Sleep Coach

We have been struggling with Cooper and his sleeping/ nap schedule for a few months.  Cooper had never been much of an independent napper.  He would only nap on me RIGHT after eating.  We didn't have much of a routine or anything.  He was also very inconsistent in his night time sleep.  Sometimes he would sleep 10 hours straight, or wake up every 4 hours, or even wake up every 2 hours.  We would go to bed not sure how long he would sleep for.  Cooper was also unable to put himself to sleep.  We tried many different methods of Cry it out, or stay in his room and "Shhh" him until he would fall asleep then leave. Those would work for a few weeks, then we would be back to where we started.
I then found this sleep coach.  A friend of mine from Stroller Strides found her and had great success, so we were desperate and contacted her.  She was doing free consultations.  AJ thought I was CRAZY for contacting her, but now realizes it's the best thing we have done.

This was her advice to me:  Cooper needed a routine.  He needed to go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time and eat around the same time everyday.  We were not doing this.  I was feeding him when I thought he was hungry, but sometimes when I thought it was hungry, he was actually very tired.

Cooper also was waking in the night cause he was STARVING!  Apparently, I thought he was getting enough to eat, but he wasn't.  We started feeding him solids 3x/day.  When he wakes in the morning, he nurses then gets solids, naps, nurses, naps, eats solids and nurses, naps, eats solids and nurses, nurses then goes to bed at 6:30 pm.  We have been doing this for almost 1 month, and he has slept through the night and has napped from day 1!

For his napping and bedtime routine, when we notice sleepy signs (such as rubbing his eyes, or dazing off), usually after 1 1/2 to 2 hours after waking, we go upstairs, change his diaper, walk slowly (to slow his heart rate down and calm him down), sing "twinkle twinkle little star" then put him down to sleep, sing the song 1 more time, turn on his white noise and then leave the room.  He rarely fusses and goes right to sleep.

We are so excited that we are having such success with it.  Of course, this routine will change as he gets older, can go longer between naps and goes down to 2 naps.

I love that he naps because this allows me to do other things such as, the laundry, make Cooper baby food and Blog.  He has currently been napping this morning for 90 minutes!