The minor miracle has now been followed by a medium-sized one!

Ingrid still goes to sleep in the sling, and I take her out and put her in the Moses Basket after about an hour or so. Then I normally wake her for a last meal just before I go to bed, in the hope that she will then wake fewer times during the night. The plan has been to do this at around 10.

Ingrid got used to this and started waking up just before 10. But then for the past week or so, she woke up earlier and earlier, sometimes even just after 9, interrupting whatever I was doing and messing up my evenings.

Today she did it again, and I was a bit annoyed, because I had to finish my blog post in about a minute, before she got too upset. But given how well she has generally been sleeping – rarely waking when I take her out of the sling, and falling asleep well after night feeds – I had the audacious idea of trying to get her to settle again. And to my great surprise it worked! I hadn’t expected this at all, which made my success even more pleasing. Victory dance!

The technique seems to have two key parts. First, turning her on her side: I had noticed that she fell asleep better after night feeds if I kept her on her side instead of laying her flat on her back. Second, gently rocking her side-to-side (or front-to-back, depending on how you look at it). She seems to find movement very soothing, and is probably very used to it given all the rocking she’s gone through in the sling.


More generally, she is a lot better at falling asleep now. Even though she still falls asleep either in the sling or the pram during the day, she does it faster and with far less crying than before. And the slinging no longer involves insane amounts of bouncing – we’re down to a gentle rocking and patting. I haven’t tried actually getting her to sleep directly in the bed or the basket, but given today’s success, I guess I should try! That would be a major miracle.

I’ve also introduced lullabies. We got a CD with Estonian lullabies for Christmas, and I’ve been playing it for her every time I put her to sleep. The plan is that she will get so used to these tunes that they will become a signal for her to go to sleep. I don’t know if that’s made any difference – sights matter far more to her than sounds – but maybe they will. In any case, the lullabies provide a nice rhythm for the rocking and swaying. They actually make me sleepy sometimes!