Modification 2 – In crib at 7PM
Sometimes when I lay awake at night, I come up with plans or ideas, and at that hour I always feel like anything is possible. Usually morning comes and another day begins and somewhere between the school drop offs and the baby classes the plan fizzles. But last night after I finished typing my post on my phone, I emailed it to my husband and I went to sleep. I woke up with a reply from him, “AMAZING!!! why are you doing this at 1:30 am??” With his encouragement, I created a blog and published my first post.
My family and friends were IMMEDIATELY supportive and here I am writing a second post. As I promised last night – here are my remaining modifications to 12 by 12.
Before I list them, I will give a very brief overview on the book’s main concepts.
Once a baby is at least 9 pounds, eats at least 24 oz in 24 hours and is at least 4 weeks old (different guidelines for twins and triplets) the training can start. The very first step of the book is to pick your 12 hour window that you want your baby to be in the crib at night – I chose 7 pm – 7 am. You then divide your day into 4 feeds, 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm. It is very tempting to start with the night feeds first, but you have to get your day set before you can start doing anything with night feeds.
Here is where a modification comes in – at the beginning of training I follow the book and I DO the feed AT 7pm, but a short while later I move the feed earlier and earlier so that my baby is in the crib at 7 pm, not eating at 7 pm. The time will differ for each baby and how long the baby takes to eat. The book says 6:45 pm last feed, but if I fed at 6:45, I would not be able to have my baby fed, changed into an overnight diaper, sleepsack (i LOVE the sleep sack) and in the crib all in 15 minutes.
The key is, and the book is very clear about this – you want your baby to be AWAKE when they go in the crib, so you need to give yourself enough time to have the nighttime routine done, including the feeding, and have the baby awake in the crib BY 7PM.
Modification: Once the baby has their day schedule set and the night feeds are reduced, Move the last feed early enough to have the baby in the crib by 7PM – don’t start the feed at 7PM.
When I started this post my baby was napping and my toddler playing and I thought I would have time to get through my modifications, but the day is getting away from me and I have to get ready for my son’s swimming lesson, so I will be back!
[…] Modification 2 – In crib at 7PM […]
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Would you mind posting what naps looked like during this period of getting baby to sleep 12 hours at night? Thank you!
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Sure!
When I start stretching the feeds, there’s really no consistent napping, usually the baby sleeps a lot of the day.
As we get more into the 4 hour feeding schedule, I try to do feed, awake, nap then feed. This way when they wake up its time to eat.
Usually they wake up earlier than the time especially if they are used to only stretching 3 hours between feeds, but then often when being held off, they end up falling asleep again and then get another little nap in before the feed.
I always have the nap schedule goal in mind, around 9-11, 1-3 and then another nap before bath, but I don’t expect that or push that until the day schedule is really set and the night feeds are reducing properly. (Can check out my post Schedules for more info)
My main priority during the sleep training is that the feeds are at the correct times, more specifically that the day starts with a good feed and the night ends with one too. Whenever they sleep in between that doesn’t matter to me as long as they are getting naps in so that they don’t become overtired. But I really follow their cues about when to nap during that time.
Hope this helps, feel free to reach out for any other questions!
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Hi! I have a quick question. My daughter is 5 weeks and I will start doing step 1 soon. I do try to keep her up after feedings so she is not associating food with sleeping but sometimes she does fall asleep after giving her a bottle and does not want to wake. Would you say this matters? Or just focus on trying to stretch the feedings as long as possible?
Thank you so much!
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Hi! At 5 weeks they sleep so often, I wouldn’t worry about trying to keep her up. As you start step 1, I would focus on stretching the feeds, and I’d let her sleep when she wants.
Good luck!!! Reach out with any more questions.
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