With all the science in part 1 of The Newborn Sleep Theory, you might be wondering if any of it worked for us. I am happy to share by just 4.5 weeks old, my newborn started to sleep through the night and by 12 weeks, she was sleeping almost 12 hours, giving me my life back. So what was my secret? This is our sleep journey and what worked for us as we taught our baby how to sleep.

…from 4 weeks I had my baby sleeping 5-7 hours…and by 12 weeks she was sleeping 10-12 hours overnight

ELICIA, THE MUM THEORY

Our Journey

I always tried not to talk about how well my baby sleeps to mums around me, because most of the mums I knew were sleep deprived and struggling to get their baby to sleep. But over time I’ve learnt mums need to hear the success stories too. Our journey started like this: When I came home from the hospital after giving birth, I was so lost and had no idea where to start. Luckily, I had a family member who had great success with Baby Sleep School, so she grabbed my phone and got me to follow their Instagram. It was life changing. In those early weeks when I really had no idea, and certainly no brain power to do my own research, I was so thankful for all the free advice on their insta page.

Once I had a look at their program with a bit more of a clear head, I could see their program was very gentle sleep training. There was absolutely no cry it out methods, which was important to me and the best part, it was evidence-based. Following their newborn sleep guide, from just 4 weeks old I had my baby sleeping between 5-7 hours and a solid 8 hours by 10 weeks. By the time she hit 3 months old, she was sleeping almost 12 hours over night with a dream feed.

Daytime naps were a bit tougher for me as Olympia went through some rough catnapping phases, making her very overtired. This turned my beautiful, smiling, happy baby into a grump. When she was 5 months, she went through her worst catnapping phase, which became so overwhelming and exhausting for me as a mum. I ended up purchasing a 1:1 consult with the Baby Sleep School girls which was the best thing I did. They helped me re-adjust her awake times, answered all my questions, and really educated me on sleep so I felt more confident to help my baby. The consultant I was assigned was so kind, caring and showed genuine empathy, which was so appreciated.

What we did to nail sleep

1. Set up the right sleep environment from day 1 as this sets a great foundation.
   • White noise – used sound through our Cubo Ai Smart Baby Monitor
   • Sleeping bag (swaddle for the early weeks)
   • Pitch black room for naps and night sleep
   • Room temperature – not too hot, not too cold!
   • I did also offer the dummy, but by 5 months Olympia had replaced this with her thumb
2. Awake times
   • Nailing this was really tough but once we got it right Olympia’s naps were perfect. If you’re not sure about what awake time your baby needs, have a google and look at generic awake times by age. Still confused? Reach out to a sleep school/consultant as your baby may be over or under tired. If you’re confident enough, you can always play around with their awake times by extending or reducing by 15 minutes.
3. Bedtime routine – I created the following as our consistent bedtime routine
   • Our 4 Bs of Bedtime
     • Bath
     • Bottle (or boob if breastfeeding)
     • Book
     • Bed
4. Gentle settling techniques and followed Baby Sleep School’s age-appropriate guidelines
5. Sought GP advice for colic diagnosis and reflux
6. Implemented a late bedtime (between 10-11) by utilising a 4^th nap in the early weeks
7. Implemented a dream feed between 10:30-11pm around 12 weeks and kept the dream feed until about 10 months.

Will it work for you?

Hopefully yes; my best advice is to be consistent with whatever techniques you choose to implement. Bubs can need much longer than a day or a week to adapt. Also really important to keep in mind, each baby is so different, and two mamas could follow the exact same suggestions and see different results. This means that there isn’t one program that will suit every baby. However, if you find yourself struggling to help your baby sleep, there is help out there, and from personal experience, I couldn’t recommend baby sleep school enough!

I think it’s so important to recognise just how much sleep deprivation can affect you and your baby. Be kind to yourself and try to accept help where you can. As mums, we want to be able to do it all, but that’s hard enough at the best of times let alone when you’re sleep deprived.

Wishing you all a good night sleep,

E xo
The Mum Theory