Bedtime Routine

Bedtime is quite likely my favorite part of the day. Not only because of the quiet that usually follows but because it's such a great Daddy-Dawsie time. When Dawson was first born, I read in the Healthy Sleep / Happy Child book that kids need a bedtime routine so they can start preparing themselves to sleep. So with little variation, here's how our bedtime routine has looked since Dawson was about 6 weeks old.

We give him milk while changing his diaper and putting on his pajamas. We then move to the rocking chair, where he continues to drink his milk (the amount has been lessened as he's gotten older) as we read him some books. The reading is one of my favorite parts of the routine. We read a few normal/ daytime books but we eventually end with several night-time books. Books such as Night, Night, Little Pookie, Pajama Time, The Going to Bed Book, Five Little Monkeys, and the night-time classic Goodnight, Moon.

After reading and drinking the milk, it's time to pray together. I say, "Dawson, it's time to pray." Sometimes, Dawson responds by folding his hands. Lately, he's started responding by whining and squirming because he knows it's almost time for bed. But when he does fold his hands, my heart melts.

The last part of the routine is the "night-night song," Hush Little, Baby is the official song. One nostalgic thing about this song is that I can remember my mom singing it to me, and tickling me at the end of it, just as I do to Dawson now. Lately, Dawson has wanted to turn around and hug and look at me while I sing him this song. He often smiles, gives me a kiss then puts his head on my shoulder as I finish the song. Last night, he smiled at me and got his face close to mine in a very precious moment.

When the song is over, I let him know it's time for night-night, I put him in the crib, cover him with a blanket and give him a stuffed animal. He usually dives onto that stuffed animal as I cover him with a blanket. Most of the time, he's close to being asleep before I even shut the door. Most of the time...

Our boy likes to sleep

We've had the idea that about the only thing we can really shape in Dawson's first year are his sleep habits. I've posted on these before, our struggles and successes. Well, Dawsie loves his sleep, he needs his sleep and he knows when it's time to go to bed.

About a month ago, Grandma Kim was watching him while we were out. Now Kim likes to keep Dawson up as long as possible to spend as much time with him as she can. This night Dawson let his Grandma know it was time for bed. At 8:00, which is about as late as he can stay up, Dawson crawled down the hall, sat in front of the closed door to his bedroom and cried. Think about that, he was begging his Grandma to let him go to bed.

That's awesome.

Now just tonight, Erin had just bathed Dawson and put on his diapers when her dad called. She took the phone into Dawson's room and sat in the rocking chair while talking with her dad.
Dawson crawled into his room, popped his binkie in his mouth, grabbed a few books from the nightstand and tried crawling into his mommy's lap.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child stated it's very important to set up a bedtime routine for small children, so they begin preparing for sleep. The book never mentioned that the child might be the one to enforce the routine.

Teething and Sinuses

I should have never written this post. The past two weeks, Dawson has been teething and has had a sinus infection, meaning he wakes up crying about every two hours. It's been pretty rough in the Miller house, with the lack of sleep. We got some medicine from the Dr. today so hopefully that will help.

That's parenting, right? Just when you think you've got something figured out you find yourself starting all over again.

I'll never write a "mission accomplished" post again.

Night Sleep

Last night, Dawson went to bed at 7:30 and didn't wake up until 5:40. He went down without any struggle and woke up happy. It hasn't been easy to get there, though.

Erin and I have been following pretty closely the guidance in the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, recommended to us by our mutual funds rep, Brian. Dawson has been sticking with the sleep milestones and habits Dr. Weissbluth outlines in his book; two long naps during the nap and waking up once for a nighttime feeding. With Dawson approaching 9 months however, Dr. W says it's time to phase out the night feeding. So Sunday night, I sent Erin to sleep downstairs so I could do the "work" of helping Dawson break his habit of a midnight bottle.

2:30, Dawson woke up crying for his bottle, right on cue. I put a binky back in his mouth, tried to quite him but it didn't work. It was then time to let Dawson cry it out. 3:00 he was still screaming full strength so I went back in, put the binky back in his mouth and laid him back down. That didn't work, so there was another 20 minutes of crying but the cries were lessening in intensity. I went back in to check on him and saw that he was at least laying down by now and I knew he was about to give in to sleep. 10 minutes later, he was asleep, not waking up again until 6:45.

Now, believe me, that hour of crying was not easy. I laid in bed for awhile, did some reading but mostly kept reassuring myself I was doing the right thing. "If he doesn't learn to sleep now, he'll never learn and I want him to sleep at college," "crying is a form of amnesia, it will help him unlearn his waking up habit," and "babies have to learn to self soothe and if you do it for them, they'll never learn." Those principles from Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child kept me strong.

The next night, he woke up again and cried for another hour. This time, I didn't do anything to sooth him and he eventually fell asleep on his own.

The third night, I woke up at exact same time but NO CRYING BABY! At 4:00 that morning, he cried out and I thought he was going to wake up but he went right back to sleep.

This round of self-will has been won by mommy and daddy. Not only do we gain the benefit of a full night's sleep but Dawson gains the benefit of learning how to sleep through the night and how to put himself back to sleep if he wakes up. It's a great, great feeling and I'm VERY glad it's over.

This morning in church, I was recommending that book to sleep-deprived parents of a one month old. I was told by another family that when they decided to break their son of the night waking habit, he cried for 6 straight hours! Dawson is such an easy baby.

Sleeping next to daddy

Erin and I have both had some precious moments with Dawson the past couple of weeks. When he wakes up at an hour we deem too early, we quickly feed and change him, then force him to lie next to us on the couch. We position our bodies in such a way that he's basically crammed between the couch and our side, restricting most of his wiggling (though not all). We drape our arms over him, hold his little finger in our hand, put the binky back in his mouth and then lie there hoping to go back to sleep. After 10-15 minutes, the wiggling stops, his breaths get longer and deeper and we get anywhere from a 20 minute to an hour long nap. Often, I'm still awake while Dawson sleeps. Feeling his sleeping little body curled up next to mine is one of the most moving experiences I've had as parent.

I did another post on "sleeping next to daddy" here.

Sleeping with Daddy

Dawson's Daddy wrote a post about what it is like to cuddle up in Daddy's arms. You can read it here.

First Time Crying Himself to Sleep

Dawson usually goes to sleep pretty easily, as long as we time it right. We feed him, rock him then put him down. If he fusses, we go back in his room, quiet him down and give him his pacifier again.
We're also reading the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and just received a timely warning from that book. The Author, who is a Dr. specializing in sleep patterns of children, warned that while it's no big deal to go in and check on your kids at 4 months, as they get older they'll learn to manipulate you. He wrote you have to let them cry once you put them down, no matter how long it will take. Even if you set a limit of say, 20 minutes, the child will learn they need to cry for 20 minutes before getting a response. If you just let them cry, they'll eventually fall asleep. And crying to sleep does not harm their psyche.

Last night, Dawson clearly wanted to play rather than go to sleep. When we put him down, he cried very hard. While it was difficult, we kept ourselves from going in his room to comfort him. Eventually, the crying got softer until he drifted off to sleep.

Luckily for our nerves, it only took 11 minutes.

Sleeping Patterns

We just put Dawson down for the night and he is out like a light. His sleeping habits have started to become more consistent. Following the advice from Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, I've been keeping a sleep journal, tracking his sleeping patterns. The author, who is a doctor specializing in children's sleep habits, wrote that kids under four months should stay awake no more than than 2 hours straight and should be allowed to sleep whenever they're tired. At four months, parents start working to establish a napping schedule.
This seems to be a much more balanced approach than what was suggested (no, commanded) in Baby Wise. But while we've discarded the advice on the nap schedule, what we took away from Baby Wise was the need for a feeding schedule.
Dawson has been sleeping for about 10 hours at night, waking up twice to eat but immediately going back to sleep after being changed and fed. That's been very nice but it's lead to the amazing miracles we've experienced the past two nights.
On Thursday night, Dawson slept 8 straight hours! We put him down at 9:30 and he didn't wake up until 5:30. Often, though after setting a new record for sleep, he'd shorten it by an hour or two the next night. I guess, technically he did shorten it the next night, but only by an hour, meaning he slept 7 straight hours on Friday night! Simply amazing.
Maybe this is a move toward a full night's sleep for mommy and daddy?

Wait, I hear some whimpering. Maybe tonight won't be that easy. Dawson had a rough day today, very fussy.