Michelle Duggar, mother of many featured on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, has learned a thing or two through the years about getting baby to sleep through the night. Thankfully for those of us who haven’t raised 19 children, she’s sharing her secret in a new blog post.

Michelle Duggar, who keeps her baby that has “been in my tummy for nine months, listening to my heartbeat and is used to hearing my voice,” close by her side even through the night, learned to swaddle or “bundle” her baby through daughter Josie’s extended hospital stay in 2010.

The 45-year-old, seen here with husband Jim Bob Duggar, writes:

I’ve kept my babies in my room because I want to hear my baby breathing. I want to feel my baby breathing…I would nurse my baby, and then I would play with the baby a little while and burp the baby and talk to the baby. And then I would bundle the baby up. And at first, the baby might fuss just a little bit because they were like “Ugh, I don’t want to be bundled.”

But then they would just kind of settle into it — it was almost like they went “Ahh, this is wonderful.” And they would sleep so good and so sound. And I found that when I would bundle them, they would really sleep to the point when it was time for them to nurse again.

Michelle Duggar goes on to say her babies initially sleep for three-hour stretches, then around 6-8 months she introduces a tablespoon or two of rice cereal before nursing “and they would sleep really well through the night.” 

photo: FameFlynet