How I put my angel to sleep without any hustle and bustle (tips/tricks)

Good day (or should I say good night?) everyone,

I hope everyone's day is going well. In my Hush little baby blog post, I discussed about how my easy it is to put my angel to sleep. But, I did not discuss any techniques on how I do it or how I started. While I was writing that post, I thought this should be a separate post in itself, so here we go.

It's not that complicated. I had to start little, like I said in that post. How it goes:
1. I would sing a clean up song and she would know it is almost time
2. We clean up together
3. Then we brush our teeth
4. (Attempt to) use the washroom
5. Take bath (every 2nd or 3rd day)
6. Read a book together (usually the same one everyday)
7. And magically, she knows it's bedtime; I put her in her crib and boom! She's sleeping in the next 5-7 minutes or even less, some days.
 

Yup, I know! It is that simple, it really is! Give it a shot and you'll be surprised too. Now, I am not saying it will work all the time, everyday. I've had some days when I had to struggle to put her to sleep, like today.  On those days, I try to stay calm (because it is hard to do when I'm used to her sleeping early and without all the fuss). I just pick her up and lie down on our bed together and I just pat her back for a minute or two or more and when she's calmed down a bit, I put her back in her crib and she's gone off to her dreamland within a few minutes (that was a long long sentence with too many ands). Oh and I forgot to mention blankies, my daughter has 2 blankies she has to have while sleeping no matter what! She will NOT sleep without them (not even 1). So if your child(ren) has a soft toy or a blankie they like to sleep with, BIG bonus! Just make sure that the blankie is not too big, to avoid suffocation.

Also, just want to mention that the reason I don't give her bath everyday is because I don't take bath everyday too, nor does my hubby. All of us are dirty little creatures! Haha, no I'm just joking. The reason being us taking shower/bath every other or third day is that I feel that is sufficient. If we take shower/bath everyday, I believe, our skin dries out and the natural oils (which our body needs) are just getting washed off every single day and the result? Dry, itchy and patchy skin. Ugh! Well, not everyone thinks like me and that is totally OK, I respect everyone's opinions.

Talking of opinions, I just remembered that we haven't talked for a long time. Remember my post where I asked you how was/is your day? I haven't had a response from many of you. :( But that's OK, because you now have a new post to comment on or if nothing sounds fun, here try this.

Also, I just noticed the other day, that I don't encourage you guys enough to comment. I think why I don't do it because I don't want to be pushy and seem like I want something from you guys. Instead, I want to be offering you guys information and whatever I feel like. I signed up for the blog, you guys didn't sign up to comment, so I really should push you guys into doing so. But if you did, it would make me happy and we might end-up chatting.

Have a wonderful, wonderful week and we shall talk soon.

SWEET DREAMS!

Hush little baby...

Yup, you guessed it! We're talking about sleep today. Let's chat about how I learned to get my child to bed swiftly and maybe you can learn something too.

Got it from pixabay.com

A few years back, when I was pregnant with my beautiful angel, I had a friend stay over at my place. I noticed how disciplined her children were, specially her daughter. She has a girl, 11ish and a boy, 6ish.

They knew when it was time for bed and they wouldn't fuss over it, not even on weekends. They usually went to bed at 8pm and weekends would be 9pm.

It was not only her children, she was also very strict on her sleep schedule as well. Me and my husband would be awake until like 1am, usually until 2am. But, she was in bed around 10pm or 11pm the most.

I was amazed and very much sure that, that's what I want my child to do. I want her to be in bed when she knows it is bedtime without fighting to sleep.

I have seen and heard so many situations where children wouldn't be in bed until 10pm and they still fuss over it even after 10pm. In my family and in my husband's family, we've got children like that and oh boy, that's a chore putting them to bed. I knew I wanted my child in bed around 8pm, without all the fuss and buzz!

I talked to her and was curious how she's done it. She said, we usually have to set a routine for them when they are young, because then it becomes a habit and they know they are going to bed when it is time. Of course, I knew that before; but someone you know does it without any hassle, is like magic!

So when I had my daughter newly born, she was sleeping the whole day. I even had to wake her up to feed her, even in the nights. She was just sleeping day and night. And, was I not happy? :D

Then, as she got older, she started staying awake until 10 pm. I think it was kind of my mistake too, because I wanted to play with her and I just wanted her around. But then, I had some friends tell me that if I keep her on this routine, I would be regretting it later.

So, I decided to listen to them and set up a routine for her. What I did was I started small; first I started putting her to bed around 9:30pm, then 9pm and so on. That way, she didn't feel the difference between the time and I was glad I did, because now we can have some time to ourselves. Now she is happily sleeping at 8pm, now-a-days is heaven, because she is sleeping (happily) around7:30PM.

That's her when she was 1 month and 1 week old.

We'll discuss more about the importance of your and your child(ren)'s sleep in another post. But for now, that's all I got to say. Let me know in the comments when is your child sleeping and it is like a chore or is it easy peasy? :)

DREAM ON!!