last day for the giveaway

Today is the last day to enter the "Sleep is for the Weak" giveaway. Post a comment sharing your favorite tips and tricks for getting your Baby Bunch to sleep well.  First poster to get Cara's wee one to sleep through the night (or at least 4 consecutive hours) wins the book.  Accepting comments until September 17th.  We'll even take anything after that, but you gotta comment by the 17th to be eligible to win, because she needs sleep now. We'll draw a winner for the book tonight.

Comments

[Casey]

We lucked out and our kids are both pretty much sleeping 12 hours straight at this point. We have fans in their rooms for background noise (pointed at the ceiling so they don't get air on them). Neither of them get pacifiers (the would go to sleep with it in, go into a deep sleep, it would fall out and when they went into a light sleep again, they'd wake up screaming for it) EVERY 45 MINUTES. We have a very solid bedtime routine every night, we read 7-10 board books and then sing Piano Man (I know, not suited for kids but it was the only song my husband and I both knew the lyrics to at the time) and we put them down awake so they can settle themselves. Good luck getting your kids to both sleep.

[JessPond]

SNUGGLE WRAP if they're infants!! Definitely the best thing that ever happened to us. And I feel like it's a fair test run because BOTH my kids slept through the night with it and they're not even genetically related!!

We have a routine, like the PP said...and then we usually just take the kid in there, turn on a lullabye cd, and it's off. Sometimes with a little butt patting, but that's it.

Now if the kid is too old for the snuggle wrap, I don't know what to tell you. The one of ours sleeps well and the other doesn't. Guess which shares OUR genes? Ack!

[Deena]

We just got our 8 week old going 5 hours between feedings at night. We feed him every 3 hours or more during the day. we feed him again at 8pm with an additional ounce added to his normal 4oz. We hold him so he is kind of in an upright position for a few minutes after feeding & then he is in his crib by 9pm. He doesn't wake us up until about 1am then I breastfeed him & change him & he sleeps till 5am. This additional hour that he goes between feedings has made me feel like a new person!! My 16 month old gets up around 7 or 8 so I even have a little time for myself in the morning!
Good luck!

~Deena

[Justice Jonesie]

What I did for my bunch was put the youngest down first. Then I worked on the older one, got her bathed, read her a story, then put her down. When I was ready for bed, I would pick up the younger one, nurse him while he slept, changed him only if needed (and with no wipes, if possible), burped, swaddled him tight, and then I went right to sleep. I found that if I feed him before he slept, he would sleep longer periods of times which resulted in me sleeping even better. Good luck!

[Deena]

I forgot to add that my son sleeps on his tummy. I know the trend now is for back sleeping, but my baby sleeps so much sounder this way. He can roll over so I am not too worried, but we also invested in the Angelcare monitor for extra peace of mind.

[Kate]

I have a white noise machine in each kid's room. For the youngest (6 months old) I still swaddle him occasionally, but he's so strong now that I use two aiden and anais swaddlers. Which is why now that he's old enough we're sleep training him (following Dr. Weissbluth's sleep training method to the letter). The book is called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and it is by far the best sleep training book I've found. Also, my pediatrician (who has 6 children) swears by it. It helps a lot to be able to put them down awake - for your sanity as well as the child's development. Hope this helps!