I mentioned yesterday that Cora has some nap troubles. While they haven’t totally been solved, here’s something that has helped.

Many “baby gurus” suggest having a consistent sleep routine, to give your little one cues that it’s time to go to sleep. My favorite suggestion regarding this comes from Tracy Hogg in The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems. She has a sleep ritual that she calls the “Four S” ritual (not to be confused with Dr. Harvey Karp’s Five S’s which have also done us some good). In a nutshell, Hogg’s Four S’s are:

1. Setting the stage — Calm things down, get quiet, darken the room, etc.
2. Swaddling
3. Sitting — Take a moment to sit quietly and still with your baby to help transition from play to rest
4. Shush-pat method — an additional way to help a fussy baby

We don’t do this exactly, but I take a lot of cues from Hogg’s Four S’s. Here’s what we do:

1. Set the stage — Head into the nursery if we’re not already there. Turn off the lights, and turn on the Sleep Sheep (white noise machine).
2. Swaddle — Up until a few weeks ago, we swaddled Cora for sleep. She really responded to it until she grew out of it.
3. Stand and sway — Cora usually fusses if we sit (whether rocking or still) so we stand and sway for a few minutes. Sometimes I time it so I do it for at least 5 minutes, otherwise, if she’s pretty calm I hurry things along a little too much. I can tell the time to transition does her some good.
4. Lastly, as I’m putting her down, I sing “Angels Watchin’ Over Me.” It has kind of become our song.

Most of the time, Cora goes to sleep pretty easily. It’s the staying asleep we still have trouble with!