When we first brought her home, we tried her bassinet. She didn't sleep in it very long. So we started taking turns letting her sleep on our chest. I was terrified of SIDS and it was too sweet not to indulge in letting her sleep on us. Eventually, we found that she would sleep in her swing. We tried the 5 S's method from the happiest baby on the block. Swaddle, Shushing sounds, Swing, Suckle, Side position. This definitely CAN work. But it didn't always work. What worked for us in those early days, swaddling, nursing to sleep and putting in the swing with a binkie, OR swaddling, and bouncing her to sleep with a binkie and then putting her in the swing. We tried letting her sleep on her tummy in our bed with us between our pillows (we have a king) and that worked for all of 3 days. Her swing didn't always work so we would try her bassinet. We rolled up a blanket to go on either side of her so that she could not roll around and once we got her to sleep we would lay her on her side in her bassinet. We tried different room temperatures, no difference. We tried giving her a bottle before bed when she was 4 months hoping she might get "fuller" than nursing, and her sleep patterns did not change.
In the first few months, we did change her diaper in the night as she was up nursing every 2-4 hours. But as she got older and starting sleeping a little bit longer (Occasionally) we wouldn't change her as often at night. And now at 9 months, she gets a fresh diaper before bed and we don't change her until the morning.
We tried to keep night time as de-stimulating as possible. We didn't notice any change in her sleep patterns. But we did start "nighttime" from the day we brought her home and it seems like she did not have her days and nights mixed up very long at all.
We tried car rides a couple desperate nights, but she woke up as soon as we got home.
We tried letting her sleep on the couch with me because she was doing nap time there pretty good for a few weeks, but that only lasted a couple nights.
As she got older, 5 months old, I co-slept a bit more with her. And as she got to be 7 months old, I co-sleep a lot. I felt more confident that myself nor my husband would squish her in the night as she was bigger, and for me, I could wake up and nurse her and we would both go right back to sleep.
The turning point, at 8 months, was when my husband had a business trip. So I was alone with our daughter for 3 nights and 4 days for the first time ever. I co-slept with her the first nights, and it was the best sleep I had gotten since she was born. And the third night, I tried to co-sleep with her but she was wanting to crawl around on the bed and roll around. So I gave up and put her in her crib to try CIO. Within 5 minutes, she went to sleep on her own. My husband came back to town the next night, and we tried co-sleeping again. It did not work. So the second night my husband was home, I nursed her, got her mostly asleep, put her in her crib, and she cried for less than 5 minutes and went to sleep on her own again. She has been doing this for a month now. But she barely cries. She "wakes" up when we put her in her crib, but she finds her wubanub, cries/fusses for a few minutes, gets comfortable and goes to sleep on her own. During the night when she wakes up, she finds a binky, makes a few noises and goes back to sleep on her own. And she is now sleeping 10-14 hours a night without getting up at all.
We had tried CIO (crying it out) when she was 6 months old. And I was a wreck and 30 minutes of crying with no end in site. And I would go in every 5 minutes which only seemed to make her more upset. So we quit trying that after two nights. I don't think she was ready to do it. And I was definitely not ready to do it.
We tried co-sleeping before too, but it seems it did not work as well when my husband and I were in the bed, but worked better when it was just my daughter and I.
We've made it this far, and now we are all starting to sleep. I just hope this pattern continues. But I know babies are always growing and changing, so who knows how long this will last.
She is almost 13 months old now and I am proud to say she is STILL sleeping through the night!
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