The newborn sleep saga

Baby sleep involves a lot of trial and error. For the first four months of my son's life we tried absolutely everything to get him to sleep and the only things that consistently worked were:

1. walking while carrying him until he fell asleep (easiest while babywearing)
2. breastfeeding to sleep (breastfeeding lying down)

Babywearing: sleeping peacefully in a ring sling.

Even using these tactics it was pretty common for us to spend around 20-45 minutes trying to get my son to sleep, only to have him wake up bawling after a 20 minute cat nap. For the first month of his life it was actually a little bit easier to get him to sleep than it was later on when the colic/high-needs baby tendencies became really pronounced (more on the colic vs. high-needs babies concept in a later post).

Places my baby slept in the first four months:

Sleeping happily in the bouncer

1. bouncer that vibrated (swaddled and buckled in)
2. swing (swaddled and buckled in)
3. attached to mom or dad (via sling, wrap, or other carrier)
4. in bed co-sleeping with us
5. in a rocker right next to our bed

Places my baby never slept in the first four months:

1. his beautiful new crib (not once)
2. the pack n play right next to our bed
3. in his car seat (or if he did it was only after some serious screaming)

So here's what I learned about baby sleep through my epic endless sleepless nights:

1. It will get better... eventually. If it does not get better on its own by the time your baby is four or five months old try sleep training. I know every night seems like it lasts a lifetime, but in the grand scheme of things you are only going to have to deal with this for a few months.
2. Every baby is different: If you have a baby that sleeps well be thankful and try not to brag about it to the rest of us. If you have a baby who has trouble sleeping try thinking of sleep as a war, every night is a battle and sometimes you lose the battle, but you will eventually win the war, after all how many eighteen year olds still need their parents to rock them to sleep?
3. Teamwork: if you have a partner share parenting duties at night. In our household my husband took the late night shift and I took the early morning shift. This way at least you can guarantee that you each get some uninterrupted sleep.

Bottom line: Even newborns that have the most horrific sleep schedules known to man (e.g. my son) can turn into good sleepers. After some sleep training when he was four months old my son started sleeping for 7-8 hours at a time before waking up, and napping longer during the day. Although we have rough nights when he is sick or teething I have to say he is now a much better sleeper than his mama!