sleep training | massage

good morning! my mama made me do tummy time again. this time round I can lift my head much higher than before, I practice them all day because I am used to sleeping on my tummy.

I self sooth to sleep by noming on my delicious hand and is always full of my saliva. 🙊

I can’t wait for the weekends to come again so that I can sleep in the tula rather than my own crib because my routine is mess up as I get to go out to grandma place and church. so much fun than staying at home with my mama.

mama are you done snapping my photos? I think I’m tired, is time for me to go for my morning nap. 

so off she is settling herself to sleep. there’s hit and miss, on good days she will just sleep without whining. on bad days, she will cry for a little while before she decides to sleep.

do you think this is me too? do we look alike? 😅

 Sleeping Training 

DID YOU SLEEP TRAIN HER?

Yes, we started sleep training LE since day one with the help of our confinement lady. 

Disclaimer: We know that it doesn’t work for all babies and their parents but for our family, it helped so much. It’s really up to your decision as you know what’s the best for your child and the family. #dayremummies #dayrepregnancy

We started a routine with LE, we kept to the 2.5 hours to 3 hourly feed like how we do it in the hospital stay even till today. We put her down to sleep at night around 8pm and prior to that I will latch her about 30 minutes or so, changed her into PJ, pray for her and tell her goodnight before putting her to her crib.

Sometimes if she’s really awake, we read her a bedtime story then we turn off the lights. Next, we put her down in the crib while she’s awake and walk out of the room. When we first trained LX/LE, both can cries for 30 minutes or so (which broke our hearts!) but consistency is the key.

We didn’t let them cry it out but instead when it hit 5 minutes, we checked in with her, then at 10 minutes then at 15 minutes. Each time we checked in with her, we pat her and told her is time to sleep and then we would walk out. We repeated this like for a lot of times! After a few days of doing this, she learned to self-soothe herself to sleep quicker.

We know just how difficult it is because of all of the crying. I wanted to quit the first night during the time with LX. I couldn’t bear to hear her cries for more than 30 seconds, I vividly remember that I cried alongside with her not knowing what to do but yet I’m determined to do so because all I wanted is to have a well rested baby who has enough sleep that she needs and of course to keep my sanity! I just can’t carry the baby 24/7, I think I will just go crazy. #lousymum

this is the feed wake sleep chart that was given to us by the growing families international “parenting young infant” classes that we attended back then during LX’s time.

So her night time would be consider from 8pm till 8am (depending on what time I wake up). In between every 3 - 4 hours we would dream feed her, change her diaper and put her back to her crib, the longest stretch we had is 5 hours. I was so tired that i slept through without waking up. No grunting and noisy sound made neither. Her cot is just next to our bed because we don’t have any spare room else I would have let her sleep in a room by herself just like her jie jie.

Our daily routine: 

we will feed, bath and play with her before she is down for her first nap at around 9.30am to 10am. usually she doesn’t cry very loudly? we will draw up the curtain and tell her is time to take a nap, put her into her crib. she usually do her tummy time and I notice she kept turning her head left to right, right to left before she fall asleep or suckle her hand to sleep. this is on good days. on bad days, she will normally cry for a good 10 mins before she decides to sleep.

and sometimes I don’t quite understand why babies need to cry before they are willing to go to sleep when they are already very tired! and I have ensure that she is already had full feed, diaper changed etc. so basically tried my very best to satisfies her! why still cry! 

anyway as for the next two naps , I will latch her play with her and put her down to bed once it hits 1-1.5 hours which includes the time to latch her.

during the evening 5 plus or 6, I will wash her up and changed her into her PJ to prepare for her night sleep. so far I would say her nap times are pretty consistent. the most difficult ones would be putting her to bed for the night, she usually cries for a while but it’s getting better. I think patient and perseverance is the key! 

Of course there would be exceptions when it comes to weekends.

she is down for her afternoon nap with no crying after wake time of an hour including feeding. yay!

the initial days of sleep training was tough, you have to endure the crying and be consistent. This is CL at 10pm trying to pat pat her to sleep after night feed back in August, came a long way to get her settled into her sleep routine. she is predictable, less cranky and fussy as compared to earlier days. 

most importantly is to have supportive husband who is also there to hear their cries and get through it together. i couldn’t have done it alone!

even till date, LX at three years old is still sticking to her nap during weekends and her bedtime is at 9pm daily. she slept through the night without feed when she turns 5-6 months if I recalled correctly. rested kids = happy parents!

so ideally after 9pm, we could have some us time! the initial month is crazy, we don’t even have time for each other but it’s slowly getting better.

just did a breast massage because the milk blister ain’t going away after weeks! I have tried pricking it myself, soak before latching but nothing helps! It’s so so painful that I have got no choice but to get help from Aunty Lynn! as usual she is so accommodating to come at my requested timing and her skills is superb! is been a while since it is so soft and the massage is not as painful as I thought it will be.