Good Night, Sleep Tight

I love my sleep. I might be a night owl, but I love to sleep. It's one of life's greatest joys! Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I really do love my sleep. And I really hate being tired. And I'm pretty grumpy in the mornings if I'm sleep deprived. So yes, sleep was on my mind a lot in those last few weeks leading up to Emmy's birth. My biggest fear about having a newborn again was how was I going to survive on broken sleep? Sully has been sleeping through the night for as long as I can remember (save for the occasional nightmare that wakes him up), so the thought of having to wake up every few hours to soothe or feed a sleeping baby was pretty scary.

Sully, who is almost three now, was a terrible sleeper for most of the first 18 months of his life. He basically only slept if someone was holding him. I never intended to co-sleep with Sully, but because I needed to do what I needed to do in order for both of us to get some sleep, we co-slept. For the first few months, I held Sully at night while he slept. The second I would put him down in a bassinet beside our bed, he would wake up, furious and crying. I attempted to lay him beside me in my bed, but he just seemed too little in those first few months and I feared covers or pillows would somehow end up smothering him.

Anyway, looking back, those were some long nights. Sure, we slept, but I wouldn't say it was ideal. I ended up loving co-sleeping once he was older and bigger so when I became pregnant with Emmy, I knew I wanted to co-sleep with her too. But, I did not want to have to hold her.

Sometime after Sully was sleeping in his crib to before Emmy was born, I discovered DockATot. Why I hadn't heard of them when Sully was an infant, I will never know, but I knew the DockATot was going to be the sleep game changer with Emmy. The DockATot is like a little nest for your babe to sleep in. It's portable, meaning you can easily move it from your bed to the floor or from room to room, or even take it with you when you travel. You can use it during the day for your babe to lounge in, or at night to safely co-sleep in your bed with you. The sides and bottom of it are breathable (and washable) and made of 100% cotton. In a nutshell, it's the perfect little bed for your baby.

We use the DockATot every single night. I place it in the middle of our bed up near the headboard, on top of the covers. Then I get under the covers, with my pillow a little further down the bed. This ensures that the covers never accidentally end up on top of Emmy.

At first, I just swaddled Emmy in a muslin blanket, but she's a little Houdini and I found she was spending too much time trying to get out of the swaddle! So then I introduced The Ollie Swaddle. I wasn't a big fan of swaddling with Sully because I found he either escaped too easily, or it was annoying at night to have to re-swaddle numerous times after diaper changes. The Ollie Swaddle is really soft on the inside and is made of moisture wicking material which reduces the risk of overheating. But most importantly (in my opinion), is that it's so easy to use! You just lay your baby in the middle of it and wrap one side over the other and it's secured with Velcro. The bottom you secure with an attached elastic band. This allows you to change baby's diaper without un-swaddling. Also, we've been using the Ollie Swaddle for weeks now and Emmy hasn't escaped from it once yet. And she can often be super fussy when it's time for bed and as soon as I swaddle her, she relaxes almost instantly.

Emmy is the complete opposite baby from her brother and she's been a pretty amazing sleeper since day one. She actually slept pretty well in a bassinet beside my bed for the first week she was home, but as soon as the DockATot arrived, I switched her to that. I love having her right in bed beside me, especially in those first few weeks when I was still recovering from my c-section. Sitting up and trying to lift her out of the bassinet was not the easiest thing to do. The DockATot made nighttime feeds so much more convenient and easier for me. Now that my mobility isn't an issue, I still find it so much easier to have her right there. Sometimes in the middle of the night I can hear her start to fuss a little and all I have to do is roll over and pop her soother back into her mouth. Or I gently jiggle the DockATot until she settles back to sleep. When you don't have to physically get out of bed to soothe or feed your baby, your sleep doesn't feel nearly as interrupted. And ever since I started swaddling with the Ollie Swaddle and using the DockATot together, Emmy has been sleeping for 4 - 5 hour chunks! I call that a huge win.

Needless to say, from here on out, if any parent asks me what baby items I think are a must, these two are at the top of the list. Emmy is currently sleeping in the smaller DockATot, the Deluxe, but I'm already planning on ordering her the Grand once she outgrows this one, that's how much I love it!

If you're wanting to purchase a DockATot for yourself or a gift, feel free to use my referral link to receive $10 off your purchase! (I'll receive $5 in return), or this referral link for The Ollie Swaddle to receive 10% off (I'll receive $5 in return). Happy sleeping!

*I received the DockATot and The Ollie Swaddle in exchange for this post,  but as always, all opinions and reviews expressed are my own. Thank you for supporting the companies that continue to make this hobby of mine possible! 

Parents, do you co-sleep with your babies? Would you?

At what age did you start putting your baby into his/her crib in their own room? 

How well does your baby sleep at night?

I think this is the question I get asked most about Sully (or some version of it), regardless of how well I know the person asking it. Everyone wants to know how much sleep you are and aren't getting at night. Is your baby sleeping through the night? How often are they getting up? How are you coping with the loss of sleep? Are they sleeping in their crib? It's hard not to feel defencive when asked these questions. I often feel like it's a competition - who's baby is sleeping better and in longer stretches throughout the night? If I tell people my baby is up often throughout the night, and I am exhausted during the day, am I failing as a new mom? If I tell them it's a non-issue because we co-sleep, do I see judgement in their eyes? There are so many challenges we new moms are presented with, and the issue of sleep/sleeplessness is high up on the list.

Before Sully was born, I never really thought too much about bedtime and bedtime routine. I (naively) assumed that he would sleep in his moses basket beside our bed for the first few weeks and then in his crib after that. I had visions of myself spending hours during the night, in the expensive glider chair we purchased for his nursery, nursing my son and catching up on the reading I missed out on during the day.

Well. For the record, Sully hasn't spent one night in either his bassinet or his crib, and the only time I've rocked him in the glider chair is during daytime nursing sessions when I feel like changing up the scenery from the downstairs couch.

So where does he sleep? There's only one place left: our bed. Co-sleeping or bed-sharing, is not for everyone, but right now it's what is working for us, and really, I have learned that having a newborn in the house is all about doing what works for you. I never imagined that we would become a co-sleeping family, but co-sleeping has allowed me to get decent sleep at night and not be tired during the day or feel the need for naps. I get mixed reactions when I tell people we bed-share with Sully. Some see it as a negative thing, a "problem" we'll be "sorry" we started. Others totally get it. I say, don't knock it till you've tried it!

No one knows what kind of baby they are going to have…a good sleeper, a not so good sleeper, a good napper, a fussy baby, etc. From day one in the hospital, Sully hated the cold, plastic bassinets the hospitals provide for your baby. I think the most he ever slept in one was for 4 hours, and that was after the nurse kindly woke him up at 6am to give him his first bath. Otherwise, he wanted to be held. And how could I deny my perfect, little son that demand? So I started holding him while he slept. And then one night (I spent 6 nights in the hospital - birth story coming soon!), I kept him in bed with me all night. It was just easier that way. I couldn't, after my c-section, get out of bed to pick up my baby and then get back into bed and reposition myself while holding my baby without the nurses help. When I was done nursing, I would call the nurse to put Sully back in the bassinet, and within 20 minutes I would be calling her again to have her hand him back to me as he was already fussing. So I decided to stop bothering the nurses and just hold him.

Did I start something there? Maybe. Did I have any other choice at the time? Maybe. But I didn't see it that way. I did what I needed to do and it worked for me. The first few nights at home we tried the moses basket beside the bed and he would wake up after only being in it for 20 minutes, sometimes even less. We even tried putting him in the mamaroo swing right beside our bed and even that didn't work. Unsure what else we could do, we brought him into bed with us. We all slept that night, and I realized that bed-sharing just felt right.  Not to mention that nursing in bed at night is effortless, quick, and makes for falling back asleep a breeze.

I have a lot of friends that have all had babies in the last year and each and every one of them have their own stories to tell about their baby's sleep habits. Some have amazing little sleepers, baby's who will sleep most of the night away in their cribs, and some who need a little bit more attention to get through the night. Some co-sleep, some do not. Some started a bedtime routine early on, while others waited. As a first time parent, it's hard to know what to do: do I establish a (rigid) bedtime routine? At what age? 3 months, 6 months? Or do I listen to my baby's cues? What time is bedtime for a 3 month old? I worried at one point that I would have to hold Sully while he slept forever! But my mom wisely told me that one day he would not want to be held as it would no longer be comfortable for him. And as I type this, he is sound asleep in bed beside me.

So where do we go from here? I'm not sure. Part of me thinks why fix something that isn't broken? I'm not sleep deprived, tired during the day, or desperate for a nap when afternoon rolls around. We'll probably leave Sully in our bed for a little while longer, although I do think about trying him in his crib just to see if and how his sleep pattern at night changes. But for now, I'm keeping him here right beside me, right where I want him.

Friends, I'd love to hear what the sleeping situation is like with your little ones. How and when did you establish a bedtime routine? Do you recommend any books on the matter?