Save our sleep???

This week we have started following Tizzie Hall's routines from 'Save our Sleep'. The routines are very prescriptive and one of the things she is very keen on is self-settling.

Until now, I have been rocking Zoe in my arms until she's nearly asleep and then putting her in her bed to sleep. Sometimes she starts to wake up, has a cry and then goes back to sleep.

Tizzie Hall recommends putting the baby to bed fully awake so they learn to self-settle. The idea is to wait at least 2 mins or as long as you can before going back in to comfort her. But there is to be no getting the baby out of bed. Instead, you need to rock/pat her while she's still in the cot.

We've been trying this with Zoe with limited success so far. I find that if she works herself up into quite a state, its impossible for her to fall asleep so I have been picking her up for a cuddle when she gets to this stage.

This morning, she managed to get to sleep within about 20 mins of going down, with one cuddle. This afternoon it took 50 mins with two cuddles. I feel like we are slowly but surely winning the game.

As for the routine, after two days I am a big fan. It basically prescribes feeding and sleeping routines for each age of the baby - two to four weeks, four to six weeks etc and they differ for breastfed and bottle-fed babies.

We have started Zoe on the routine for 2-4 weekers, because I feel that I am still trying to establish breastfeeding. The excellent thing about her routines is that they take this into account and even recommend expressing times that are suited to when you produce the most breastmilk.

I am really in favour of this because I've felt from the start that the advice I've been given to express after each feed wasn't the best for me because I just have so little milk in the afternoon and early evening.

The routine also takes this into account by allowing two feeds close together at the end of the day - 4pm and 6pm. It also considers that the baby is unsettled at this time and recommends a nap if the baby wants it but not putting her to bed. The bath time is also in this slot.

So it all makes great sense to me so we are hoping it will help Zoe grow and also help my breastmilk.

The routine is as follows: Feeds at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 6pm and 9.30pm, then one at 3.30am at the latest if she doesn't wake of her own accord.

Sleep times are 8.15am, 11.15am, 2.15pm, 7pm and 10.30pm. The 7pm bedtime is apparently the holy grail because this is what we will be aiming for when she's older and not having another feed in the evening.

I am still keen to feed her in the night to help the breastmilk and also her growth, despite missing out on sleep. If we let her, Zoe is already at the stage where she will sleep through the night and its so tempting to let her. If she has good weight gain over this two weeks, we will do.

So, all in all, its going quite well. If we can just train her to settle herself well, it will be even better. It also allows for outings in the sleep times, and today we went to the supermarket at the 11.115am sleep time. It worked like a dream - Zoe slept in the Baby Bjorn the entire time I was shopping and also in the car on the way there and back. We were back in time for the 1pm feed - perfect!