Baby Life - Crying...

As a new parent crying can be a bit scary. You see the face on your little one and it hurts to see and/or hear them crying. And as a parent we want to make our baby feel better.

But sometimes crying isn't bad. I believe that crying can be part of the growing process for little babies. They need to learn to self sooth themselves so that they don't rely on mom or dad for everything. I wanted to share with your our process for working with Ryley for day time naps.

Age 0-1 Months

• During this time getting her to sleep was actually pretty easy because babies just tend to sleep a lot. I didn't stress too much about it and I often let her sleep on me or just in her rock n play. During the night she actually slept on me while I slept in a rocking chair. It wasn't the best idea but it worked at the time.

Age 1-2 Months

• I realized I needed to stop sleeping in the rocking chair so I told myself that if I could do two weeks of sleeping in my own bed I'd get myself a new Kate Spade wallet I really wanted. And it worked! If you are struggling with something give yourself a reward. A mani/pedi, a massage, a new purse, whatever it is that will motivate you DO IT!
• At this point we worked on getting her to a more structured schedule. We were trying to follow a babywise type schedule. Feeding every 2.5-3 hours with around an hr nap in there as well.
• When it came to crying we followed this:
• Put her down and if she cried let her cry for 2 minutes then go in
• When we go in we'd try to calm her in her bed for 30 seconds before picking her up
• Once we picked her up we'd shhh her until she calmed down and then we'd put her back down
• If she started crying while we were putting her down we'd still put her down all the way before picking her up and shhing again
• Once she was down that time I'd leave the room. If she started crying again this time I'd wait 3 minutes and then follow the same process above
• I would go thru this process until I had been trying for about 30 minutes. At that point I'd go ahead and sit down and try to rock her and do whatever needed to happen to get her to sleep

Age 2-3 Months

• We still followed the same process as above but the timing changed to 3 minutes on the first time we go in and 5 minutes on those after
• We never really ended up going in more than 3 times. If I have to go in a 4th time then I'll usually try to get her to sleep somewhere else (her swing, her rocker, etc.)
• We also moved to a 4 hour feeding schedule, this was seriously the best thing we ever did! I felt like a whole new person who wasn't just a milk machine anymore. Plus her naps are actually longer (usually 1 hr nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon with a 30 minute cat nap in the evening)

Age 3-4 Months

• Still same process but now we wait 5 minutes
• Sometimes we'll turn on her mobile, it really helps her fall asleep and now most times I don't even have to go in at all. It's been working very well
• She also switched to sleeping a bit more during the day (2 hr nap in the morning and afternoon and still the cat nap in the evening)

And that is where we are at now. Seriously one of my favorite things was moving to the 4 hour feeding schedule. I felt like a new woman and felt like I could actually get things done during the day. I get longer stretches of quality time with her but also longer stretches of time to do stuff around the house (or write in my blog :) )

Thanks!