It's all we dream about as moms to be.. a sleeping baby. You never know what will get in the way colic, reflux, lactose intolerance, breastfeeding issues you name it. Despite all the things that could get in the way there's a lot of things that could go smoothly. You never know what you are going to get. We were prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. We were preparing ourselves for absolutely no sleep, and turned out we got pretty lucky. I thought I would share what we did that helped Lucy sleep at a young{er} age.
The first couple days were filled with adrenalin and love for our sweet baby girl so lack of sleep didn't really matter. The first night was spent waking up every 2 hours, since Lucy has having troubles with breastfeeding. With that said we were told to continue with that same schedule every two hours since she lost so much weight the first couple days. We were released from the hospital the day after she was born and went home and immediately and kept up with the same two hour schedule.
I put all my effort and energy into breastfeeding Lucy since we were having issues. We went to the doctor twice for her as well as lactation specialist for us and they were helpful but it still wasn't working, and she had the WORST reflux but the one thing we were super consistent with was laying her down in her crib when she fell asleep. That was our plan since before she was born, and I truly believe it is what helped her sleep in her crib, and put herself to sleep.
I think she was about 4-5 weeks old here, already busting out of her swaddle. she looks SOOO tiny!
Things started getting rough when her reflux started getting really bad, she was in so much pain when we laid her down. So we HAD to hold her upright after she ate it was the only way she would fall asleep. At this point we decided we would do the eat, play sleep schedule even though it was early for her age it worked. We fed her put her upright in her bouncer or swing and played with her, and then once she had been upright for about 30 minutes we would lay her down, and that seemed to help a lot. We also propped up her crib mattress on one end with the wedge you can buy, and she slept wonderfully.
We kept up with keeping her in her crib from the day we brought her home, and as much as I would have LOVED co-sleeping I totally believe she learned independence and how to put herself to sleep easier and quicker with us just putting her in her crib. Now I understand most moms don't want to get up and walk all the way into the nursery to feed you baby but if you have the energy I truly believe they sleep better and so do you.
This is what the end of playtime would look like ;)
Now this might not work for everyone, and someone might have a completely different experience that worked for them. I just wanted to share what worked for us, and what might work for you ;)
I cant believe that my tiny baby girl is this big already. I need time to slow down these next few months.
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