Follow my blog with Bloglovin Rafe's sleep Routine...He slept for six hours!

Rafe has slept for a consecutive six hours for two nights straight now. Before this he was doing five hour stretches for about a week. I do not want to speak too soon but it is truly wonderful!
These long sleeps have coincided with us introducing him to a structured sleep routine. He is only 7 weeks old but I think that by starting a sleep routine early there is more chance of longterm success and it also means that Richard and I have more chance of being able to spend some time together in the evening.
I also believe that having a baby up late in a room with a television on is massively overstimulating for them and the lights and sounds will make them harder to settle and more fussy. By picking up on Rafe's cues that he is tired, like when he gets fussy and rubs his eyes or stares blankly into space we know when he is ready to go to bed.

So what does our sleep routine involve? Well firstly we create a difference between night and day. It's dark outside by about 5pm here in the united kingdom anyway but we keep the lighting low in the house from about 6pm so Rafe knows it's time to wind down. We also have a Himalayan salt lamp in the bedroom that is ideal to create low, relaxing lighting. We also try and keep his sleepsuit wearing purely for nightime and dress him in 'proper' clothes and outfits during the day (these also make nice instagram pictures) this helps him to assosiate putting his pajamas on with bedtime and sleep. 
Preparation is key, we get everything we need in the bedroom prepared. We use our Groegg to ensure the room is of a perfect temperature, we have his Grobag that he sleeps in laid out ready and his sleepyhead primed and in position. We also use Ewan the dreamsheep, he's a cuddly sheep that glows red and minics sounds a baby would hear in the uterus, including a heartbeat. He can also play music, Rafe certainly seems to find him comforting especially when he was a brand new baby...the noise of Ewan doesn't seem to effect our sleep either! Once the bedroom is sorted I will run him a bath and make sure his clean sleepsuit and towels are ready.

We actually begin putting him to bed at 7pm when we give him a bath. We use 'The earth friendly baby' calming lavender hair and body wash on him which has a relaxing effect and talk to him in low voices while washing him. We then get him dried and dressed in a comfy sleepsuit and take him to the bedroom. We put him in a Grobag to sleep in and then he gets a feed and Richard reads him a story in a low voice which usually sends him to sleep (not that Richard is boring!) once we are happy he is settled we switch on our Angelcare baby monitor and put him in his Sleepyhead deluxe. We are trying to put him down while he is awake to encourage him to settle himself to sleep on his own rather than being cuddled or fed to sleep. 
Then we sit outside the bedroom door where he cannot see us and wait and see what happens, sometimes he cries. Now this is the controvesial part, we allow him to cry for a minute or two, this sounds horrible and it's so hard to do but he isn't in any danger and we are literally right outside the door.
We then go back in, we offer him a feed and settle him again and put him back down once he is happy, and we repeat this process multiple times.
So far he has settled by about 8:45-9pm...I never said bedtime was a quick process! BUT he has been sleeping through until 3am-3:30am.


The process does take a long while and we are pretty exhausted ourselves by the end of it but I personally believe having a routine is incredibly important for a child and I am very hopeful that it will only get easier as he gets older...of course I may be very wrong!
Another difficult part is sticking to it. The routine takes up the majority of our evening and means we cannot have any visitors in the evening but I think it is worth and we will be sticking to it at any cost! I do not want to undo our hard work.
If anyone has any tips on getting babies in a good sleep routine then please let me know.

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