6 Months and sleeping through
3 days ago I went to Ramat Eshkol for a sleep session. The parents were beyond exhausted, baby’s bedtime was 11pm, and often baby only fell asleep by 1:30am, as the father put it, from 11pm the acrobatics began, they rocked, bounced jumped with their baby….doing anything they could to get their baby to fall asleep. Their neighbour downstairs was also taking strain as the bouncing disturbed their sleep as well, especially at 1am. The mom told me her friend recommended putting their baby to sleep at 11pm because then their baby would sleep for longer. However….11pm may be an ok bedtime for a 2 month old but it is definitely not recommended for a 6 month old. So we changed the baby’s schedule and of course brought it forward. Parents woke their baby up by 8am and got her naps in the right times and bedtime was brought earlier to 8pm. The sleep coached their baby to sleep at bedtime using very gentle methods, no more acrobatics. Night 1 baby woke up 2ce for brief feeds. Night 2, baby woke up 1ce for a brief feed and on night 3 baby slept 12 hours from 8pm-8am. Parents didn’t even need to sleep coach during the middle of the night, she just stayed alseep…..not all kids are that simple, so why did this baby stat sleeping all night after just 3 days, well there are a few factors, 1, being her personality, some kids are more inclined to sleep well from the onset these are often the more chilled laid back kids, 2, her age 6.5 months is a wonderful age to sleep coach, the younger the kids, the less their habits are engrained and often the easier it is and of course the parents were totally committed to changing the schedule even if it meant starting the day at 8am and not 11am.