Establishing a sleep pattern/routine has by far been our biggest struggle with Avery. She slept downstairs in her pack-n-play for the first 4 weeks and moved up to mom and dad's room for the next 4 weeks in a mini pack-n-play. That seemed to work at first but Avery started living like a college student - she wasn't going down in her bed until 1 or 2 am (after fussing for a good 2 or 3 hours before that) and then would get up around 10 am. She also seemed to only be able to fall asleep with us walking around the house and singing to her or letting her sleep ON us. After a couple nights of her going to sleep at 2 and then getting up at 6 or 7 and napping poorly throughout the day it was becoming unmanageable for all of us.
We got advice from friends who have good sleepers (Rebecca, Jill and Os) and also spoke with Grandma T's best friend Kathy who has been a pediatric nurse for over 30 years. We started putting Avery in her crib at night after going through a bedtime routine (bath, sleep sack, feeding/nursing, rocking and songs in her dark, quiet bedroom) between 9-10 pm and the first week has gone great!! She has fussed/cried a couple of the nights but has pretty much gone down without a fight, wakes a couple times to feed and goes right back down and gets up between 7 and 8 for the day. She is also doing a much better job of napping in her crib during the day when we are home - There is no set nap schedule yet (looks like that happens closer to months 3 or 4 when she'll also start sleeping through the night) but she is getting much more comfortable sleeping in her crib and comforting herself to sleep. Fingers crossed that this pattern continues and we all continue to get some real sleep every night.
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