Comments on: Essential Elements of a Baby Bedtime Routine

By: Orkideh

Orkideh — Sun, 17 Mar 2019 04:17:08 +0000

I would love to know what were the mini steps you took to get there. Also what to do when baby isn’t adjusting to the new changes yet. I’m sorry if these are discussed in the book, I’m waiting to receive mine.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 16:01:38 +0000

In reply to Eileen Henry. Eileen Henry, what would you suggest for a 9-month old who is still nursed to sleep for naps? We've finally night-weaned (fingers crossed), but nursing is still my last step at bedtime before I put him in crib then shut off light. However, I'm still nursing to sleep for both naps. Mostly out of convenience. And in a selfish way, I enjoy it! And he goes down super fast; I'm just not ready for the crying/sadness that will come. However, I realize for every nap I do this it will become harder and harder for him to learn to nap without nursing. Thoughts? How long normally until a baby of this age would start to fall asleep on his own for naps?

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 06:05:45 +0000

No matter how consistent the routine, my child fights sleep and going to bed for hours at least 4 nights out of the week. His diet isn’t sugary. It’s quiet in his room. I try story time and he doesn’t want to sit still and relax. If I’m out of sight or when someone other than myself is watching him, he goes right to bed/sleep. He’s 2 and it seems like he’s allergic to sleep when I’m around. We do learning activities, chores and play all day. I just don’t know what I’m missing..

By: Bec

Bec — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 11:10:14 +0000

My daughter is 6 months and screams herself purple when we put her down for a nap, or to sleep without me lying beside her. She started sleeping through the night (10hrs straight) at 11 weeks and this continued to about 5 months. The last month has been her waking to feed several times a night and not falling asleep unless I am lying with her. We’ve tried for hours (yes hours!) to soothe her to sleep, picking her up, comforting her and putting her back, gently stroking her, patting her bum etc. These days the second she hits the mattress she screams – no graduation into a full force screaming fit, straight to it. Please help me! What I am doing that’s not helping her?

By: Sapana V

Sapana V — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 14:52:17 +0000

My baby has given me sleepless nights for almost a year. It is very difficult to set a schedule for them. Thank God now I can sleep.. It was very difficult task to set a proper bedtime routine.

By: Hali

Hali — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 17:36:09 +0000

My little guy is 13 weeks and we have always struggled a bit with sleep. At around 1 month he was incredibly difficult to get to sleep but was diagnosed with reflux. Once he had been on medication for a couple weeks he was much more inclined to go to sleep. In fact, getting him to sleep is the easy part. We have a great bedtime routine then I rock him to sleep and it only takes a few minutes. He wakes every two to four hours at night and only sleeps for 30 minutes at a time during the day. He only averages 11-13 total hours of sleep per day with 10 of those being at night. The occupational therapist we saw said that might just be normal for him but it has always concerned me. He eats every 2 hours during the day so it’s not surprising he wakes so often to eat at night. He was also just a boy who never wanted to be apart from me despite my best efforts using my rie training. I know that his reflux has caused me to stray from rie in the sleep department and i want yo get back on track. I want to disassociate his external sleep associations (pacifier and rocking) but at what age do I do this? At what age do I start putting him back to sleep without feeding every 2 hours? I’m hoping learning to self soothe will help extend his naps.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 12:33:05 +0000

We were going on a great sleep path, settling to sleep quickly on her own, one night waking and decent length naps. Since about 6 1/2 months, she fusses when she goes down for a nap, sleep for only one sleep cycle and has been waking multiple times a night. She’s 8 months now and I can’t seem to work out what changed to cause this!

By: Lynn

Lynn — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 12:32:20 +0000

By: Eileen Henry

Eileen Henry — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 15:47:51 +0000

In reply to Kelly.

Kelly,

This is a classic age for nap resistance. A nap can seriously cut into the toddler’s work (play) schedule.

Yes, I agree he is too young to give up naps. My number one indicator is that the mother knows the child still needs the nap. Mom know a sleepy, overtired toddler when she sees one and we see it at around 4-5 in the evening.

All of the following recommendations are going with the assumption that he has been going down for all naps, sleepy but awake, on his own, in his room, 100% of the time for over 6 months – a year. If someone has been facilitating naps by lying down with him or putting him to sleep for nap, even some of the time, then I would make different recommendations.

Drop the “nap” word and hold the time and space (when nap happens and where it happens) for rest/quiet time.

Talk to him before and prepare him. This preparation is key and is discussed in greater depth in my book The Compassionate Sleep Solution: Calming the cry

1. Do your usual routine before nap.
2. Tell him it is time for rest/quiet time.
3. Tuck him in and tell him you will see him after nap.
If he once slept for 2-3 hours, start with holding this time to one hour.

Hold firm on naps and naps will return. But it can take a week or more to get them back depending on how long he has been in resistance mode.

Best,
Eileen Henry, Rie Associate
Compassionate Sleep Solutions

By: Lydia

Lydia — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 09:39:09 +0000

In reply to Eileen Henry. Hi Eileen, how can we in the UK get your new kindle book? Amazon says it's unavailable for us here and I really want to read it! Thanks.