How I Taught My Baby to Sleep Through The Night| Products I Used and Sleep Training Tips and Tricks

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Hey Guys!

Today I wanted to share my story and some products that help Luke sleep through the night. I know all babies are different so please always talk to your pediatrician before beginning any formal sleep training.

Here is a little background on our sleep journey. When I was pregnant I read the book “Beyond Babywise” . It basically gave a lot of background information on things that can affect a babies sleep that I never thought of. It layed out different schedules for different ages and gives so much information about the science of sleep.

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I won’t bore you with all the information but night sleep patterns start during the day time. Babies need to get as many calories during the day to fill their bellies for less wakings at night. Babies also need different amounts of daytime sleep at different ages and if they don’t get enough or get too much this can affect nighttime sleep. I use the website Taking Cara Babies which has free schedules you can look at and follow depending on your babies age. Check them out HERE.

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Also keep in mind, babies aren’t robots. They will have good days/ nights and bad ones. I stressed a lot in the beginning about always putting Luke down at certain times and I would get so much anxiety if I didn’t hit the mark or if Luke wouldn’t fall asleep ASAP. Now that I have realized I can’t control him no matter how much I try, I cut myself and him a little slack. With that in mind, I track his sleeping, eating, and diapers with the Huckleberry app. I use the free version and after you enter data in for a couple weeks, it will start calculating and give you the “Sweet Spots” or the best times to put baby down for naps and for the night. I love this because it takes the guess work out of keeping track of times and I find it to be accurate most of the time.

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I have been trying to practice good sleep habits since the day Luke came home. This does NOT mean I was sleep training from day 1, but I was setting Luke up to slowly build to become a good night sleeper. When I brought Luke home he was on a schedule of Eat, Awake, Sleep. This way he didn’t associate eating with sleeping which is a hard habit to break in the future (obviously this doesn’t apply to nighttime). He would eat every 3 hours like clockwork day and night which is very important for growth and development. During the day, he would nap in his bassinet in our room, with daylight streaming in and the door open so he would be able to learn day vs, night and get used to noise. This is important since infants don’t understand the difference.

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Once Luke was 3 months, he was becoming more aware of his surroundings and sleeping a long stretch of 5 hours at night so we transitioned him to all naps and nighttime sleep in his crib in his room. Since he was more aware and alert to his surroundings, we made sure every nap and nighttime sleep was now done in a darkened room with a sound machine. The sound machine and darkness signal to him that it is time to sleep. By this age, Luke understood his days and nights so there was no need to differentiate them anymore. One fascinating fact I learned is the brain learns day and night sleep separately so a baby will usually do great with one before they learn the other. Luke learned night sleep before day sleep which was a huge blessing. Since the focus should be on learning night sleep, this is often learned first.

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The sound machine we use is the Hatch Baby Rest. It is amazing because it has so many different sounds to use, has different light colors, different brightness levels and can also be used from an app on your phone. I currently have mine set to 2 different modes. The first has the white noise sound at a medium volume with dim red light. Red light doesn’t disrupt sleep so once Luke was older than 3 months I switched the light to this one so if I needed to see I could but it also wouldn’t affect his sleep. Before 3 months when I was nursing him throughout the night it was just a dim white light. The other mode that we have which it is on 90% of the time is just white noise at a loud volume. This helps to drown out any noise from the outside and also signal to Luke’s brain that it is time to sleep.

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To make Luke’s room as dark as possible, I layered black out curtains from target and then added a travel blackout curtain that can suction to his window. It is under his blinds so you can’t see it but I love that it blocks every sliver of light that can stream in. It is also easy to put up and take down which will be perfect for any future travels.

Another amazing thing I have been using since we first brought Luke home is THIS portable nightlight. It is rechargeable and dimmable so it is perfect to carry around the nursery so you don’t have to turn on the overhead light. When Luke was tiny, I used it to give light when I would change his diaper and nurse. Now that he is older and I don’t change him at night, I keep it on the floor by his door to tap on when I go in to sooth him or put him down to sleep. It is such a soft light when it is at the lowest setting that it doesn’t affect his sleep at all.

Speaking of diaper changes, once we officially sleep trained Luke, this meant no more middle of the night diaper changes. Of course, if baby wakes up soaked or poops in their sleep please change them. Luke hasn’t pooped in his sleep since he was a couple months old so that doesn’t worry me. When we first started sleep training, Luke was starting to roll all around the crib in his sleep. This was causing his diaper to loosen up and pee to leak out. This would cause wet spots and make him wake up cold and wet. Not an ideal sleeping situation. I tried many different combos but the one I find works the best is what I like to call my “Diaper Sandwich”. I take an overnight diaper in 1 size up (currently using Huggies) then I put a spoosie pad in that diaper which is basically like a Maxi Pad for Babies. I make sure it is positioned mostly in the front for maximum absorption. If you have a boy, make sure his penis is facing down. Then I layer 1 more overnight diaper on top to seal it all in. I also slather on a thick layer of diaper cream to his behind before bed. This way any moisture that sits on his skin all night doesn’t irritate him and give him a rash. My favorite is THIS ONE. Make sure you pull the ruffles in the leg holes all the way out when the diaper is on. This catches leaks before they leave the diaper.

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Around 3.5 months Luke went through the dreaded 4 month regression. Regressions happen when babies go through major developmental milestones and they can greatly impact an infants sleep. Before the regression, Luke was sleeping 5 hours then waking up for a feed then another 3 to 4 hours before waking up for the morning. Once the regression hit, he was waking up every 1.5 to 2 hours and I ended up sleeping with him in his room in his rocking chair for the whole month.

At around 4.5 months, my husband and I made the decision to start sleep training since it seemed the regression was passing. We were going to wait until 5 months since this is when most doctors recommend to start but we got the go ahead from our doctor. We decided on a gentle Cry It Out Method or Ferber. There are many sleep training methods out there so choose the one you feel most comfortable with. Our method had us put him to bed and if he starts crying/waking I set a timer for 6 minutes. After 6 minutes, we go in kiss him on the head and say “you are ok” and leave. Then repeat at 8 min and 10. My number 1 rule when you do these pop ins is keep them short and sweet and DO NOT turn on any lights. You don’t want to create any disruptions to the sleep environment and turning on a light would do this in a major way.

Many people have different opinions but if I feel that Luke is absolutely inconsolable, or has been crying on and off for an hour I will pick him up and rock him back to sleep. This barely happens but there are nights where he needs a few extra cuddles and this is OK.

The first 2 nights I made my husband do all the pop ins because the crying was breaking my heart and the smell of me would make Luke cry even harder. After seeing Luke respond so quickly to the training, I took over night 3 and he did amazing!

During this sleep training we also decided to transition Luke out of his swaddle and into a normal sleep sack which I thought would be another disaster but Luke actually was ready for the switch and did perfectly. We used the Halo Swaddle from day 1 and slowly transitioned to 1 arm out then both arms. Once he was sleeping with both arms out I bought a regular sleep sack and that is what we will use until about 2 years old.

I also breastfeed and was breastfeeding when I put him to bed and about 5 hours later when he would wake around midnight and then again when he would wake around 3. I wanted to cut out the middle of the night feed and move the midnight feed to a 10 pm dream feed. A dream feed is done 3 hours after you put baby down and done when they are still sleeping. When we first started training, Luke would cry for the feeding but I had to teach him not to cry for the feeding so I would wait until he fell back asleep or when there was a lull in the crying and quickly go in and feed him. This eventually taught him that crying at night didn’t result in being fed so he stopped crying for that feed. As for the 3 am feeding, I was going to start cutting the feed time down that way he stops getting used to it and drops it slowly, but one night I slept through through the feed by accident and Luke didn’t wake up so we cut it cold turkey. I made sure to get the go ahead from my pediatrician before I cut this feeding. We still do a dream feed and I am sure he is at the age where I can cut it but I like the extra feed to help drain me before bed and to give some extra cuddles

Luke currently goes down to bed between 7 and 8 depending on how his naps go during the day. He wakes between 6 and 7 am and usually rarely cries in the night anymore. If he does, it’s usually for his binky so I go in and pop it back in, or he just randomly cries for 1 minute and falls back asleep. We have had nights where I have to rock him back to sleep such as when he is teething or he has gas but I am thankful to say I have been sleeping in my bed every night and not in the chair in his nursery.

I know that the next regression is coming up soon so we shall see how our sleeping habits change but since I know Luke has the capability to sleep through the night and has already learned the skills, even if we have a bit of roughness, it will be easier to get him back on track.

If you have made it to the end of my long rambling I appreciate it! If you have any questions please feel free to leave them below!

XOXO Channing