Just a quick post today - J slept through for the first time last night!

We put him down at 9pm last night and after some initial tears he slept through till 7.30 this morning.

I do think its because of the bedtime routine we put in place for him. We do the 'bath, bottle, bed' routine and have been doing this for a week now ever, since he moved from his moses basket into his cot in his own room (we didn't have space for a cot in our room).

Our routine is as follows although times are approximate:
8.15 Bath with daddy (unless daddy is working)
8.25 Into mummy and daddy's room to be dried, dressed and cuddled
8.40 Into J's room - lights are dimmed, ewan the dream sheep is turned on (lullaby mode) and he is given his bottle - I also keep conversation with him minimal and quiet so as not to overstimulate him.
8.55 Goodnight kiss and then bedtime - Put J into cot, change ewan onto running water mode and turn cot mobile onto night light mode only - this is the fisherprice rainforest mobile so it also plays rainforest noises which he is content with. I also offer him a dummy but he doesn't tend to take it. I then turn off his bedroom light and step out shutting the bedroom door behind me.

Sometimes he will start crying once I've gone. I leave him a few minutes (no more than 5) to see if he will self settle and if not I pop in again, Sssh him, offer the dummy, say goodnight and step out again - even if he is crying.

He usually settles after this giving us the rest of the night to ourselves and I have to say its been working well since we started this! (touch wood). If he then wakes during the night crying for a feed, I put the lights on dimly change if necessary, feed him with Ewan's lullaby mode on and keep conversation minimal. Once finished I then put him down again with Ewan's running water mode and the night light, offer the dummy then leave.

It was nice not to have to get up but it messes with your body clock when you are used to waking up in the night to feed your baby and then don't need to. Last night I woke up at 2am and I could hear J fussing so I used the bathroom and went to check on him - he was half asleep and still fussing so I went back to bed, fully expecting to be woken up by full crying within the next 20mins or so for a feed. I was wide awake and lay there waiting but he settled himself and went back to sleep and I fell asleep too. Not sure if last night was a one off but I guess I'll find out shortly as we are currently midway through the bedtime routine.

Sleep tight!