[Patrick Bäuerl]

Hi Emma, thanks for your quick and thourough reply. Your descriptions make perfect sense, during the day she is often waking up during her naps after 30 minutes and we have to rock her back to sleep otherwise her nap is finished after 30 minutes instead of 90. Maybe this is another useful information for you: When our daughter was around 6 months of age, our family was ill with the flu for around two weeks. She has recovered quite quickly after a 3-4 days but we feel like has has set her back quite a lot in her sleep progress. Regarding your questions:

– So far we haven’t been able to try any of the practical inputs. We are currently at the sleep pyramid and this is the first information we find quite useful because most of the stuff mentioned before was already somewhat clear to us and we have implemented most of this.

– Nap routine: The room is darkened, the white noise machine is activated and then for just about a minute we use the bouncy ball, rocking her in the arms and then putting her down.

– Bedtime routine: We start our bedtime routine with her on the changing table, cleaning her with washcloth and warm water accompanied by some gentle music. Then we put on her pyjamas. Afterwards we move to the living room, putting on her sleeping sack and reading her a bedtime story while also brushing her teeth. She sometimes still wants to move around and we give her some minutes. Lastly, we move to the bedroom. Now we don’t use the bouncy ball anymore, she rests on my wife’s chest and we calm her down shushing and stroking her until she is nearly asleep. Then we put her into the crib and I put my hand on her shoulder/chest and in the past few days this has worked really well. She woke up quite soon again but we think this is because some new teeth are coming.

– Settling her to sleep: Really depends on her reactions; in the beginning we try shushing and gently stroking her, if she gets more upset (which happens quite fast) we pick her up, rock her in our arms and my wife is giving the breast if she is unable to be setlled down otherwise. We also tend to react rather quickly which I have learnt we shouldn’t be doing from your videos.

Thanks a lot!

Greetings, Patrick