A new bedtime routine

For a while now, we have had a pretty consistent bedtime routine with Davis. Typically, it goes something like this:

• 5:00 pm - Nap
  
• 6:00 pm - Our dinner with Davis in the highchair / laps
  
• 7:00 pm - Massage or Bath
• 7:30 pm - Nurse to sleep in the chair
• 7:45 pm - Put in crib asleep
• 10:30 pm - Wake up, bounced or rocked back to sleep
• 12:30 am - Wake up, bounced or rocked back to sleep
• 2:30 am - Wake up, eat, put back to sleep
• 3:30 am - Wake up, bounced or rocked back to sleep
• 4:30 am - Wake up, whatever works to get him back to sleep (except nursing)
• 5:30 am - Crap shoot, maybe up, maybe asleep
  

This has been working okay, but not great. It has been okay in that it is consistent and it gets him to sleep by 7:45 or 8:00, but not so good in that he hasn't been sleeping well and has a very strong association with Mom and eating. Whenever Kristen has got up at night to re-assure him and put him back to sleep, he seems to get very upset that he is not being fed. Some of this is probably left over from nursing him in bed at night multiple times.

If you are familiar with EASY principals (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You-Time) from the Baby Whisperer, you see that we are actually on the AESY schedule (Activity, Eat, Sleep, You-Time).

We aren't really teaching him how to fall asleep on his own so we are trying a new bedtime routine. Our goals for this change to a) get him to sleep better at night (as you can see above, he wakes up every couple of hours) and b) teach him to go to sleep by himself. We are still working out the details, but we will be a) moving up his bed time, b) nursing him before his massage / bath and c) Dad will read Davis 2 books in the bedroom d) Dad will be putting him to bed (hopefully while sleepy, but not asleep) e) we will let him cry for 5 minutes before going in an re-assuring him for 5 minutes f) we will repeat e up to 5 times.

Tonight was our first try with this routine and to both our surprises it actually worked. Kristen nursed the little guy then I gave him a massage in the living room. After that, I took him into the bedroom where we read Daddy Kisses and Goodnight Moon before turning of the lights and rocking in the chair for a little bit. I put him down in the crib on his stomach a little fussy, then returned after 5 minutes (we have a timer) to reassure him by talking to him and patting him on the back for 5 minutes. He was able to fall asleep by himself and I haven't had go back in for the last 55 minutes.

We're still figuring out this routine and what we want our style to be. I'm sure there will be some changes, but the overwhelming thing we've learned from reading is to be consistent. Whether you use the Ferber Method, the No Cry Sleep Solution, attachment parenting, some other method, or a combination or many different approaches having a plan and sticking to it allows you to say "I love it when a plan comes together" and get some sleep yourself.