Being sleep deprived is almost always the number one problem that parents with young infants face. It hits you like a truck, but then you go and google what to do, and there is just so much information but not all information is helpful or correct as a matter of fact. There are many websites, with fancy Pinterest infographics, that give you fragmented bits of information with vague supporting details. And it astonishes me that websites are suggesting the cry-it-out method without the full scope of what that involves, common mistakes, and pitfalls. Often times it does not work when used incorrectly, leaving both parent and baby frustrated. Not every single sleep training method works on every child, a lot has to do with the child's age and temperament.
What I'm about to introduce here is the Ferber method, or the controlled crying method. It can be used for babies from 4 months old up to around 7 months. However the other things mentioned around the baby's sleep environment is still applicable to older children, such as a dark room, white noise (for up to 12 months) etc. If you have a baby that is 8 months+, you can consider using the Pick-Up Put-Down method Tracey Hogg.
Another thing to mention, almost all forms of sleep training will involve crying. Infants from 0-3 months are not suited for these sleep training methods as they are still newborns. If you have a newborn between 0-3 months old, you can consider using Dr Harvey Karp's 5'S method, which is very hands on and very suitable for newborns.
In the past few months, I was able to gain a much better understanding of what sleep means to an infant, how to help my baby sleep, and how important it is not only for the parent but also for the child. I’ve also done some more research and reading into the topic since, so I am hoping that I will be able to share the most concise but accurate information in this blog post to help other new moms and dads to assist their child through their sleep development.
When Can You Start Sleep Training?
No earlier than 4 months old and up to 2 years old.
First you need to understand how baby’s sleep. You may have heard of the 4 month “regression”. It is not actually a regression, but more of a progression. We all sleep in cycles, and there’s REM (Rapid Eye Movement, usually when one is dreaming), there’s light sleep and deep sleep, in fact you can track this if you wear a FitBit on your wrist to sleep. For newborns, they only have deep sleep and REM stages, so it is easier to rock them back to sleep. At 4 months, your baby will start experiencing more switches between light sleep, deep sleep and REM, which is why they wake more and are more alert than previously. This is the baby’s brain maturing to have a sleep cycle closer to an adult. Another thing is, 4-month-old babies have neurologically matured and are capable to produce their own melatonin, which is a hormone that controls sleep-wake cycles.
Extended reading on 4 month baby sleep cycles: https://www.nestedbean.com/blogs/zen-blog/4-month-sleep-regression/#causes
Why is sleep training important (for the baby)?
Of course, it’s great for mom and dad to get their sleep back, but that’s not the only reason to sleep train. A bad sleeping habit for a baby, with multiple night waking and feeding, will lead to developmental issues and indigestion issues (you may observe that more often than not, babies will spit up the milk they’ve just drank during night feeds). Night feeding formula is also bad especially once the teeth start coming in and will also lead to obesity if left unchecked. At the same time, frequent waking for long periods of time is not letting the brain get the rest it needs. Overnight the baby's brain is busy converting what it's learned in the day time and storing it into long-term memory, so if the baby is waking often, it is not given a chance to restore.
And a simple reason, because your baby at 4 months is actually mature enough and ready to sleep overnight with no intervention.
What does sleep training look like from 4-6 months and beyond?
The goal is not only to help the baby settle into a good sleep routine with a long uninterrupted night time sleep, it is also to help the baby to learn to become independent and self-sooth to sleep, and get back to sleep should they wake up in the middle of the night. After sleep training you should be able to establish the following:
✦ Baby is able to self-sooth and re-settle back to sleep
✦ 3 naps during the day (4-7mo) and 2 naps during the day for 7mo+
✦ A set night time bed time routing with 12hours of full night sleep
✦ Eliminating night feeds, and at 7 months eliminate dream feed
Sleep training is also closely tied to the baby’s feeding habits:
✦ Nursing to sleep – depending on feeding for 5-10min or 30-60ml bottle in order to fall asleep (a bad habit to correct)
✦ Night feeds – waking up overnight to feed (can be corrected with a good day time eating and sleeping schedule)
Night Weaning, Eliminating Night feed
Before you start sleep training, it’s best to eliminate night feeds. It not only interrupts the baby’s sleep cycle, it also causes diaper issues – a very wet diaper or digestive problems will cause the baby to wake up.
Night feeds are any feeding that occurs after the dream feed (10:30pm) till morning wake up at 7am. Even after sleep training, occasionally the baby will wake up hungry and needing around only 60ml, but with a good day-time diet, that should not be an issue.
When can you eliminate night feeds?
- Formula fed babies: 5-6months is a good time to start
- Fully breastfed babies: by 6 months you should wean down to no more than 1 overnight feed, and fully eliminate overnight feeds by 8-9 months
**Eliminating night feeds will only work if your day time calorie intake (both milk and solids) are appropriate for the child's age.
I eliminated night feed by slowly decreasing the amount. We started out with 2 night feeds at 2am and 4am at 90ml each. For the first few nights of weaning, I decreased both feedings to 60ml. Then I pushed back 30mins per day on the first feeding, so for example if he wakes up at 2am, I wait till 2:30am to give him the 60ml, then the next day I wait till 3am… by the 5th day, the first feeding would’ve been pushed to 4am, which means the timing matches with the 2nd one then voila – you’ve eliminated 1 of the 2 night feeds. So now with just one feed at 4am, do the same thing, keep pushing it back 30min at a time until eventually it coincides with the morning wake up time.
If you are breastfeeding, you can decrease the feeding time by 2-5min each day to eliminate the feeds.
Here’s a more in-depth article about night weaning: https://drcraigcanapari.com/learned-hunger-nighttime-feeding-stop-night-feeding/
What a sleep schedule should look like for a 4-6 month old
According to takingcareofbabies.com, here is the guide on how to calculate your baby’s sleep schedule:
(*Source: https://takingcarababies.com/nap-schedules/)
If your baby is 4-6 months old:
Total hours of day naps combined: 3 – 3.5hrs
Average number of naps: 3 (Two longer ones, and One shorter catnap)
Awake time durations last: 2.5-3hrs
First, start the calculation with your baby’s wake up time
2 hours after wakeup = Nap 1 (1.5hrs)
2.5 hours after the end of Nap 1 = Nap 2 (1.5hrs)
2.5 hours after the end of Nap 2 = Nap 3 (cat nap 30min)
2.5 – 3 hours after the end of Nap 3 = Bed time
Here are some sample schedules
If your baby is:
7 – 14 months old or 14 months old – 2+ years
Please check the nap time calculation method here: https://takingcarababies.com/nap-schedules/
So following that calculation, we re-adjusted Archer’s schedule to something like this:
We of course tweaked this along the way, sometimes his morning naps were longer than the noon nap, sometimes we moved the afternoon catnap forward a little bit if he was tired. Remember to still observe your baby’s cues. From what I’ve learned, this schedule is fluid, and you should be comfortable in moving items here in a +/- 30min small adjustment.
Important things to note:
✦ All sleep time, including naps during the day and night time, should be happening in their own crib, ideally in their own room or beside your bed, but never let the baby sleep on your bed. The only exception is the 30min afternoon catnap (which can be on a baby swing, in his car seat or stroller, the goal of a cat nap is to break up the amount of time awake).
(Below) Hotel room crib by Nuna
(*Disclaimer: Babies under 1-year-old actually don't need pillows, in fact putting anything in the crib surrounding the baby will increase the risk of SIDS. You can refer to the guidelines from The American Academy of Paediatrics on how to reduce SIDS. We gave our baby a pillow because there was a phase where he spat up a lot during sleep, and a pillow was given an ok from our paediatrician to help him keep it down. If your baby doesn't have this issue, then you don't need to use a pillow)
(Below) 30min cat nap in his swing
✦ Dream feed: a dream feed is a top up of formula while the baby is still asleep, the goal is to pick up the baby gently and mostly have them finish the bottle without opening their eyes. You can also do a quick diaper change to avoid them peeing through the diaper by morning. Now that Archer can hold his own bottle, I let him feed himself. (In the picture below, instead of a sleep sack, we're using a sleeping bag with straps to fasten his belly to prevent him from rolling over, this was before he could roll back over on is own)
✦ Night feeds: At 4 months old, a baby is able to last 4 hours in between feedings, so if your baby wakes up crying in the middle of the night and it is less than 4 hours since the last feed, help them get back to sleep by using the Ferber Progressive Waiting method. (I’ll go into the Ferber technique later)
*Source: https://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/library/pediatric_health/hhg_trained_night_feeder/
*Source: https://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/library/pediatric_health/hhg_trained_night_feeder/
✦ Is the baby actually awake? Babies make a lot of noise while they sleep, they even let out a small cry for a few seconds and go back to sleep again. Don’t rush into the room immediately after hearing a cry, observe for a while, maybe around a minute, and assess whether or not they are actually awake.
✦ Breakfast: make sure you give your baby milk (formula or breastmilk) FIRST, and then feed them solids after at 8am if you are introducing it. This is because the baby will be pretty hungry by breakfast time, and they will not be in the mood to be adventurous with some new food item, they just want their bellies full first!
✦ While the baby is sleeping in a pitch-black room, even during naps, you need to make sure the baby gets sufficient light exposure during their awake hours, that means all curtains opened. This will help balance out the Serotonin and Melatonin in your baby’s body, which is vital for their internal clock to establish a healthy sleep pattern.
✦ Consistency is key. Let me say that again consistency is key. You are breaking habits and reestablishing a new routine, the baby will be frustrated at first, but if you stick at it for a week, you will see results. Babies are smarter and more adaptive and resilient than you think, but you need to give them a consistent message and not confuse them, so follow as closely to the Ferber technique as possible.
Preparing for sleep training
It is very important to create an environment which is easy for the baby to sleep in. This includes all of the items below:
✦ A pitch-black room: this can be achieved by using black out curtains and taping up any light sources such as A/C power light or baby monitor camera light. Ideally they should be sleeping in their own room already, if not sleeping in their own crib by your bed is fine, but never on an adult’s bed. If you can still read a book in the room after the curtains are shut, then the room is definitely too bright.
✦ Swaddling: If your baby is not rolling over yet, use a good swaddle. I recommend SwaddleMe since it is easy to use and hard for the baby to escape from. If rolling over already, you can use a sleep-sack.
(Left) Swaddle, arms and legs are in, with the arms on the side but legs should have room to wiggle around. Swaddling is important as it prevents the baby's startle reflex to have them hit their own face with their arms while asleep. The baby is not confined in an uncomfortable way, in fact this helps them sleep because it imitates the tight environment of a womb.
(Right) A sleep sack. The arms are out, which is needed to help the baby roll back over, but the legs are still in a loose sack so they don't stand up in the crib.
*Disclaimer: in the picture on the right, Archer has a crib bumper. As mentioned the American Association of Paediatrics does not recommend putting anything in the baby's crib until they're after 1 due to SIDS and suffocation. But the one we got is a very high quality one made in Denmark, it is also very light. Since Archer started flipping over, he often would bump his head and wake up crying in the middle of the night. Because this crib bumper isn't tied to the crib bars and is light, it is very easy for Archer to lift it up when it's in the way of his face. We added it when he was 7 months old. Each baby progresses differently, and you still need to adjust according to the baby's individual situation.
(Below) When the baby's arms start escaping and you find him/her flipped over a lot, it's time to upgrade to a sleep sack/sleeping bag!
✦ White noise: A good sound machine will help the baby to fall asleep without relying on feeding or being held and rocked in your arms. The machine will typically make what sounds like a large fan, heart beat or shhhhhh sounds. Music is not ideal for replacing white noise, and do not get a sound machine with lights, both are very distracting to a baby trying to sleep.
✦ Temperature: 18-22C degrees is ideal for babies if they are in thin long-sleeved pajamas and a swaddle/sleep sack suitable for the baby. (0.5 TOG – 1.0 TOG, if your baby sweats more, use the lighter and thinner 0.5 TOG. *TOG is the measure of warmth or thermal resistance) If the baby is wearing a short sleeve onesie and a swaddle/sleep sack, you can set the temperature to 24-25C.
✦ A good wind-down routing: this can be as simple as a diaper change, closing the curtains and dimming the lights, saying a few loving words to the baby or singing a few lullabies. The key is to help create a relaxing and soothing environment to help the baby get drowsy, and eventually they will associate this as a cue that it is bed time.
✦ Safety: always put a baby on their back to sleep to avoid suffocation and reduce risks of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), avoid overheating, room sharing is ok but NO bed sharing. Do not use pillows, cot bumpers, or soft toys especially when the baby is under 6 months old. (The official recommendation is up till 1 years old, but I think that's a bit excessive. SIDS peaks at 2-3 months. So once your baby is rolling over, use your own judgement on what is best for them. If ever not sure, ask your paediatrician.)
✦ Monitoring: First remove mobiles over the crib, it can be distracting for a baby to sleep especially when you’re trying to sleep train, but also it will block your view if you have a video monitor set up. (A rolled over Archer below, playing at 3am)
Product recommendations
| Swaddles & Sleep Sacks |
Link to buy SwaddleMe swaddles on Amazon:
✦ Small Size (0-3 months) https://amzn.to/2NEbysY
✦ Large Size (3-6 months) https://amzn.to/32zPbcd
You can also get SwaddleMe products at large Mother Care stores or at Target.
After 6 months we started to use a sleep-sack, the brand doesn’t really matter at this point, as long as it is something with two arm holes and a large sack on the bottom it will be fine.
| White noise machine |
What I do not recommend: Bubzi Co makes this Owl, and Fisher Price makes a Seahorse. The problem with these two is that it lights up and it plays music. This is good for the period right before sleep when you’re winding the baby down, but it is not a good replacement for a white noise machine.
✦ LOFTEK $29.99 USD https://amzn.to/2X5Bb8S
This one is very similar to what we got from Taobao, but without the lighting. This is rechargeable with a cable and great for on the go.
✦ MyBaby Sound Spa $9.99 USD https://amzn.to/2O3vNze
This is a cheaper option, however is only battery operated.
The Technique – The Progressive Waiting Method by Dr. Ferber
As mentioned there are many techniques you can use for sleep training, such as no-cry techniques, or the Pick-Up-Put-Down technique, or the cry-it-out technique. When choosing the technique, you have to consider the child's age, their temperament, and also your parenting style.
The method I used is based on Dr Richard Ferber’s Progressive Waiting Approach. It does involve crying, but it is spaced, which creates a positive stress, kind of like first day of day-care, to encourage the child to mature, establish not only independence but also trust in you as the care giver. This is a technique which is fast and effective, and it took me less than 2 weeks to get my son into routine.
A few things to note before you start this 1-2 week sleep training:
✦ You and your baby should be in great health condition. If the baby is having a cold or is fussy post immunization, it's best to hold off for a week.
✦ For consistency, one adult should carry out the full sleep training. Meaning that if you have a helper, nanny, and also your partner, you should hold off on letting them join in on the technique until the baby has been properly trained. After about 2 weeks, it is ok to teach other care givers the technique for them to take over. If your baby is in regular contact with a grand parent, make sure you are very specific and tough on how they care for the baby should they be putting the baby down for sleep. We all know that Grandmas will want to steal extra time to rock the baby to sleep, but that will just undo the training you've done and bring back the bad habits.
✦ Make sure your baby is getting enough recommended calories during the day appropriate for the age, whether it’s from formula and/or solids.
Formula feeding calculator link: https://www.thecalculator.co/health/Formula-Feeding-Calculator-657.html
✦ You’ll need a strong and consistent mind set, which your baby will pick up on. Your reassurance will help your baby to establish trust and feel secure with the changes that’s about to happen.
How it works:
1) Start your bedtime routine about 10 minutes before bed time. I usually read him a book, dim the lights, change his diaper, and turn on his Fisher Price seahorse for the duration of 2 lullabies. Make sure that when you put your baby to bed, they are still awake.
2) Tuck your baby in their own bed. Calmly put your now drowsy baby in the crib. The room should be dark at this point, but you may turn on the white noise machine, then leave the room.
3) Check in according to the chart below, increasing to a longer wait time if your baby cries persistently. Once you hear the baby cry loudly, start your timer, after the appropriate wait time, calmly go into the room and gently pat them for a minute. Please do not pick the baby up. Then leave the room, and start the timer again for the next wait if the baby continues to cry.
2) Tuck your baby in their own bed. Calmly put your now drowsy baby in the crib. The room should be dark at this point, but you may turn on the white noise machine, then leave the room.
3) Check in according to the chart below, increasing to a longer wait time if your baby cries persistently. Once you hear the baby cry loudly, start your timer, after the appropriate wait time, calmly go into the room and gently pat them for a minute. Please do not pick the baby up. Then leave the room, and start the timer again for the next wait if the baby continues to cry.
From Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems, Richard Ferber, MD. (p. 74)
For babies under 6 months, you may want to start with the 3 minute – 5 minutes – 10 minutes interval
If your baby is older than 6 months, you can skip ahead and do 5 minutes – 10 minutes - 12 minutes
*Source: https://www.thebump.com/a/ferber-method
Technically sleep training is not recommended for babies until they are 6 months old as they still need to feed through the night, according to Jeffrey Bourne, MD, a paediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
In my baby’s case, he still had 1-2 times of a night feed after sleep training, but stopped all together and slept for a full 12 hours after he hit 6 months. In my opinion though, getting trained at 4 months and having 1-2 nights of night feed is better than waiting till 6 months but have 2 months of daily night feeds. If you can start establishing a good healthy sleep routine at 4 months, then there is no harm doing it.
You may notice that even before sleep training, a baby does whimper before sleep. This is a form of self-soothing, and is the baby’s attempt to help themselves fall asleep. If you do hear whimpering, don’t rush in and check on the baby, this will disrupt their learning of this new skill. Only start the timer to check-in on them when the baby is continuously and loudly crying.
*** It is important to know that when you go back into the room to pat the baby, do not pick the baby up. You need to leave them on their backs in the crib, and pat their chest near one of the shoulders and make a “shhhhh” sound with each pat. If the baby is crying loudly, you can increase your volume so they can hear it.***
Sometimes babies will fight through the whole nap. But keep the consistency and keep continue using the subsequent wait times for the duration of the nap. When the time is up, wake them up and make sure they get ample sunlight and stimulation to keep them awake until the next nap. You want to make it clear to your child that when it’s dark and quiet, it is sleep time; and when it is bright and fun, it is awake time.
For babies under 6 months, you may want to start with the 3 minute – 5 minutes – 10 minutes interval
If your baby is older than 6 months, you can skip ahead and do 5 minutes – 10 minutes - 12 minutes
*Source: https://www.thebump.com/a/ferber-method
Technically sleep training is not recommended for babies until they are 6 months old as they still need to feed through the night, according to Jeffrey Bourne, MD, a paediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
In my baby’s case, he still had 1-2 times of a night feed after sleep training, but stopped all together and slept for a full 12 hours after he hit 6 months. In my opinion though, getting trained at 4 months and having 1-2 nights of night feed is better than waiting till 6 months but have 2 months of daily night feeds. If you can start establishing a good healthy sleep routine at 4 months, then there is no harm doing it.
You may notice that even before sleep training, a baby does whimper before sleep. This is a form of self-soothing, and is the baby’s attempt to help themselves fall asleep. If you do hear whimpering, don’t rush in and check on the baby, this will disrupt their learning of this new skill. Only start the timer to check-in on them when the baby is continuously and loudly crying.
* Source: The levels of sleep crying in sleep training https://blog.cradleapp.com/the-levels-of-crying-in-sleep-training-19e2a973a545
*** It is important to know that when you go back into the room to pat the baby, do not pick the baby up. You need to leave them on their backs in the crib, and pat their chest near one of the shoulders and make a “shhhhh” sound with each pat. If the baby is crying loudly, you can increase your volume so they can hear it.***
Sometimes babies will fight through the whole nap. But keep the consistency and keep continue using the subsequent wait times for the duration of the nap. When the time is up, wake them up and make sure they get ample sunlight and stimulation to keep them awake until the next nap. You want to make it clear to your child that when it’s dark and quiet, it is sleep time; and when it is bright and fun, it is awake time.
Self-soothing is a learning curve, most parents find that the crying is the worst during the 2nd or 3rd day of training, and that is when most parents give up. But you will start to see results after that. It is when the child realizes that even if mommy or daddy comes in, they will not pick me up. Along with the space of time becoming bigger, they will start to stick to self-soothing.
Link to the bestseller book by Dr. Richard Ferber: “Solve your Child’s Sleep Problems” https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743201639?tag=simonsayscom
What my experience was like
Before sleep training, my son’s habits and sleep was all over the place. This is what his schedule would look like:
7:30am pee
8:20am solids (Spinach)
8:25am poo
8:45am 120ml formula
9:25am - 11:40am nap
12:15pm 120ml formula
1:20pm - 2pm nap
2:30pm - 120ml formula
3:40pm 30ml formula (nurse to sleep)
3:45pm - 5:30pm sleep
5:50pm 120ml formula
8:15pm 140ml formula
8:30pm - 10:30pm sleep
bath time
11:15pm - 2:15am sleep
2:15am 90ml formula
2:30am - 4:20am sleep
4:20am 90ml formula
4:30am - 7:15am sleep
His nap times are somewhat ok, but the timing is just off. It would be adjusted to 2 longer naps, one in the morning and one just after lunch, and one short 30min nap in the afternoon.
Bath time was completely off. I was misunderstanding one of the transitions between his sleep cycles as “he’s fully awake”, and used that time to give him a bath and read to him. But I always wondered why he was 1) not happy when woke up and 2) often fell asleep before I even finish giving him a top up bottle.
He was feeding a lot at night, so we had to wean him off night feeds before sleep training.
When we started, he was also napping in the living room with the curtains opened, on a play bed, sometimes even unswaddled. All of the no-nos for good quality sleep.
The steps we took looked somewhat like:
✦ Eliminate night feeding
✦ Eliminate nurse to sleep (falling asleep on the bottle, or using a bottle to make the baby sleep)
✦ Adjust his day time nap schedule
✦ Sleep Training
✦ Eliminate 3rd catnap, readjust day time nap (7 months)
✦ Eliminate dream feed (7 months)
Sleep Training isn’t something that is like a miracle and sticks always and every day after that. After sleep training, we still had maybe 1-2 times a week where I had to go in and sooth him overnight. It was only recently at the end of 6 months where he started consistently sleeping 11-12 hours a night completely uninterrupted.
A few challenges that required some adjustment:
✦ Keep in mind that your baby may not always wake at 10:30pm exactly to take the dream feed. Archer has woken up at 9:30pm at times, sometimes he isn’t even bothered until I give him his bottle at 11pm, so the window for a dream feed is very fluid. The 10:30pm is just a guideline to stick to during training. If you think your baby is becoming extra hungry, you can increase the day time intake, but don’t increase the dream feed to anything over 180ml (this will cause diaper leakage issues and will be harder to eliminate come 7-months). Another way to avoid the baby waking up unexpectedly overnight is to increase the solids during the day. For example, I always feed something thicker for Archer at 6:30pm for his dinner, like mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or taro.
✦ Adding in Lunch (5 months): we used the split milk strategy where we fed him half a bottle of usual milk at 10:45am (30min break) 11:15am fed him bananas (30min break), then finish up the rest of the bottle at 11:45am. Once he was used to the solids, we then offered him bananas at 11am and formula at 12pm. Splitting milk ensures that he gets some formula first after waking up from the first nap thirsty and hungry, but then not too full to try out solids.
✦ Earlier morning waking (6 months): Archer started waking up at 5:30am or 6am when he turned 6 months. I compensated by moving his morning nap forward to 8:30am, but that was a mistake. Try to stick to the 9am nap schedule as usual, as well as the rest of the day as much as possible, and keep the baby awake until bed time. In fact, I stretched his bed time to 7:30pm, and soon he readjusted back to waking between 6:30 – 7:00am
✦ Peeing through his diaper at night (6 months): we had about 2 weeks of where Archer would pee through his diaper consistently at night, both at the dream feed at 10:30pm and after he woke at 7am. We could not find the reason at all, his feed amount was consistent, I couldn’t lower it to less than 150ml, we tried letting him wear some protective pants and they still leaked. We went through about 6 different brands of diapers. This was super disruptive to his sleep as he would wake up annoyed and all wet on the entire side of his body. We weren’t diapering him incorrectly either because me, my husband, and the nanny would take turns, but he still pees through every round. The most effective method we’ve found is double diapering. He wore his regular L size Merries, then had another layer of XL size Merries on top. After that our problems were solved forever. But this stopped around 7 months.
✦ Dinner becoming difficult (7 months) we added in dinner around 5-6 months where he drinks milk at 5:30pm then eats solids at 6:30pm then goes to bed at 7pm. Around 7 months we started noticing that at 5:30pm Archer is very slow with his milk, sometimes taking up to 30min to finish. Then it would be a huge fight and strangle to try to feed him sweet potatoes at 6:30pm. Simply swapping the 2 solved the problem, so now he eats first, then drinks milk before story time then bed.
✦ His morning wake up time and day time naps went all out of whack (7months): he started waking up at 5am, refusing to nap more than 45min-1hr for his morning and lunch nap, and then refusing his cat nap so he’s extra cranky from staying awake from 1:30pm – 6:30pm. This was a sign he is ready to drop his 3rd nap and readjust his schedule. (see next part)
✦ He started drinking less for his dream feed (6-7months): this was a slow progression, first from 180ml down to 150ml, so every week or so we notice that he keeps having 30ml left, until he was down to 60ml. He would push the bottle away and just turn right back to sleep with 30ml to spare. This was a sign that we were ready to just let him sleep and do away with the dream feed entirely.
New Schedule at 7 months old
6:30am Wake up, poo (his poo schedule also became consistent after sleep training, because his eating schedule regulated)
7:00am 180ml milk
8:00am Breakfast, one piece of toast and yoghurt + fruit (this is the meal I introduce new food to him)
10:00am – 11:30am nap
11:30am Lunch, one banana
12:30pm 150ml
(go for a walk outside)
2:45pm 150ml
3:00pm – 4:30pm nap
5:00pm bath
5:30pm Dinner, sweet potatoes
6:30pm 150ml
7:00pm – 6:30am sleep
Another thing I’ve been doing consistently during his awake hours is to play with him to help him develop, such as
✦ Playing with texture balls and chew toys
✦ Sing songs and help him move by playing with his arms and legs
✦ Walking around the house with him and explaining things to him
✦ Reading books / color flash cards
✦ Lying on play mat and tummy time, or his stationary bouncy chair after 5.5 months
✦ Using his swing which has color lights/spin toys/mirror on top
Recommended App to help you massively with Sleep Training:
Glow Baby is an amazing app I've been using since Archer was back from the hospital. It helps me track his sleep, feeding (breastfeeding, bottle and solids), track his mile stones, receive reports, understand how he's doing compared to other average babies, and detect any changes in his day to day patterns.
The premium version gives you the analysis with charts, which is optional and costs $50 usd for a 1 year membership. Honestly it's the only app I've ever paid for and it's so worth it, but you can also pay for just 1 month or 3 months to try it out, or stick with the free version.
Wow, if you’ve finished reading all this information, you must really care about your baby's sleep and is serious about helping them get some good night's rest. I’ve condensed this as much as possible, but there is so much to know about baby’s sleep. It’s a topic that is so important, but not learned enough by parents. I do hope that you’ve found some useful information, and please share this with any of your friends who need help. Not every baby is the same, but the important thing about sleep training is while you keep your consistency, be fluid and read your baby’s cue. It is ok to tweak things up or switch things up a little bit. But if you follow the general big-picture guideline of what is mentioned in this post, I have no doubt that you and your baby will soon be enjoying the full-night’s rest that you deserve.
A well-rested baby is a happy baby
If you haven't yet, you can read my 6 month baby update for other aspects of parenthood outside of sleep training.
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