The No-cry Sleep Solution (56 page)
Read The No-cry Sleep Solution Online
Authors: Elizabeth Pantley
How many days have you been following your plan? ______
Time baby
How baby
Where baby Where baby How
fell asleep
fell asleep
fell asleep
slept
long?
1. Review Table 2.1 on page 48, or copy the information from your first log:
How many naps should your baby be getting? _________________
How many naps is your baby getting now ? ___________________
How many hours should your baby be napping? _______________
How many hours is your baby napping now ? _________________
2. Do you have a formal nap routine? _________________________
3. Are you watching for sleepy signs and putting your baby down for a nap as soon as you notice he’s tired? _______________________
4. Are your baby’s naptimes/lengths consistent every day? _________
Do a Ten-Day Log
175
Ten-Day Prebedtime Routine Log
Baby’s Name: ________________________________________
Age: _______________________________________________
Date: _______________________________________________
How many days have you been following your plan? ______
Key:
Activity: active, moderate, or calm
Noise: loud, moderate, or quiet
Light: bright, dim, or dark
Activity
Noise
Light
Time
What we did
level
level
level
1. For the past ten days, approximately how many days did you follow your formal bedtime routine? _________________________________
2. Is the hour prior to bedtime mostly peaceful, quiet, and dimly lit? ___
3. Does your bedtime routine help your baby wind down and prepare for sleep? ____________________________________________
4. Is your nightly routine consistent, acting as a bedtime cue for your baby? __________________________________________________
5. Is your bedtime routine relaxing and enjoyable for you? ___________
176
The No-Cry Sleep Solution
Ten-Day Night-Waking Log
Baby’s Name: ________________________________________
Age: _______________________________________________
Date: _______________________________________________
How many days have you been following your plan? ______
How long
How long Time
How
of a sleep
awake; baby baby
stretch
How baby
what we
fell back fell back since fell
Time
woke me up
did
to sleep to sleep asleep
Asleep time: __________________________________________
Awake time: ________________________________________
Total number of awakenings: _________________________________
Longest sleep span: ___________________________________
Total hours of sleep: ____________________________________
8
Analyze Your Success
It’s time to think about what’s happened since you began following your sleep plan. It’s also the time to tweak your plan and make any changes that you’ve learned are necessary to help your baby sleep better. Because we can’t sit down over a cup of coffee and talk about your baby (wouldn’t that be nice!), I’ve created this chapter to help you figure out which parts of your plan are working, and which ones need to be changed. Start by using the information from your logs in Chapter 7 to complete the comparison chart that follows. Fill in the times from both logs and the amount of change:
First log
Ten days
Amount of change
Number
of naps
Length
of naps
Bedtime:
Asleep time
Awake
time
Number of
awakenings
Longest
sleep span
Total hours
of sleep
177
Copyright 2002 by Better Beginnings, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use.
178
The No-Cry Sleep Solution
Now take a few minutes to answer the following questions that will help you analyze your efforts. If you can, talk over the information with your spouse, your parenting partner, or another mother who is working on her own sleep plan. You may even want to search out a group of mothers and create a support group—
either in person or by E-mail or bulletin board. The support of other parents who are going through the same things that you are right now can be very helpful and enlightening.
Evaluate Your Sleep Plan
During the past ten days, how closely did you follow your plan?
ٗ I followed all parts of my plan exactly for all ten days.
ٗ I followed some parts of my plan, but not everything.
ٗ I started out great, but reverted back to my old habits.
ٗ Plan? What plan? (Oops, better start over with Step One!) Have you seen positive changes in at least one area (for example: a fifteen-minute increase in naptime or sleep span; an earlier bedtime; a reduction in the number of night wakings)? _______
What areas show the most change? ______________________
Why do you think that’s true? (What have you done to influence this?) _____________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Analyze Your Success
179
What areas show the least change? _____________________
Why do you think that’s true? (What have you done to influence this?) ______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
What have you learned about your baby’s sleep habits over the past ten days? ___________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
What parts of your plan seem to be having the best influence on your baby’s sleep? _____________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
What changes do you think you now need to make? _______
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
How are you going to make these changes? _______________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
180
The No-Cry Sleep Solution
Reuel, one month old
The following sections are divided into three parts. Find the one that matches your level of success and read through the information. You may also want to read through the other sections for additional insight and ideas. Choose from these options: If Your Baby Is Now Sleeping Through the
Night (Five or More Consecutive Hours)
Congratulations! I’m truly thrilled that you have seen such great sleep success so quickly. I suspect that you have more energy and are feeling happier even though your sleep has improved for just a few days. It’s amazing how a little sleep can have such a peaceful impact on your life, isn’t it?
We need to address a few issues now that you’ve seen some success. First, this is only the beginning! Now that your baby can
