frequently. I haven’t made my way through the entire book yet so once I’m done I’ll let you know how it worked for me.

So far for me, the hardest part about “sleep training” is that you have to be very disciplined with yourself. For example, if I want to watch a movie with my husband in the evening, the easiest short-term solution is to nurse the baby on the couch and let him sleep on my lap until I go to bed at 10:30pm. But the ideal long-term solution would be to put him to bed at 8:00pm and have the evening to myself. I know I won’t achieve this if I keep “giving in” and letting him sleep on my breast on the couch. It works ok as long as I have no reason to move, which isn’t very convenient if I want to get a drink, go to the washroom, do housework, etc. you get the point. But when I spend 20 min. putting him down, only to have him wake up crying after 30 min., I start to think what’s the point? As you can see, I clearly need help from someone who knows more about this than I do! Hence the book-reading.

Everything I’ve read says that you will get results relatively quickly if you follow their method (like, a couple days to a week). So, starting TONIGHT I’m going to be strict with myself and really try Elizabeth Pantley’s method. Theoretically this means that by next weekend my baby should be sleeping peacefully in his crib from 8:30pm-3am and then in my bed from 3am-7am right?

My two challenges/goals this week:

1. get baby to bed in his own crib and stay there for several hours at night
2. get baby to stop waking every 30-60 min. to nurse between 3am-7pm

Next week I’ll let you know how this week went. Stay tuned for “sleeping, part 2″.