#selfsettle

Sleep training… It is probably the most spoken about topic when it comes to parenting. I can tell you, i have had the best sleep in my adult life since having a baby- I’m not working nightshifts and doing shiftwork! Bubs is a wonderful sleep through the night happy restful bubs, here’s how we do it.

First of all, bubs who sleep through the night, don’t actually sleep right through. They still have relatively short sleep cycles, so they wake up at certain intervals overnight. The key to sleeping through is self settling. Teaching bubs how to self settle is what sleep training is all about.

Once bubs turns 6 months, he realizes that when you leave the room, you don’t actually disappear. This is when it’s ok to start sleep training.

First of all, move bubs into his own room. This was the best thing we did to aid his self settling. When we tried to let him self settle in our room he’d look up, see that we were a meter away and couldn’t figure out why we weren’t picking him up. Once we moved him to his own room, we’d close the door and he knew there was no point in crying out, once the door was closed it was time to sleep. The way to make this work- don’t come back!

Now there are a few steps to get you there, afterall you want a reassured happy restful bubs, not a stressed out one, so a bedtime routine is crucial.

Babies learn the association thing quite early. If we’re bathing, then massaging, then reading to him at the same spot and time every night, he will know what comes next and start to prepare himself from there. They’re clever little things!

You’ll have to make sure nappies nice and dry ready for the night. And bubs has to be comfy in his pjs and sleep bag associated with room temp. Also prepare spare dummies in his cot that he can reach out for if bubs is a dummy user. His blankey, favorite toy or lovey attachment item is essential too- if bubs has one of these, make sure you buy spares of them.

To get bubs drowsy, you can sit together in a semi dark room and have quiet time. If you prefer, you can read or sing to him. Singing a particular lullaby every night is a great time to sleep signal- ours is 'Everybody Clap' by the Wiggles. It is often practiced that bubs is danced to sleep, which is fine until he’s 10kg and you feel like you’re doing a gym workout before bed, for bubs that are used to this I’d suggest sitting on a rocking chair.

When bubs is drowsy but not asleep just yet, give him lots of kisses a tight hug and put him to bed. If over 6 months no need to tuck him in, he’ll eventually need to learn how to roll himself around to get himself comfy for sleep- just like what we do now with the tossing and turning. Switch the monitor on, switch the musical mobile on, flick the light off and gently close the door.

Cry it out. First few times you will experience the cry. And this could go on for a couple of months to be honest. The main rule here is do not go back in unless its a distress cry or if its been over 1hr. Yup, 1 whole hr! Gotta get yourself busy doing something quiet in the house- iron, fold the clothes, anything! After you’ve given bubs that hr you can pick him up, re settle and put him down while he’s drowsy but not quite asleep yet, and do it all over again.

This is the only way I find it works for us and others that I’ve suggested it to. There are numerous other methods- the patting technique, staying in the rm whilst crying, list goes on. Honestly, I feel that this confuses bubs and the message gets a little lost.

To establish the self settling, you gotta teach bubs to recognize when bedtime is approaching with a good solid bedtime routine. Let him cry it out for 1hr and be persistent and strict with this unless it is a distressed cry. Same thing goes for when bubs wakes overnight, allow him 1hr to self settle unless distressed.