Help your Infant Sleep with 1 Method that works – even for twins!!

Putting kids to bed!! Sounds like a massive task. From the day babies are born, mothers wait for the time when they would ‘sleep through the night’. They look for options and guidance on Method that can help their infant sleep almost instantly. But the cruel reality is:-

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It is almost like they said to me when they were born, that I may never sleep again.

They said it in baby babble, with a smile on their face – that’s the reason I never understood it!

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But some tips did seem to work for me when I put my twins to sleep. This one method is my sure shot method and continues to work even now when my kids are 3.5 years old.

The magic is called Sleep Routine!

So every day, every night, we followed a certain series of steps at the same time, in the same sequence, and it helped a lot!

What is a Sleep Routine or a bedtime routine?

A sleep routine helps your infant sleep well. Parents establish routines for their infant’s sleep, which in turn becomes a habit. Parents do the exact same thing, at the exact same time every day, turning a schedule into a habit. These activities become a signal for the child that it is time for sleep.

Sleep routine is based on the psychological principle of ‘Conditioning’, which means that certain cues are presented to an individual to evoke specific responses. In this case, cues of massage, bathing, and feeding evoke a response of sleepiness in the baby. Thus, conditioning the child to sleep when this particular routine is followed.

So when can we begin to sleep train our Infant

Infants as young as 6-8 weeks can be sleep trained. I got to know about the method late, so I was able to train my twins at about 2.5 to 3 months of age.

What worked for me

I followed the below-mentioned routine. You may alter and edit the timing or associated activities as per your lifestyle and preferences. To develop a routine of your own, you may refer to the steps I followed for my twins, as mentioned below:-

Step 1: Massage

Every evening, at sharp 8:00 PM, I would massage my babies one by one. I’d take Chitransh first and then Chirag. Gentle strokes, with an oil which was not too fragrant, helped soothe my babies. You may add a verbal cue where you speak to the baby about what you are going to do now, and what follows next, after each of the steps mentioned here.

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Step 2: Baby bath or a Quick wash

After a quick, short massage of 7-10 minutes, I used to give them a gentle bath. You may choose to wipe the body with a damp wash cloth or put clothes directly. It is up to you.

I would let my babies flutter as I’d talk to them or sing to them while giving them a gentle bath. This activity continued to become more engaging as they grew up. They’d play and splash water, make faces and blow bubbles. With growing time, they would put in a lot of physical energy in their bath time. Bathing did consume a lot of their energy, making the routine more convincing for sleep.

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Step 3: Dressing up

The obvious step after bathing is to dress up. Dressing them up in soothing, comfortable clothes, which is as per the temperature of the room. This is an important aspect s synthetic, or itchy materials, or too thin or thick layer of clothing can cause discomfort. Discomfort will eventually disturb their sleep and yours.

Also putting them in a new diaper keeps the peeing aspect sorted for the night.

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Step 4:  Feeding the baby to sleep

The next step involves feeding the child with Breast milk or formula milk, whatever is preferred. The feeding aspect usually covers the ‘putting-to-sleep’ activity. You may like to sing a lullaby to connect better with your baby. Once the feeding is done, pick up, put on your shoulder, pat the back and burp. Then simply sway them to sleep.

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Usually, this should be the last step for the night, until you need the 5th.

Step 5: Put the baby to sleep

Some babies need a while before they fall asleep. For those babies, make them exert a bit more during the massage and bathing sessions. After their feed, sway them gently and sing a soothing lullaby and put them to sleep. This should not take more than 10 minutes in an ideal situation.

Jhullas, or bouncers are helpful if you need additional help with putting the baby to sleep. But once the baby has fallen asleep, remember to place them back on the cot, crib or bed where they usually sleep.

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It could take more time on certain days if the baby gets colicky or is extremely tired. It would take you a few days to figure it out for your child.

Some Tips while you try the Sleep Routine:

1. It is crucial to be in a routine yourself. If you have chores to manage, you should be free of them by the time you intend to put your baby to sleep at night.

2. Same time, same activity, every night! This is the golden rule of sleep training. 8:00 PM should mean sharp 8:00 PM (well, ok, 5 minutes is allowed, but not beyond, ok??!!)

3. The routine that you set for them now, if maintained long enough, pretty much becomes their preferred routine for life.

4. Do not expect the routine to set in one single day. It takes a minimum of a week to 15 days to set the routine. But once it is set, you would know your exact time slots when the baby would probably be sleeping. That would give you a good window to finish your chores or have ample of ‘me’ time.

5. The routine does not promise that the baby would not wake up through the night. But it promises to help your child sleep quickly and get the cues well in time. It also prevents the baby from getting extremely cranky due to hunger and fatigue.

6. It is convenient to extend the routine to the day as well. Let your baby wake up at a certain time in the morning. Have a tie based activity routine for their morning meal, massage, bath time, nap time, play time and then the night routine again.

7. Be patient. This may be the last point but serves as the most important aspect. It does take time for the child as well as the parent to get used to the routine or even simply making one. Be patient and gradually coax your child into the routine. 

8. This exact same routine works wonders for parents of twins or more (me being one of them!) Just that if you have help, you can carry out the routine for both the babies at the same time, or you can keep a 10-minute window for each of them. You would need to figure out what strategy works out for you.

The tricky part about setting routines is that the younger the baby is, the easier it is to train them.

The older the baby is, the more difficult it is to break their set routines and build a new one. (Yes, you read that right)

Babies who are as young as a couple of months old can be highly compliant to routines and can make life convenient for you if followed religiously. A new or delayed timing everyday will mess it up and not yield desired behavioral changes. Adhering to the exact same activity at the exact same time can be a sanity saver!

I hope these tips are helpful enough for you to start sleep training your kids right away! In case you need more info, you can write in to me at prisha@mummasaurus.com, or reach out to me on my Facebook, Instagram or Twitter handles.

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You may also like to read 6 Tips on How to Control Your Anger and Stop Yelling at Your Kids!

This post is a link up with Amrita andDeepa for #MondayMommyMomments
(Follow on Twitter @DeepaGandhi1 and @misra_amrita )

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