https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 09 May 2026 10:22:41 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-522516 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:16:13 +0000 sarac 522516@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>There is no 'should' - only what works for you. Nursing to sleep works very well for me, as does rocking and snuggling to sleep. If it works for you, great! A bad sleep habit is one that doesn't work for your family, period. </p> <p>For example - if I let my daughter take the second nap she'd like, she sleeps from 4-6 and then goes to bed at 11 and sleeps through the night. If I don't give her that nap, she goes to bed at 8, but then wakes up once and needs her daddy to come snuggle her back to sleep, where he usually just spends the rest of the night. I hate to sleep alone, but we hate not having an evening. I let him make the choice, since he's doing the work, and he chose an early bedtime over STTN. A 'bad' habit? I don't think so - it works for us. It's the best choice for our family and our overall happiness, so I'm pretty content with it. Even though many wouldn't consider it 'good sleeping habits'. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-522297 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:31:41 +0000 Kemma 522297@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think good sleep hygiene can be as simple as having a consistent bedtime routine and respecting a baby's need for sleep. For example I know that Miss A has a window of about four hours for being away from home so I try to make outings shorter than four hours. Being out only half a day still allows her to have one or two good naps in her cot at home (she's fourteen weeks old) so she has good night sleep.</p> <p>I certainly think that in the first couple of months you do what you have to do to survive and get baby to sleep but like some of the previous posters have said once they hit around the three - four month mark it's important to set baby up with some good habits (that seems to be the age that babies work out what's going on around them!) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521938 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:51:26 +0000 ChelseaRose 521938@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm definitely more strict with sleep than most other moms that I know, but it is also what works for my baby (who is now 12 weeks old). If we are home, he naps in his crib. If he naps in the bouncer he doesn't sleep as long or as soundly. I try not to have more than one nap a day be out of the house, unless we are spending the day at my parents' house where there is a PnP for him to sleep in. We don't rock or nurse to sleep and he's fine without it. He sleeps in his crib in his room where he is put down awake and drowsy. However, it has never taken CIO to get this to happen. He does fall asleep with a pacifier in, so we sometimes have to go back and replace it if he loses it before actually falling asleep (like when he yawns). He is swaddled and we use white noise at night and for naps. I don't tiptoe around the house when he's sleeping. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521742 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:15:49 +0000 littlecasita1122 521742@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Around the 3 month mark, I started to become a little stricter with sleep habits. Meaning that instead of taking 2 or 3 naps in the swing each day, he took at least one nap in his crib, even if it was only for a half hour. We also became very consistent with putting him down as soon as he showed sleepiness cues. And no more relying on him to nap in the car seat while we're doing errands. We stopped rocking him around 3 months or so, stopped nursing him to sleep around 4 months. Sometimes we still get late afternoon snuggles out of him and he'll fall asleep on one of us but for the most part he naps and sleeps in his crib and we are all much happier for it! I would repeat everything with did with our future children. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521371 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:41:59 +0000 Mrs. Cat in the Cradle 521371@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@travelgirl1: Never know, you may avoid them! She isn't horrible, just very varied anymore. She went from waking up once around 3 or 4 am to 11:30 pm cry sessions that last 2 hours or some nights just a quick wake-up and back down. We need to cut out the bad nights, because she loses a lot of sleep, and is miserable the next day. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521350 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:36:37 +0000 travelgirl1 521350@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Cat in the Cradle: Ah, A sleeps through the night now (although it can take multiple attempts to get her in her crib) and I'm DREADING sleep regressions! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521334 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:30:44 +0000 Mrs. Cat in the Cradle 521334@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@travelgirl1: My LO is about 6 months, and we will soon be sleep training. Around 8 weeks she started going down for the night easily, but 2 sleep regressions later, she is waking up at night multiple times, and it needs to stop. As other posters said, each baby and family is different. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521331 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:29:46 +0000 travelgirl1 521331@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@pelikila: @Bao: Totally agree : ) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521324 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:28:01 +0000 travelgirl1 521324@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>That's kind of how I see it, but I hear a lot of people regretting not being stricter earlier on. Right now I just do what I need to do to help her sleep and maybe when she's about 6 months I'll look into different methods of sleep training. Like your LO, A is a great night sleeper but for some reason objects to being put down during the day - she'd nap for hours in our arms though and she's just so snuggly and gorgeous it's hard not to let her : ) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521323 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:27:40 +0000 Bao 521323@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Exactly what @Weagle said, whatever works for your family. I don't think there is a right or wrong way, do what you are comfortable with, and adjust accordingly. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521321 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:26:52 +0000 pelikila 521321@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm in the camp that believes that every baby is different and that what is or isn't good for one personality might be completely different for another so I am not a huge believer in what constitutes a good sleep habit or a mistake. I'd rather do what feels right to me and my baby. For me that meant nursing to sleep, swaddling and nursing at night until 6.5 months when DS showed signs that he wasn't night waking because he was hungry, doing a modified sleep training/CIO at 6.5 months when night weaning, rocking to drowsy or sleep, and even now, holding or rocking until he is ready to get in his bed at 2 years old. Sure he rarely STTN, but I just really believe he wouldn't have been before now, even if we'd "followed all the guidance and recommendations". It just didn't/doesn't fit him and his needs. We are getting better sleep now than we've ever gotten and that is from potty training him for night and day and the ability to communicate expectations. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521319 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:26:11 +0000 Weagle 521319@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think the right sleep habits are the ones that work best for your family. We finally just did whatever we could to get LO to nap for the first 6 months or so. She was always a terrible napper, but I don't really think we could have done anything to help her... And we tried it all! For us, it just clicked at 6-7 months. I think she was finally developmentally ready then. She's always been a great night sleeper and she still gets nursed/bottle fed and rocked to sleep. It works for us, and we'll change it when we need to. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-are-good-sleep-habits#post-521266 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:14:17 +0000 travelgirl1 521266@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The blog post from the 'swarm' about what they did/would do differently with a second child got me thinking, because lots of them talked about sleep 'mistakes' they made the first time round, such as rocking to sleep, nursing to sleep etc.</p> <p>I'm guilty as charged. In fact, LO is napping on me right now because I love her being close to me and I know if I put her down she'll wake right up. We rock or nurse to sleep regularly. And I'm sure I'll learn the hard way that we should have done it differently....</p> <p>So, I'm curious as to what are good sleep habits. If you shouldn't rock or nurse your baby to sleep (babies that are too young to CIO), then what should you do? What worked for you? </p>