Routine

I am a firm believer that successful parenting must incorporate a fair amount of routine and schedule. The biggest kicker for me is the nap and evening sleep routine. That is where I stand my strongest ground as a mother and I am so thankful for the strides I've made...with both boys.

As a first time mom I completely spoiled Lucas. In all reality, who doesn't? But the one parenting obstacle that I truly stuck to was nap time. I am thankful for starting such a consistent routine so early because it truly instilled an easy habit for him to follow as he's aged. Lately, it seems that I always tend to be nursing the baby right as it's time to get Lucas down, but he's been such a champ about it. Once I mention that it's nap time he goes potty and gets into bed. On his own! That is of course unless daddy comes home for lunch and throws him for a loop. Then all easiness flies right out the window. Now we just need to work on getting him back into his own room/bed. Ugh.

Even when I did daycare nap was never a hassle. Once kids have a set routine for a fair amount of time, they learn to expect it. Life can't be all chaotic and out of order...children thrive for a routine to follow.

With Levin, I nurse on demand and kind of just go with the flow for his natural rhythm. I thought it would take us quite a while to figure out a good pattern and routine, but he has proved me wrong. I can honestly say that since he turned 3 weeks old he has been fairly predictable and so easy to manage. Our night time routine is almost identical each night...down at 11, up at 2:30-3 to nurse, right back to sleep, then up again between 6:30-7 to nurse once more. This is absolutely amazing for a just-one-month-old baby! But like I said, he is like clockwork!

I decided that it was now time for me to transition him into his own little bed. If you remember be mentioning before, I allowed him to sleep on my chest each and every night while he was sick. This created one very bad habit that I needed to nip in the butt immediately! A few nights back I made it a point to swaddle him very well after his nursings and place him directly into his bed. And what do ya know...he did perfect! I expected him to whine and fuss or wake up more frequently (since that's exactly what he would do during the day if I tried to lay him down), but he didn't. In fact, after one nursing I really had to use the restroom so I laid him down before I had a chance to rock him to sleep. When I came back out he was all the way off into dreamland already!

This got me to thinking. I used the same approach with Lucas when he was quite a bit older but I was curious if I could get Levin to recognize his bed as a sleeping environment sooner rather than later. So far it's been a great success! We're on day three of me placing him down before he's actually out and he has yet to refuse any sleep. In fact, I was having a really difficult time getting him to sleep a little bit ago and after fighting him for quite some time I decided to swaddle him up and lay him down. He sat there and looked around for a minute or two then was out without a fuss. What a stinker! Independence at 4 weeks...who would have guessed?

As I'm sitting here typing, both of my boys are down for nap. Levin just opened his eyes, looked around for a minute, then went right back to sleep. Lucas woke up mid nap complaining that he was thirsty so he came out to the kitchen, took a drink of milk, and went right back to bed. I didn't even have to say anything. How crazy is that?

So yes, I am 100% for sticking to a sleeping regiment. Healthy sleeping habits are golden and the sooner you start them, the better! Although I know a baby's temperament plays a large role, the trick for infants is to swaddle, swaddle, swaddle! And to help him learn the difference between night and day I have used the same tactics every night since he has been born: keep it dark and don't interact. He's never even tried to stay awake in the middle of the night. I hear stories and read about babies who are up all night long for hours at a time and I thankfully cannot relate. Both of my boys always nursed right back to sleep without any problem. Guess I'm just lucky!

So although it's a bittersweet feeling and I really miss cuddling with him as he sleeps, I know this is for the best. I can still watch him sleep and cuddle him while we nurse, so I guess it's ok. And as for habits, my goal is to not give him a pacifier at night. I want for him to be comfortable soothing himself to sleep just like Lucas did. I never had to break the habit because it never even started up...just the same with bottles too. If they don't have them, they'll never know the difference!