As of lately, Harper has been doing amazing at sleeping anywhere from 9pm to 5 am or longer! I know, I know... it doesn't mean that this will necessarily stick or that she's truly sleeping through the night from here on out - so my hopes aren't up but the handful of sporadic times that she has let me sleep 5-7 hours has been phenomenal.
When Harper was just over newborn age we immediately implemented a sleep routine. I knew we had to start one based on my experiences from nannying and working at nurseries/preschools since I was 17 years old all the way through my pregnancy at 24 years old. To me, this stuff is basic knowledge at this point in my life for the most part, but to other mamas out there, this stuff might be all kinds of brand new.
In the first week or so, Harper had that fussy night time period where she would scream and cry no matter what and it really wore on us until we figured out that she was already ready for bed. In the beginning, she slept in a bassinet next to our bed in our room but for whatever reason she hated it and would only sleep best if she was right next to me but that kept me up all night even if she was sleeping because I was constantly worried about squishing her or something. So. By the time she was just over a month old we moved her to her crib. At first I spent time during the day just letting her be in her crib whether she was awake or asleep and I stayed in her nursery with her and watched Netflix or read or whatever, just so she knew I was right there with her.
After a couple of daytime naps and time spent in her crib, we started the routine at first around 7 or 7:30pm. We give her a bath, rub lavender baby lotion on her, and stick her in some cozy pajamas. Next we take her into her nursery with dim lighting and read stories to her. She didn't care too much for the stories right away so eventually we started using music - anything from Beethoven to Adam's crazy electro/chillstep/whatever you want to call it music, to me singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. And trust me, I am nooo singer. But that totally doesn't matter when all your baby wants is to hear your voice to fall asleep to. Once we get her calm and showing signs of sleepiness, we wrap her in a swaddle nice and tight and feed her as much as she will take - at 4 months old she takes anywhere from 4-6 ounces all at once before bed. I'm not gonna lie, sometimes she would fall asleep and be completely capable of going to bed in her crib but I wake her up or nudge her a little to get her to take more before I burp her and let her doze off. It really helps babies to sleep longer if their tummy is full. She started out by sleeping from 8pm - 1 or 2am then 4 am then 6am. 5 and 6 am were when her gas pains were extreme and we would bring her into our bed so we could bicycle her legs and give her gas drops. :(
At this point, her bedtime is now anywhere from 8-9 pm and she has been sleeping until 5 am as long as she's full and doesn't have gas! I've noticed that all of the traveling we've been doing wears her out too so now when we are home in Colorado, I do what's called a dream feed. She goes to bed at her usual time and then Adam and I get some us time for a few hours before we go to bed around 11, sometimes earlier if we can haha. When we are heading up to bed, I stop in her room and pick her up out of her crib without waking her up to give her a 4 oz bottle. She usually takes it down with little to no persuasion or leaves about half an ounce and then she's (usually) good until 5 am. It's a miracle!
The doctors tell us that babies this age should be sleeping anywhere from 4-6 hours during the day and by this time a lot of 4 month olds are sleeping through the night....hahahaha yeah right! We are lucky if Harper sleeps more than 2 hours total during the day. But we are blessed with this whole nighttime thing where she has her days and nights completely on track unless she just got shots or isn't feeling well.
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