I’ve been blessed with a generally good sleeper in Teddy, who started sleeping through the night at 10 weeks old (!!) which is quite rare and I feel extremely lucky! However, there are times when he struggles, such as when hitting milestones, teething or feeling under the weather and then my darling little cherub turns into a screaming nightmare who wakes every hour and needs to be constantly held. Within days I feel like I’m going to have a breakdown as I do not do well without sleep! For me, the key to success when getting baby to sleep well is a good routine, and for this to work you need to find as many triggers as possible so that your baby associates sleep with these things. For example, a bath, a book, a feed and then bed – that’s a pretty basic routine that if you stick to, your bubs will start winding down when these things occur as they’ll know sleep is imminent.
It helps to have as many of these triggers as possible (without getting silly – obviously I’m not suggesting you put yourself through hours of triggers each night!) and it’s especially handy to involve all the senses so your baby can associate as many things as possible with sleep. A few weeks ago Teddy suddenly stopped sleeping through (teething) and it was a total nightmare as it lasted for almost a couple of weeks, which is the longest it’s ever gone on – usually it’s just a few days so it was quite the shock to the system! Therefore I needed to add a few more things to his routine to start re-establishing a sleep pattern, so I added a light and music soother (I’ll review it soon) and This Works Baby Sleep Pillow Spray, which, as the name suggests, is a spray designed to be sprayed on bedding just before bed time to sooth and settle. It’s a lovely fragrance that’s very calming (mainly lavender and camomile) and you only use 3 spritzes a few minutes before you put your baby to bed. It’s worth noting that Teddy has very sensitive skin, but this hasn’t caused any issues like rashes or reactions. This isn’t the answer to all sleep issues for babies, who, let’s face it, have quite the task of learning how to send themselves to sleep, but it is a great trigger device that easily forms part of a baby sleep routine. It’s available here – link – for £16 which will last you a good while.
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