Hellobee

My daughter’s and son’s sleep habits / sleep props have been very different, but their sleep schedules have remained mostly the same. I wrote about my daughter’s sleep evolution here back in 2012. I realize their sleep habits may be different because I stopped nursing Aliya very early on when she was one to two months old, but at almost a year, I am still nursing KJ.  To this day, he mostly nurses to fall asleep, whereas Aliya learned to fall asleep with a pacifier very early.

What was KJ’s sleep like as a newborn?

Milk-drunk at just a few days old

The first two weeks of his life, all he did was sleep. And we thought, hey this newborn stage / two-kid thing ain’t so bad!

Then he turned two weeks old, and the weeks after that are a bit blurry to me. Probably because I wasn’t sleeping.

He woke anywhere from two to three times in the middle of the night for feedings, and was not quite on a schedule of sorts until he was about four months old. Somewhere between four to five months, he dropped his 4th late-in-the-day catnap, and was on a three-nap schedule that looked something like this:

Wake-up:  6:15 AM
Nap 1:  8:30 – 9:00 AM
Nap 2:  12:00 – 12:45 PM
Nap 3:  2:30 – 3:15 PM
Bedtime: 6:30 PM

As you can see from his schedule, he wasn’t the world’s greatest napper. His naps were anywhere from 20 – 45 minutes at best, and he quickly became accustomed to being held to fall asleep. And so, in order to get him to nap in the early months, I’d often wear him in the Ergo:

Or he’d end up falling asleep right on my chest:

It was also around the four-month mark when we moved him out of our room. We live in a two-story home with the master bedroom downstairs, so I would still make trips up to his room one to two times a night for several months. But I’m still glad we transitioned him to his crib because we were able to move about more comfortably as a family downstairs after he would go to bed for the night.

Around eight months, KJ dropped his third nap and his sleep schedule looked more like this:

Wake-up:  6:30 AM
Nap 1:  9:00 – 10:45 AM
Nap 2:  1:15 – 3:30 PM
Bedtime:  6:45 PM

We found that once he was able to drop the third nap, he was able to nap much longer. This was also around the time we nap-trained KJ. Up until this point, he was used to sleeping with grandma, but when she was out of commission for 10 days we thought this would be the perfect time to get him used to his crib!

King of the Castle

Did you swaddle?  When did you stop swaddling?

Yes, we did swaddle both our kids until they were able to roll over. We found that the Aden & Anais swaddle blankets were great when they were newborns, and then we used the Miracle Blanket once they were a little bigger. With Aliya, once she learned how to roll over, we would swaddle her with her arms out, but with KJ, we switched him to the Halo Sleepsack since he would kick his legs right out of the swaddle every night. He was out of the swaddle a little after he turned three months old.

Does he sleep through the night?

Yes, unless he’s sick or teething. He probably didn’t start sleeping long 12-hour stretches until he was about six or seven months old, but even when we would wake up for a night-feeding, he would usually go right back down to sleep.

Did he go through any sleep regressions?

Yes, both of my children went through the famous 4-month and 9-month sleep regressions. The 4-month regression seemed to last forever (maybe almost a month), but these were both times when he seemed to be going through developmental explosions, like rolling, grabbing, sitting, standing, etc.

Did you ever sleep train or nap train?

With Aliya, we sleep-trained her around five months, and with KJ, I would say it was on-going from five to eight months. It was easier to nap train KJ once he was on a two-nap schedule since he was taking much longer naps. Sleep/nap training was difficult and we dealt with some lengthy crying at times (with checks). I did not follow any one method, and when I felt like they were distressed I would go in and try to soothe them back down. But when it sounded like they were more angry/upset/protest crying, I would let them cry. Sleep training is never easy, but it has saved our sanity.

Did teething or physical milestones affect his sleep?

Yes, absolutely, for both of my kids. My kids are horrible teethers, so any time they are cutting teeth, they are not sleeping. I always marvel at other parents who tell me that teething never affected their kids…

Will he nap anywhere other than his crib, such as a carrier or stroller?

Yes, he will sometimes fall asleep in my arms or in the Ergo if I am nursing him, but he always sleeps best in his crib.  Neither of my kids ever slept in the stroller.

What is his nap and bedtime routine?

For both naps and bedtime, I currently nurse him to sleep.  I’m not sure what I’ll do when this stops in the near future, but for the time being, it is working for us! I usually sing him lullabies while nursing, and most of the time he will fall asleep and stay asleep when I put him in his crib.  When he doesn’t fall asleep, sometimes he’ll protest for a few minutes (or 20 minutes) before falling asleep.  Before bedtime he will get a bath, I put him in his sleep sack, and then we follow his nap time routine.

Is there anything about his sleep you would want to change?

I would love for him to be able to go down for the night with Daddy, but he’s never done so in his year of life. If I want to go out for the night, I put him down first (nurse), and then go out. While I do cherish these times together, it would also be nice if he wouldn’t scream when someone else is putting him to bed.

We are still on the two-nap schedule and I don’t foresee him dropping a nap for awhile. I am not sure how nap and bedtime routines will change once I stop nursing, but I am hoping he adjusts quickly!