What is it about sleeping that we cannot stop talking about it? Or is it just me?! It is the main topic of any conversation, even when you don't even know the mom/dad: "You have a lovely baby, how does she sleep?". You just want to know if they are as sleep deprived as you are, and if they are not, you desperately want to know why? how? when? how?!? what? HOW?!?! .
So it begins, the search for that mysterious recipe or knowledge that will bring back the full night of sleep (or at least more than three straight hours) that you desperately need... The Holy Grail of Sleep.
I talked to everybody and tried everything they suggested, but for me it only got better when I learnt to roll with it. As soon as I stop fighting him and the fact that he didn't sleep more than two hours at a time, and fighting the fact that I had to be awake at night, then it got easy.
Here is the list of all the things I tried to get him to sleep... with very little or no success whatsoever...
1. Warm room: it got too warm so he couldn't sleep
2. Cool room: it got too cold so he woke up
3. Less naps during the day: almost impossible and super grumpy baby
4. Eat as much as possible during the day: only help him to put on weight, loads!
5. Bath him before bedtime
6. Massage him before bed
7. Wearing a plain sleeping suit: apparently one with prints got him too excited to sleep
8. Put a warm water bottle in his bed to warm his spot up before laying him down
9. Have the mattress on an incline
10. With the hair dryer on
11. With the vacuum cleaner on (all night long!)
12. With the white noise app on (he preferred the real sound from the vacuum cleaner)
13. In the car seat while driving him around the neighborhood
14. In the car seat in the bedroom
15. Swaddle: he spent more time awake trying to break free than actually sleeping
16. With a sleeping bag
17. On the baby sling
18. With my hand on his chest: which meant I slept on the floor
19. In bed with us: I was too worried about rolling over so this didn't work
20. With the dummy: he spit it out and cried for it more times that I can count
21. Trying to reason with him: we are not fluent on "baby language" so it didn't work
22. Pray: all the Gods from all religions were off duty that day
23. With my mom, in the spare bedroom: Best. thing. ever. She didn't mind being awake in the middle of the night, and it gave us 3 solid hours of sleep
Have you tried any other way to get your baby to sleep longer?
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