Mommy Monday: What's Your Lullaby?

We've never had a problem putting Jacob to sleep, mainly because more often that not, we nurse to sleep. And that's been our bed time routine since the day he was born. From time to time, he'd fall asleep on his own. Either while watching his favorite movie, Cars, or drinking milk from a bottle, or just because he's simply exhausted. And as you know, we co-sleep so we don't have a room that we send him off to when bed time comes.

He's not asleep, but he's chunky because of breastfeeding!

One thing I've learned on how to put your baby to sleep is that you should never let them reach a point when they are over stimulated or too tired. It'll make one fussy baby, into Mr. Cranky Pants. So I always keep an eye on Jacob's behavior after dinner. To be honest, we don't have a bed time routine like others such as quiet time, bed time stories, etc. Though I strongly believe we should! What we have now works for us and that's fine by me. It's basically whatever goes after dinner and bath time.

Once I notice Jacob's sleep cues (rubbing of eyes, constant yawning, playing with his toy car while he's laying on his tummy on the floor, and lastly, crying out for me) that's when I turn down the lights, turn off the TV, and just be with him.

Some good news for Moms who have been stuck nursing to sleep their babies:

We haven't been nursing to sleep lately! Yay! Usually he's full from having a good meal during dinner and fruits afterwards that he won't tug on my shirt to nurse. Or some nights, he'd find his bottle and milk container and would motion for me (shaking the bottle) to make him one and fall asleep on his own. On other nights, he'd just fall asleep just by laying quietly down with me next to him of course. He's still greatly attached with me so anything that has to do with sleeping, I'm his go-to parent.

But one of the best things that has been happening lately is that he falls asleep when I sing him, "You Are My Sunshine"! I don't have the greatest voice, I sing every now and then, but I'm no Mariah Carey. So yes, I feel like a rock star (even though my #1 fan falls asleep when I sing this!)!


I've sang this song to him while he was still in utero, around 6 months onwards, when he started to learn how to kick, nudge, and do flips inside me! I've read that the Mom's voice is very soothing for the unborn baby so one night that I couldn't go to sleep because of his constant kicking, I decided to give singing a go. I sang in a soft, soothing voice for about 10 minutes or so. Little by little, he started to calm down and eventually, possibly fall asleep so I got to sleep too! I was so amazed by it that I did it ever time he won't let me rest while I was pregnant!

So now that he's 20 months old and learning to sleep on his own or by any other means aside from nursing, I've done it again. It was unplanned really. We were just relaxing on the bed, I knew he was sleepy and he wasn't asking to nurse. By the way, my rule now is that if he's not asking to nurse, I don't give it to him. I just started singing and humming it softly, then his little eye lids started to go down until he was far, far away in dreamland. Been doing it for 3 nights now! Though it meant that sometimes I'd have to rock him to sleep which I did earlier today during his afternoon nap. But at least, we're sort of weaning from nursing to sleep.

We didn't raise him to get used to rocking to sleep either so this might be something new to him. Oh I hope it doesn't catch on to be our new nightly routine! Tomorrow I'll try just singing in bed. I just wanted to share this to you Moms as I know I'm not the only one still breastfeeding and nursing their little ones to sleep. There's light at the end of the tunnel! We just have to let the baby lead the way. :D

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QUESTION OF THE DAY

What song do/did you sing or hum to your baby during bed time?

Share your thoughts below!