My Recommended Sleep Items

Halo SleepSack

The SleepSack is great and it's a necessity when a 
baby is transitioning from being in the womb to the outside world. It's no secret that babies love and need to be swaddled. Not only that, babies tend to wake up due to the Startle Reflex (Read more on that here) Start with the SwaddleSack and transition into the other wearable blankets as your baby grows. The velcro is great on the swaddle because you won't need to worry about fixing the baby in the middle of the night when she unwraps herself as with regular receiving blankets. My favorite is the micro fleece, it's super cozy, but they also come in cotton. Not only are these convenient but most importantly they reduce the risk of SIDS. Remember the crib should always be bare, so these make great blankets.

                   As Baby Grows, Grow with HALO

When your baby grows out of the swaddle, Halo makes sleepsacks that grow with your baby. The swaddle can only be used for a short time (until your baby starts rolling). This wearable blanket is the next best thing. Your babies arms will not be swaddled, but by that point it won't be safe to do so anyway. The legs will still be in a sack, which is great because it makes the transition easy. They come in a variety of colors, like this adorble Winnie the Pooh Wearable Blanket. 

The Micro-Fleece, like the one pictured below is one of my favorite too.

 

Carter's Sleep Bag

This is also another type of sleep sack. But what's great about this is that it has sleeves which keep your baby warm and cozy. It's a very soft and thin micro-fleece material. My baby actually snuggles up against her own sleeve, when she goes to bed. This is a really great sleep sack for young babies transitioning out of the swaddle. The sack part is much smaller than the Halo so it makes your baby still feel sort of swaddled at the feet. It's snug at the body, so it's awesome for babies who are really dependent on swaddling. I say it's great for young babies because it only comes in one size 0-9months, and 9 months is pushing it. I would say more like 6 months, unless your baby is really small or short. When your baby outgrows it, you can then switch to a Halo, which is just a bigger/wider and sleeveless version of this sleep sack.

Arms Reach Co-sleeper 

This like no other bassinet. It actually attaches to your bed and gives you clear vision of your baby. Great for middle of the night breastfeeding. Your baby can sense your are next to her and sleep soundly. It's like sleeping with your baby but safer. It's a great option especially for newborns who tend to have a hard time falling asleep without you.    

Here is a short video that introduces the Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper.

Sound Soother           

Any kind of sound soother will do. As you already may know, newborns don't really like silence. It was so noisy in the womb. So these are great in the beginning as long as your baby doesn't rely on them to fall asleep. Make sure to get one with the womb sounds. Use it to help them relax before bedtime. Great wind-down routine item.

The Dex sound sleeper is one of the best soothers on the market. It is the ONLY audio soother with an actual recording made inside a mothers womb. Sound and motion reactivate the recording. The sound soother worked miracles for us, Brianna stopped crying immediately when she heard the "swooshing" noise. You can get it for about $20 On Amazon.                                                     

Skip Hop Bumper Free Bedding. 

I'm a huge advocate of the SIDS campaign and crib safety. But I also want my baby's nursery to look like a nursery. I did some research and found a company that makes cute and stylish bumper free bedding. Take a look here

Carter's Velour Sheets

This is another one of my sleepy time must-haves. Both of my babies used the texture of this thin velour sheet, to soothe themselves to sleep. I absolutely love these sheets! They were crucial part of helping my babies learn to self soothe, and fall asleep on their own. It's hard to find something to give your baby to sleep with, especially when everyone scares you about SIDS. With this sheet alone, we didn't need any blankets, or stuffed animals. My babies just rubbed their face and hands across the smooth texture of this sheet to fall asleep. It's pretty genius, if you think about it.

Blackout Curtains 

This is a no brainer. You absolutely need blackout or room darkening curtains in your baby's nursery. There will be times when you will really regret not having these. Like when there's a full moon, during daylight savings time, or when your neighbor buys a new garage light. Blackout curtains or shades also filter out light during the day, which is perfect for naps. I recommend the ones pictured below, because they filter out 99.9% of light. They are also thermal insulated, which keeps the heat out during the summer, and keeps cold out during the winter.

Sleeping Through the Night

When will my baby sleep through the night?

A phrase I found myself googling over and over. Brianna was waking up every hour. I was so exhausted and sleep deprived I didn't know what to do. I was so new to this, so lost. Everyone gave me different advice, nothing worked. That's when I started my research, asked questions, and tried my own techniques. I studied her sleep habits for 6 weeks. I wrote down and charted every little thing. Like many moms, I was guilty of the same common mistakes. Like nursing my baby to sleep. When she woke up crying, I just stuck a boob in her mouth, and thought I was doing the right thing. Hey she fell asleep, I must be doing something right...wrong! I also put her in her bassinet asleep, something I learned was a big no, no. I remember quietly slipping her into bed thinking, Yes she's asleep! Only having to wake an hour or two later. I also had no consistent bedtime. Bedtime for us was whenever she would feel like falling asleep. Usually around 11-12pm...yea bad idea. 

There is no magic for sleeping through the night, every baby is different. However everyone will agree on one thing, a solid bedtime routine is a great start. A consistent bedtime routine gives your baby predictability. If she knows what's coming, she will more likely accept it. A decent bedtime is anywhere between 7 and 830pm, and most experts say no later than 9pm. Our routine now involves, washing up with a warm wash cloth, putting on jammies, 2-3 stories and straight to the crib, AWAKE.

You should never use "props" to help your baby fall asleep. Another thing most sleep experts and pediatricians will agree on. By props I mean rocking, nursing to sleep, or anything that your baby could possibly rely on to fall asleep. The theory is that if she falls asleep like that, what happens when she wakes up in the middle of the night? She will need that prop. And because babies have short sleep cycles they wake up alot, so they need to figure out how to soothe themselves to sleep independently.

Your baby also needs to go to their crib awake. This is something I learned from sleep specialist Dana Obleman. How would you feel if you fell asleep in your nice, warm bed, and woke up in the backyard? That is exactly how a baby feels when they fall asleep in your arms, and wake up in their own crib. Dana says that "everybody is very aware of their environment when they sleep so if you fall asleep on the couch and end in up in your bed, you are probably going to wake up feeling fairly alarmed. A lot of babies, if you watch them when they wake up, they wake up in a startled response, they usually throw their arms out, sit up or stand up if they can, and they are instantly upset because it’s a frightening experience. Also, in transferring, remember that your baby was nice and cozy in your arms and now you are trying to transfer them to the crib. Usually, they wake up on route or just a few minutes after they finally get in to the crib".And to make things worse, the cribs are so firm. No blankets, pillows, or crib bumpers  are allowed. This doesn't make a baby happy, especially when she's been snug in a womb for the last 9 months. . So she really has learn how to soothe herself to sleep in her new sleeping place, and yes this may take a little while. It's not something that happens over night.

So now that we have falling asleep down packed, staying asleep can be more difficult. This is something we struggled with the most, especially when I had friends tell me their babies where sleeping through the night at such young ages. I guess it depends on what you mean by sleeping through the night. The medical definition for sleeping through the night is 5 hours. But for all of the sleep deprived moms out there it means, sleeping through without waking up at all, until the morning time. On good nights, Brianna slept 4 hours at 2 months, 6 hours at 4 months, 6-8 hours at 6 months and through the entire night from 9pm until 8am at 8 months. Once we put all the pieces together, (which took us over 4 months to figure out)  a solid bedtime routine, got rid of props, and put her to sleep awake. She was only waking up to to eat, consistent with her feeding schedule. And if we started sleep training earlier, I think she would of been sleeping through the night at a even younger age. 

So here is my whole theory on when a baby should sleep through the night without needing to eat. If you do everything right from day one (put your baby to sleep awake, don't use props to put her back to sleep etc.) Your baby will sleep through the night when her stomach matures enough to hold a substantial amount, to make it through the night. This is something that happens with age, and varies greatly. On rare occasions it can happen at a month, but can also take up to 9 months which is when 70-80% of babies sleep through the night (National Sleep Foundation). However, the American Sleep Association does agree that by 6 months of age nighttime feedings are usually not necessary( some experts will even say by 4 months). Human beings and even animals do not need to wake up in the middle of the night to eat a meal. I don't ever remember waking up in the middle of the night, thinking "I'm hungry, let me go eat" (except maybe when I was pregnant, just kidding). So your baby will start sleeping through the nighttime when she reaches that milestone. Brianna was waking up at night for many months. She would eat, and immediately fell asleep when she was done. I tried feeding her more during the day, I tried adding cereal into her bottle at night. I tried skipping her midnight snack session but nothing worked. Her stomach wasn't mature enough and she was just hungry, that's all. When I accepted that, we were both a lot happier. I got up for less than 10min a night to feed her. No diaper changes, no small talk. Just eat and 10 minutes later we were both asleep. The older she got the longer she could wait to eat, until she finally didn't need to eat at all at night. When she was ready to sleep through the night, she did. Every baby is different so don't ever try to compare your baby to another, it's a bad idea and just leads to frustration and discouragement. Every baby has different needs and she will sleep through the night when she is good and ready. Just look at the signals your baby is giving you to facilitate her readiness.

If you have been making some of the very common mistakes of nursing or rocking your baby to sleep. Or putting her down completely asleep. Then chances are your baby will have a hard time learning to sleep through the night. You will have to break those bad habits. For help with that please refer to my article "Sleep Associations". 

You can also check out the Sleep Sense Program by Dana Obleman www.sleepsense.net. I came across this really valuable site that’s dedicated to teaching healthy sleep habits to children of all ages. Dana Obleman is a professional sleep and parenting consultant and offers a free customized sleep report right on her site. Her customer service reps are great at answering any questions. She also does live phone calls. She is really dedicated to what she does. I think she is a miracle worker when it comes to getting babies to sleep through the night. I used her strategies and within days my baby's sleep habits improved until she was sleeping through the night.

Sleeping Through the Night

When will my baby sleep through the night?

A phrase I found myself googling over and over. Brianna was waking up every hour. I was so exhausted and sleep deprived I didn't know what to do. I was so new to this, so lost. Everyone gave me different advice, nothing worked. That's when I started my research, asked questions, and tried my own techniques. I studied her sleep habits for 6 weeks. I wrote down and charted every little thing. Like many moms, I was guilty of the same common mistakes. Like nursing my baby to sleep. When she woke up crying, I just stuck a boob in her mouth, and thought I was doing the right thing. Hey she fell asleep, I must be doing something right...wrong! I also put her in her bassinet asleep, something I learned was a big no, no. I remember quietly slipping her into bed thinking, Yes she's asleep! Only having to wake an hour or two later. I also had no consistent bedtime. Bedtime for us was whenever she would feel like falling asleep. Usually around 11-12pm...yea bad idea. 

There is no magic for sleeping through the night, every baby is different. However everyone will agree on one thing, a solid bedtime routine is a great start. A consistent bedtime routine gives your baby predictability. If she knows whats coming, she will more likely accept it. A decent bedtime is anywhere between 7 and 830pm, and most experts say no later than 9pm. Our routine involves washing up with a warm wash cloth, putting on jammies, 2-3 stories and straight to the crib, AWAKE. We've been doing this since she was a few weeks old. Since then she has never had a problem falling asleep. She has had problems staying asleep, but more on that later.

You should never use "props" to help your baby fall asleep. Another thing most sleep experts and pediatricians will agree on. By props I mean rocking, nursing to sleep, or anything that your baby could possibly rely on to fall asleep. The theory is that if she falls asleep like that, what happens when she wakes up in the middle of the night? She will need that prop. And because babies have short sleep cycles they wake up alot, so they need to figure out how to soothe themselves to sleep independently.

Your baby also needs to go to their crib awake. This is something I learned from sleep specialist Dana Obleman. How would you feel if you fell asleep in your nice, warm bed, and woke up in the backyard? That is exactly how a baby feels when they fall asleep in your arms, and wake up in their own crib. Dana says that "everybody is very aware of their environment when they sleep so if you fall asleep on the couch and end in up in your bed, you are probably going to wake up feeling fairly alarmed. A lot of babies, if you watch them when they wake up, they wake up in a startled response, they usually throw their arms out, sit up or stand up if they can, and they are instantly upset because it’s a frightening experience. Also, in transferring, remember that your baby was nice and cozy in your arms and now you are trying to transfer them to the crib. Usually, they wake up on route or just a few minutes after they finally get in to the crib".And to make things worse, the cribs are so firm. No blankets, pillows, or crib bumpers  are allowed. This doesn't make a baby happy, especially when she's been snug in a womb for the last 9 months. . So she really has learn how to soothe herself to sleep in her new sleeping place, and yes this may take a little while. It's not something that happens over night.

So now that we have falling asleep down packed, staying asleep can be more difficult. This is something we struggled with the most, especially when I had friends tell me their babies where sleeping through the night at such young ages. I guess it depends on what you mean by sleeping through the night. The medical definition for sleeping through the night is 5 hours. But for all of the sleep deprived moms out there it means, sleeping through without waking up at all, until the morning time. On good nights, Brianna slept 4hrs at 2 months, 6hrs at 4 months, 6-8hrs at 6 months and through the entire night from 9pm until 8am at 8 months. Once we put all the pieces together, (which took us over 4 months to figure out)  a solid bedtime routine, got rid of props, and put her to sleep awake. She was only waking up to to eat, consistent with her feeding schedule. And if we started sleep training earlier, I think she would of been sleeping through the night at a even younger age. 

So here is my whole theory on when a baby should sleep through the night. If you do everything right from day one (put your baby to sleep awake, don't use props to put her back to sleep etc.) Your baby will sleep through the night when her stomach matures enough to hold a substantial amount, to make it through the night. This is something that happens with age, and varies greatly. On rare occasion it can happen at a month, but can also take up to 9 months which is when 70-80% of babies sleep through the night (National Sleep Foundation). However, the American Sleep Association does agree that by 6 months of age nighttime feedings are usually not necessary( some experts will even say by 4 months). Human beings and even animals do not need to wake up in the middle of the night to eat a meal. I don't ever remember waking up in the middle of the night, thinking "I'm hungry, let me go eat" (except maybe when I was pregnant, just kidding). So your baby will start sleeping through the nighttime when she reaches that milestone. Brianna was waking up at night for a long while. She would eat, and immediately fell asleep when she was done. I tried feeding her more during the day, I tried adding cereal into her bottle at night. I tried skipping her midnight snack session but nothing worked. Her stomach wasn't mature enough and she was just hungry, that's all. When I accepted that, we were both a lot happier. I got up for less than 10min a night to feed her. No diaper changes, no small talk. Just eat and 10 minutes later we were both asleep. The older she got the longer she could wait to eat, until she finally didn't need to eat at all at night. When she was ready to sleep through the night, she did. Every baby is different so don't ever try to compare your baby to another, it's a bad idea and just leads to frustration and discouragement. Every baby has different needs and she will sleep through the night when she is good and ready. Just look at the signals your baby is giving you to facilitate her readiness.

If you have been making some of the very common mistakes of nursing or rocking your baby to sleep. Or putting them down completely asleep. Then chances are your baby will have a very hard time learning to sleep through the night. You will have to break those bad habits. For help with that please refer to my article "Sleep Associations". If you need more information, you can always email me with questions. I'm very passionate about this topic.

You can also check out the Sleep Sense Program by Dana Obleman www.sleepsense.net. I recently came across this really valuable site that’s dedicated to teaching healthy sleep habits to children of all ages. Dana Obleman is a professional sleep and parenting consultant and offers a free customized sleep report right on her site. Her customer service reps are great at answering any questions. She also does live phone calls. She is really dedicated to what she does. I think she is a miracle worker when it comes to getting babies to sleep through the night. I used her strategies and within days my baby's sleep habits improved until she was sleeping through the night.

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