My method for sleeping longer stretches through the night sooner than you expect.
It’s all about teaching sweet lemon drop the difference between night and day!
Each of my babies was different. One has turned out to be a little on the OCD-side: an early riser, full of plans, and personal expectations. The second is part fairy, part author, happy as long as we’re having fun. Number three is a little general.
Despite VERY DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES, each responded positively to this routine. (Please keep in mind, I began from the first day home from the hospital, so it could take a little practice if your baby is used to something else.)
If you are still pregnant you can begin thinking through some of this now!
1-Establish the time period you want to have the longest stretch of sleep
In the beginning, that probably means 4 hours. If you are nursing, you don’t want to hurt your milk supply by going very long without feeding. For me that was 12a-4a. In my opinion, 12a-4a is definitely when I wanted my baby sleeping. I guess you could say for ME that is OFFICIALLY NIGHT.
So for me 12a was bedtime.
2-Designate ONE nighttime sleeping location
This could be a co-sleeper, pack-n-play, or bassinet in your room. (I do recommend keeping the baby in your room so you can respond to her cues more quickly.)
Do not put the baby in his nighttime bed until the “bedtime” you chose for any reason.
Where will the little lump sleep during the day?
Throughout the day, try baby-wearing, utilize swings, pack-n-plays, bouncers, carseats, etc. Keep baby near you with lots of light and sound so he knows it is daytime and there’s a lot going on!
3-Cluster-feed your baby before bedtime so she’s had lots of mommy-time and her belly is full.
3 hours before the bedtime, breastfeed the baby on each side (I never used bottles, but I would guess around 1-2oz). Then play with and interact with your baby, let her swing, or have some tummy-time. Keep the activity going.
Repeat 1 hour later feeding on both sides (starting with the side you left off on). You may have to wake baby by undressing and changing.
Repeat 1 hour later with the same process. This is the “last feeding of the night”.
4-Complete your bedtime routine
Change baby into “pajamas” and a fresh diaper. Next swaddle your baby. Yes sometimes they try to wiggle out, but a little perseverance is worth it. I often double-swaddled to keep my little darlings tightly wrapped.
5-Put baby to bed
Lay baby in nighttime sleep place. It’s great for baby to go down awake, because he will learn to fall asleep on his own. At this point, you can feel fairly confident that baby is full and ready to sleep after all that eating!
6-Prepare for a calm, consistent atmosphere
Leave a very low light on so that when baby does wake in the night you don’t have to ever change the lights to check on baby. You don’t want to change the atmosphere with harsh lighting.
Keep it quiet. Its sleeping time: no talking, tv, or light, throughout the night. Only “shh” if its really needed.
7-Meet your babies feeding needs throughout the night, as quickly as possible
If you put baby down around 12a, the next feeding maybe sometime around 4 am.
If baby begins to wiggle in bed and seems to be rooting around, go ahead and feed her. It’s better to meet these needs before she is struggling and crying. You may have to spend extra time calming her if you wait until she is upset. Then immediately re-swaddle and place her back in her bed. If breast-feeding is firmly established, you may want to consider offering a pacifier.
8-Try to master the side-lying hold
If you are able, breastfeed your baby in a safe, side-lying hold so that you can get some rest while she eats. (I will post my breast-feeding tips in a future blog) If you can’t yet no worries. 🙂
9-Stretch out the 4 hours of solid sleep to a full night
Once your baby is falling asleep at the bedtime you have picked and sleeping for 4 hours consistently, begin moving the bedtime back hour by hour. Eventually I worked all of my babies back to 7pm.
I am happy to report that 8 years later , all three darlings still faithfully march through their bedtime routines and are in bed reading or sleeping at 7pm.
Sweet dreams everybody!
DISCLAIMER: I am just a mom, not a pediatrician and I can’t possibly know your unique situation. But this method has been a healthy and successful plan for my family and many of my friends. I hope it can help some of you. I’m sure there are many other great ways to get sleep and sanity but this is the plan that worked for me. J
Newborn Love 
This is great advice!! Wish I’d known your routine four babies ago. Lol, oh well, maybe for #5…. or not!
Ha! Clearly you have it down for your gang or you wouldn’t have made it this far! LOL
Lolll. There is always room for improvement 🙂
Sounds like great advice! Thank you for sharing your experience. I’ll keep it in mind and let you know (fingers crossed!!!) 🙂
I hope it works for you! Having a newborn in the house feels like someone else has taken control of your life. At the very least maybe having an imperfect plan will help with the transition. Take care!
Awesome article! I love how you broke this down. This is similar to what I did ( I’m pretty sure you wrote this our for me in an email!) and my three month old is sleeping for 8-9 hours every night. Cluster feeding and the 12a-4a schedule have worked amazingly well. He slept 4 hours right from the third day on.
Yay! I’m so glad it helped you!!! Thanks for sharing!
Amy,
I was so grateful for the email that you sent me when I was pregnant. It was like my bible!! I read it so many times during the last two weeks of my pregnancy, I really liked it because It was not complicated and seemed something that I could do. It was your method or read books with over 300 pages on this subject, I was really looking forward to trying your method first!!! It definitely works and little Isabella was sleeping 6-7 hours by the second month. That got disrupted for a few days when she caught a cold but overall I’m grateful for your expert advise! Thanks!! 🙂
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that!! Thanks for the feedback.
I really like this!! I do have one question: when did you start putting your babies down for naps in their rooms/beds rather than daytime sleep being in a baby carrier/amidst the hustle and bustle of daytime living? And was that a difficult transition for them?? I guess that was two questions, haha. That might be a dumb question, but my daughter has always been such a sensitive sleeper and slow to change that it’s hard to imagine my next baby being any different! I definitely want to try this next time, I’m just curious about how naps worked for you 🙂
Thanks for your feedback and great question!!!
I would say once your child seems to adapt to a routine, begin your next routine. So for example, once your child is going down for the night and sleeping a long stretch, begin introducing the crib for an afternoon nap. Then add the morning nap etc.
I think I will write a complete post about this question soon!!