waterworks1
I have a question!! You’ve given the children chocolate based pseudonyms and you use them on the blog easily. Do you also use those names around the house? Do the children know what their names are? Do you have others (outside of the home) use those names for them? Did you create the names to ensure privacy for them? Just wondering. My husband started a facebook page and I requested that he not use our children’s given names. Engineering manager that he is, he uses Cost Center #1, #2, #3, and #4!!! I find that most people respect that and comment about the children using their CC#.
I started this blog as a direct result of the increased traffic I was getting on my first blog. I was posting crafts, homeschooling lessons, etc. that were generating traffic to what was initially set up as a family blog to keep our friends and family up to date. I began to be concerned about the privacy of my family. So this blog was set up with silly chocolate pseudonyms for everyone and my other blog went private.
My children do know their chocolate names. We constantly get “Don’t eat me!” when brownies or cookies are served for dessert. ☺ We do not use the chocolate names as their regular nicknames around the house. The children have been asked occasionally by others who know us in real life but don’t know us very well which ones they are on the blog.They know everyone’s nicknames and even helped me come up with Hershey’s when she was born. Other names that were in the running for her were Dove,
Michelle
I like your methods for lots of things, and hope to glean some further wisdom from you on this topic: How do you help your babies learn to sleep at night? And take NAPS? (especially with everyone home every day). My much-loved and very-wanted new daughter is an awful sleeper so far, bless her heart! We struggled with reflux for her first couple of months, but now she seems to have outgrown that and STILL will not sleep.
Oh, dear. I am not the person to ask about this! Honestly some of my kids have been wonderful sleepers while others awaken at the slightest noise (like I do). Hershey is in between. Some days it seems that any little sound wakes her up, while other days she sleeps through anything. Anytime she doesn’t take naps she makes up for it at night. About 90% of the time she falls asleep about 9:30pm and sleeps until about 6am. So nice! But not all of my children were like that. You would think after eight kids I would have some sort of “magic” something that works but, alas, I do not. I cannot stand to hear my babies cry, even for a minute, so I spoil them by holding them constantly, picking them up from their cribs, etc instead of letting them cry just a little to go back to sleep. I think after holding eight babies/children for the last 14 years I am entitled to have nice, buff arms but that’s not the case either!
So, I’m asking for a little help here from my readers. Do you have any special tricks to get your children/babies to sleep through the night? Any good book, website, or article recommendations?
© 2007-2009 Chocolate on my Cranium, LLC all rights reserved
I am by no means an expert on children (I only have three thus far), however I do recommend “The No Cry Sleep Solution” to everyone. It is different from another highly circulated book, “Babywise” that has worked for some of my friends but not for others. All of the parents I’ve recommended this too have had a positive review – hope this helps someone out there pacing the floors in the middle of the night!
My 15 month old sleeps from 6pm-8am & naps from 11am-3pm
My 2 1/2 year old sleeps from 7pm-8am & naps from 12pm-2pm
My 3 1/2 year old sleeps from 7pm-7am & naps from 12pm-2pm
Structure is what I used around bedtime.
When the kids were young, bedtime was at 7pm and bedtime activities started at 6pm…a warm bath, lavendar lotion,
last feeding, house is shut-down by 9pm (did that for the teenagers). Just stuff like that helped.
When the babies did wake up in the middle of the night, I kept the lights dimmed so they didn’t think it was time to get up. Just enough time to nurse, diaper change and then back to bed. Most of mine slept thru the night by the time they were a couple of months old.
With my three little one 3 1/2, 2 and 1, I have found that structure routine and consistency work well. The times when I feel bad at night and go in and get them with the slightest whimper end up being the worst nights ever.
I like BabyWise (I tweak it with every baby), But I like the idea of doing an Eat, Play, Sleep order, so they learn to fall asleep with out eating.
The other book I would recommend is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby, I especially like that is goes through each age and how much sleep they need and the approximate times.
Also they all ‘rest’ or nap at the same time in the afternoon (about 1-3) and I start this almost as soon as the new baby comes home from the hospital. Good Luck!
One more thing; from my Great-Grandmother, when you do go in at night, be a robot, don’t talk, feed them and put them back to bed, change their diaper only if it is poopy. Then they learn that night time is for sleeping and during the day you can give them all the cuddle possible.
The book “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child”. That and Happiest Baby on the Block are my bible during the first few months. “Healthy Sleep…” worked on my 10 month old when she was waking up every hour on the hour every night. After 3 days she was sleeping through the night and taking naps again. It was a life saver!
Every baby is different….and I’m not convinced that any “magic” routine or solution will help some really terrible sleepers….BUT…that being said, I always lay my babies down AWAKE. From day 1 so they learn to fall asleep on their own. And I do let them cry it out, but I’ve learned that if you start from the beginning, they don’t cry very long at all. Like maybe a minute. Longest minute of your life with a newborn, but that one minute can be worth lots of sleep later!
I too lay my babies down awake and my husband then has me leave earshot because I don’t handle them crying well. However, they are all good sleepers. I’d like to take credit for my 17 month old sleeping well, but she slept 5 hours straight the 2nd night home from the hospital and then 8 hours a night then on. It’s completely her personality. She really likes her sleep!
The SleepEasy Solution. Best sleep book I’ve found.
Wow, thank you every one for the recommendations! And thank you, Cocoa, for posting my question! It’s funny what you said about it, because I am EXACTLY the same way. You would think that by my 5th baby I would have figured out how to help babies sleep well, but I’m like you, and can’t stand to let them cry at all. I hold them nearly all the time. The funny thing is, with the same treatment, they all have slept very differently: one slept 12 hours a night by the time he was 8 weeks old, and another didn’t sleep through the night until 14 months! (Incidentally, the first one is now a light sleeper and the second one I mentioned is our heaviest sleeper. Go figure!)
I have read sleep book after sleep book–Baby Whisperer, Happiest Baby on the Block, Healthy Sleep Habits, etc. My favorite is the one the first commenter suggested, “The No-Cry Sleep Solution.” It takes time, but is very gentle. I haven’t been trying it for long enough to see if it “works” with this baby. I’m starting to wonder if what I really needed was the validation of your stating that sometimes it’s an acceptable lifestyle to just hold a baby when she wants you to. Some authors make you worry that babies will never sleep well if you do that. It’s tricky finding a balance between my instinct to comfort, yet needing my own rest.
Now that I’ve written a novel, I’ll say thanks again. 🙂 I love reading your blog!
I’m a fan of “The Happiest Baby On The Block.” I swaddles my little one for about 9 months, until he would pull himself out of it. I loved the book and now have a great sleeper. He started sleeping 6 hours straight at 6 weeks. He;s 2 now, and still takes good 2-3 hour naps. Maybe it wasn’t the book. Maybe I was just blessed, but I really liked the book
I have eleven children and can’t stand to have them cry. Plus, I feel like they grow up too fast to miss the cuddle time with them. They sleep on demand, eat on demand and get cuddled on demand until they are about two. By then, we have worked into a routine of bath, stories, drink, potty, prayer, soft quiet time with each while they are in bed than I leave the room. The funny thing is that all of them that I have done that with are great sleepers. My last three girls are all in school, one teenager, and they all go to bed at 8:00pm. We get up at 05:30am for scripture study. They are all wonderful kids. I can’t say that they always had a great night, but I can say that it has all been worth it.
Like the first Courtney said, we used the Eat, Play, Sleep routine. It took a few weeks for each child to settle in, but it paid off beautifully. We also tend to put our babies down when they are still slightly awake and let them put themselves to sleep. I found that all of mine (4 total) would make some kind of noise before finally falling asleep. Once I knew the noise to expect, I didn’t jump at each sound. The youngest (5 months) sleeps about 12 hours at night and takes 2 daily naps. She also screams the loudest as her eyes are closing and she’s going under! As soon as that highest scream is over, I know she’s out:)
I never let my babies cry, it would rip my heart out and make for a very unhappy mom. For the first few months they barely leave my arms or side. I carry them (ok, I only have two) in slings/carriers and co-sleep. I never mind them waking in the middle of the night since I co-sleep. By 3-4 months they learn to latch themselves on without my help.
Around the same time Ive noticed a pattern with both girls and adjust so that their natural sleep patterns are honored (well, as long as it isn’t including staying up to midnight!). With my oldest around 2 I started trying to transition her to a set bedtime and it worked pretty well. My youngest still likes to be cuddles and nursed to sleep, I love the time we get to spend together. It doesn’t bug me to stay up a little later with her. Of course, talk to me if we are blessed with a few more children and see if I still say the same thing!
Nap nanny. It’s a miracle worker.