The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Naps

Naps are important for babies. How a baby naps often points to how they sleep at night (and vise versa). Hyrum is an inconsistent napper. Some naps are long, others are short. Some are peaceful, others are restless. When he was younger, his naps were pretty consistent and usually peaceful. As he's gotten older, sleeping in general has gotten worse.

In efforts to help Hyrum sleep better at night, I realized I needed to tackle naps first. Here are some of the suggestions we are implementing from The No-Cry Sleep Solution:

1) start a nap routine, keep it simple: For our nap routine, I decided reading a book and a little bit of rocking could be a good way to wind down.
2) help your baby fall asleep different ways: I usually give the pacifier for naps. I'm going to try the following--breastfeeding until sleepy and putting down in crib, bouncing/rocking on the bouncy ball until sleepy and putting down in crib, going for a stroller ride and letting baby stay sleeping in the stroller, and lying down in bed with baby until asleep and putting in crib.
3) If baby's nap is less than an hour, work on extending the nap. Do whatever helps your baby fall back asleep: nursing almost always helps Hyrum go back to sleep so that seems the easiest go-to. I will also try replacing the pacifier before nursing to see if that will help.

The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Nighttime routine

I'm starting to work through a book called The No-Cry Sleep Solution to help Hyrum sleep through the night. One of the first steps listed is to create a nighttime routine that helps to signal sleepy time and help baby wind down. Right now our nighttime routine looks something like this:

7:15 bath time
7:25 massage
7:30 change into pajamas, nurse
7:45 Try to lay down in crib. If he cries, I'll pick him up and rock him or nurse him.

I realize that maybe I need this bedtime routine to be a little longer--not really to signal sleep because the current routine does that nicely--but to calm him down to get him ready for sleep. Here is my newly proposed plan:

1. 6:30pm--family walk
2. 7:00pm--bath
3. baby massage
4. change into pajamas
5. read 3 books
6. move to baby's room
7. lights out
8. sing Primary song
9. nurse
10. lay down in crib
10. rub tummy and stroke head
11. sleep

The main issue with this routine is the walk at 6:30pm. My husband doesn't get home from work until about 6pm. Normally we talk for a little while, make dinner together, play with the baby, and sit down to eat dinner. By the time we're done eating dinner, it's already after 7pm and basically time for Hyrum's bath. We could scratch the walk but since Daddy is at work all day, I really want us to be able to spend some time together as a family before Hyrum goes down for the night.

Therefore, I need to add a personal goal to our bedtime routine: have dinner ready at 6pm when Daddy walks through the door. While I really love the time that we spend talking in the kitchen together with the baby, we could move that time to the outdoors where we can all get a little bit of fresh air and spend time winding down together.