One of my most frequently asked questions is how we got Jett to sleep through the night so early. He was in his crib and sleeping through the night at 6 weeks! He’s slept really well since he was teeny tiny, but we’ve still had our ups and downs and some learning experiences in between. In today’s post I’m sharing 5 tips that have molded Jett into the excellent sleeper he is today, keep reading for more!
1. Leaving more than one Wubbanub in his bed. Regular pacifiers would always end up on the floor in the middle of the night and the Wubbanubs can’t be pushed through the bars of the crib. Once he started turning around and rolling, he was having a harder time finding his pacifier in the middle of the night. Now we put three Wubbanub pacifiers in his bed and they’re all in his crib in the morning 90% of the time!
2. Letting him self soothe. Since Jett started sleeping in his crib, I would just lay him down after swaddling him and leave the room. I never rocked him, sang to him, or anything like that. It took months for me to not feel bad about not doing any of these things but it was best for him and his sleep! Now that he sleeps in a sleep sack at night I just give him a kiss goodnight, lay him on top of the sack and zip it. He always grabs his pacifier as I’m zipping the swaddle and snuggles right in.
3. Always having a sound machine on. Since Jett started sleeping in his room, the sound machine has been on. We keep it on a white noise setting that kind of sounds like a fan since his ceiling fan doesn’t make much noise.
4. Making sure the room is really dark. A lot of moms suggest using blackout curtains, but since we have shutters that close tightly, we didn’t have to install curtains. When the shutters in Jett’s are closed it’s very dark with little light coming in and he naps great during the day and at night in his room.
5. Getting him a high quality mattress. In recent months Jett started to wake up at night occasionally. He wouldn’t cry but I could hear him dropping his pacifier onto the mattress and it would make a little thud. I realized then that the mattress he was sleeping on was probably not the best option. A couple of weeks ago we got the Moonlight Slumber Baby Bluebird crib mattress and could not be happier with it. He’s been sleeping even better and goes back to sleep quickly if he even wakes up at night at all. It’s funny because after we got the new mattress he seems so excited when I put him to bed at night! It’s probably because the crib mattress is so comfortable! He definitely runs hot as well and I’ve noticed that he’s never too warm anymore when I get him out of his crib in the morning to breastfeed him. With his old mattress sometimes he was sweating in the morning he was so hot! The Baby Bluebird crib mattress has an airflow core which allows air to flow within the mattress, along with cool gel memory foam (it's the only Moonlight Slumber mattress that combines the two to effectively regulate a sleeping baby's temperature, and it's been great for Jett). Some other benefits of this mattress are the quad rail construction making it easy to get his crib sheet on and off. You don’t even really need a crib sheet though because it comes with one that zips on and fits the mattress perfectly! The most exciting part about his new mattress is that it is dual sided. One side is for now and the other side is a little less firm for a smooth transition into his toddler bed.
You might already be familiar with the highly rated, popular Little Dreamer mattress from Moonlight Slumber. The Baby Bluebird mattress has all the features of the Little Dreamer, plus the upgrades I just talked about: the airflow core, cool gel memory foam, quad rail construction and removable cover. It's an amazing value for the quality of the product, and I can’t recommend the Baby Bluebird mattress enough- I’m so glad we have it now but wish we would’ve registered for it from the get go! You can check out more about the mattress' benefits by clicking here.
Those are the top 5 tips I have for getting him to sleep better and I hope they’re helpful to you! Have a great day!
Xo,
Haley
Thank you to Moonlight Slumber for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own.
I know I can’t be the only mom out there who is horrible at printing photos. Jett is almost three and all I have are a bunch of polaroids scattered about. Even though I’m bad at printing photos, I found a simple way to keep select works of art that I think it pretty genius. I also started to keep some of said polaroids in it as well as Christmas cards, Santa photos, etc. I’m telling you all about it in today’s post!