Often, a lot of emphasis is placed on getting a child into a routine. We handle it differently with our girls.  We first focus on dealing with habits. These are habits that may slow down the process of eventually getting a child into routine .

These  habits include: wanting to fall asleep on the breast, needing to be held until asleep and crying when lights are switched off,  not wanting to sleep in their own bed.. It is important for me for instance to deal with baby wanting to fall asleep on the breast because I travel often and it can be extremely  stressful for both baby and the caregiver when I am away.

Here are some tips on how we have dealt with these habits in various ways:

I. Sleeping on the boobies

When our babies get to about 4 months old and are comfortable with bottle feeding, we ensure that they have their bottle just before bedtime. This way, I am able to know that baby wanting to breastfeed  once they are satisfied and are ready for bed is for comfort and not hunger. The temptation to go ahead and let  baby have what they want  so that they fall asleep is real?. However, by not giving in for a few nights (difficult as it), baby gets the drill and should soon stop trying to breastfeed to fall asleep. ??

ii. Needing to  be held to fall asleep

Holding baby until they are asleep works great. It’s the most convenient way  to get baby to sleep  However, if you intend to have your baby able to fall asleep independently, then one must begin to train  baby to soothe themselves to sleep. Our 3.5 year old is the easiest person to put to bed. All she needs is some help in getting ready for bed… once she’s in bed…it’s goodnight and  lights off. She will find sleep on her own. Even if she wakes up in the middle of the night… she will keep calm and find sleep again. Our 1.5 year old still likes to be held before she sleeps. However, once she is sleepy, when placed down, she stays down until she falls asleep. It took some tough love to get her here.

To help baby learn to soothe themselves to sleep, once baby is fed and getting drowsy, place them down. Some babies…mine was like this too ?? will wake up again and stand up crying as soon as they are placed down. Don’t be discouraged.  It takes practice, persistence and some tears for them to get it. If you give up…so will they! So keep at it…with love❤

iii. Sleeping in your bed when there’s an alternative

Like I mentioned before…co-sleeping is perfectly fine if that’s the way you want to go.  But if you intend to have baby sleeping independently…then the sooner they sleep in their own space, the better.

At birth, our girls slept in their own bed placed by our bed.  Each of our girls has only spent one or two nights in our bed when unwell.  We put Baby no. 1 in her  own room at 6 months and Baby no. 2 was lucky to stay in our room until she was a year old. Getting them to share a room is something else. I will share tips soon.

v. Crying when the lights go off!

This is one thing that I deal with from the very beginning because it can be a huge obstacle when sleep training. It is not an easy one to get past.

From the onset, once baby is ready for bed… its lights off and we stay in a dark room until asleep. If baby wakes up during the night, I keep the lights off and use a smaller light that still leaves the room largely dark.  The girls have learnt to associate darkness with bedtime and do not cry even when they wake up alone in a dark room in the middle of the night.

I am certainly no expert but these little nuggets have worked for us. The one thing that has remained constant is the need for patience. It doesn’t all happen overnight…even if we just don’t stop wishing it could??