Listen. I’m going to get right to it. Until recently, we hadn’t slept through the night for nine and a half months. And actually I hadn’t slept all night since I was about 5 months pregnant. Y’all, I don’t know if you’re any good at math or not, but trust me when I say THAT IS A LONG TIME.

We were exhausted. Add to the fact that we have three other kids that, for some reason, need attention and food, too. (I don’t understand that either, but whatever) Also Tony running the business and being slammed this year. Let’s just say that we’ve been in a Sleepy Bad Mood since Summer of ’15.

Josie sleeps in her crib in our room and was waking up 3 times a night and wanting to nurse. For months I kept saying, ‘it’s fine! It’s way easier to nurse her back to sleep’ and ‘she’s the last baby, it’s okay’.

Guess what? It was NOT okay. I didn’t realize how NOT OKAY it was until we started sleeping again.

We are having wonderfully better nights and this is how we did it using the advice from Moms on Call as suggested by a friend.

ONE: GET ON A BEDTIME ROUTINE. Being that she is the fourth baby, I thought I knew it all and since the other girls didn’t have a set schedule (and they slept) then she didn’t need one either. WRONG.

TWO: LOSE THE SLEEPSACK. She would get the sack twisted around her legs at night and wasn’t able to move as easily as she wanted. Now she sleeps in footie pajamas.

THREE: LOUD SOUND MACHINE. And when I say ‘loud’ I mean that I turn it up so loud that I can hear it easily on the other side of the closed bedroom door. She loves it. Now, she immediately lays her head down on me when I turn on the machine. I don’t turn it on until right before I put her in the crib. She giggles and smiles when I do. Also, the sound machine is ONLY white noise. Not a river. Not an ocean. Not birds or rain. ONLY white noise.

The one we have is here: HoMedics Sound Spa

FOUR: NO LIGHTS IN THE ROOM. Not even a nightlight.

FIVE: NO MOBILE/NO PROJECTOR/NO TOYS IN THE CRIB. We had all three going on. Now she associates the crib with sleep.

SIX: START BEDTIME ROUTINE AT THE EXACT SAME TIME EVERY NIGHT. I will list her schedule below; however, just know that we start (and do) the exact same thing every single night.

SEVEN: DO NOT GET HER OUT WHEN SHE CRIES DURING THE NIGHT. This was the hardest one. Although I don’t mind rocking her until she gets drowsy before I lie her down, it was the getting up DURING the night that needed to stop. She certainly wasn’t hungry and was using me as a human paci. It only took her four nights of fussing to sleep all night, but those four nights were ROUGH. Especially since she does share a room with us. Tony and I just used earplugs and he kept me from getting her out and rocking her during the night.

EIGHT: MULTIPLE PACIFIERS IN THE CRIB. She has six at any given time. She only gets the paci at bedtime and naptime.

NINE: WEANING AND FORMULA FEEDING. I weaned her during all of this, too, by the way. It wasn’t too hard since she really REALLY loves the formula and her bottle. I understand that many moms will not want to wean their baby in order to help get the baby to sleep during the night, but it worked wonderfully for us and Josie is much, much happier now.

TEN: NAP ON SCHEDULE. Before, I would let her sleep as long as she wanted for her first nap, then two hours for her afternoon nap. Now, she sleeps from 10am – noon in the morning and 3pm – 4:15 in the afternoon. I don’t let her sleep longer than 2 hours in the morning.

So, that’s it! That’s how we got Josephine to sleep ten to twelve hours each night and I’m only sad that we didn’t start this sooner. She is so much more happy, well rested and even progressing quicker than before. She is alert and in a good mood these days. And so are me and Tony!

Her schedule looks like this:
7:15: BATH
7:30: BOTTLE
7:45: ROCK AND CHIT CHAT/SING
7:55: IN THE CRIB FOR THE NIGHT
*this is the part where she’s sleeping and sleeping and sleeping*
7:00am UP AND AT ‘EM
10-12:00: NAP
3:00-4:15: NAP

I hope this helps someone out there. Remember, you CAN make it through those first couple of nights where baby wakes up and cries. Baby may feel all alone, but YOU KNOW BABY IS NOT so just keep telling yourself that and you’ll be sleeping in no time!