Save our sleep

Emily and I recently bought on Bartercard the book “Save our Sleep” by Tizzie Hall. It is the most fantastic book! It teaches mums about the right routine and sleeping techniques.

 I was feeding Sienna every three hours as well as doing feeds in the early hours of the morning. This was getting very exhausting and each day would be different based on when she would wake up.

According to the book Save our Sleep (due to Sienna’s age) I was able to change her to every four hours and no early morning feeds. Well, what a difference! My routine with Sienna had been feed then play for one hour and then back to bed. She would sleep for 1.5 hours and then wake for her next feed (3 hours from last feed). Her last feed of the day was at around 11pm and then she would wake around 3am or 4am for another feed.

 What Tizzie teaches is to make the first feed for the day at 7am and the last feed at 6.30pm for 7pm bedtime. My day now goes as follows:

• 7am feed             9am sleep
• 11am feed            1pm sleep
• 3pm feed             4.30 – 5.15pm nap
• 6.30pm feed      7pm bedtime
• 10.30pm dream feed (try not to wake up. Take out of bed, feed and then straight back to bed)

This routine is so easy to follow and now I know exactly when Sienna will be fed everyday, which allows me to plan my daily activities without the guess work and I actually feel like I have more hours in the day!

Sienna has also dropped the early morning feeds, which is fantastic. It has taken a little while but she now sleeps all night until her 7am feed. The trick was to let her re-settle herself (sometimes with my help) and not feed her.

This was another great thing about the book. It teaches you how to get your baby to self-settle which is different to controlled crying. What Tizzie teaches is that you should never leave a baby to cry an emotional cry but if they are simply protesting then she gives a very detailed action plan for each age. In Sienna’s case I was to let her protest for a minimum of 12 minutes, if you can wait longer then the better for you and the baby, as they will learn to settle themselves much quicker.

The first night I tried it, Sienna cried/protested for 9 minutes, the following night 8 minutes then 4 minutes and now she goes to sleep with little fuss at all. Some of the day sleeps it has taken longer but this is getting shorter everyday. Click Here  to see a great interview with Tizzie Hall. Also visit www.saveoursleep.com.au

Contact your local Bartercard bookshop to purchase Save our Sleep and other great baby publication.

2 Responses to “Save our sleep”

1. Emily says:

   June 1, 2010 at 11:07 am

   Tizzie’s routine’s and advise is fantastic! I’d be completely lost without the guidance from her book. A very big thank-you to my friend Emily (yes same name) who recommended Christie and I get copies of Tizzie’s book.
2. Dual Baby Monitor says:

   July 17, 2010 at 1:56 am

   This content is worth its weight in gold, it was my pleasure to stumble upon it.