Yeah, you heard me, internet, that baby has finally got his sleep on. Hallelujah, praise be, the baby is sleeping! Really sleeping! At night! All night! We put him down between seven and eight, and unless there is something specifically wrong like a leaky diaper, he has been sleeping until five or six the next morning. If we're lucky, he'll take a bottle then and go back down for another hour or two of BONUS SLEEP. DO YOU SEE HOW I AM USING ALL CAPS? THAT IS BECAUSE I AM EXCITED, Y'ALL.
It's like we hit the baby jackpot, and it feels so good. It only took five agonizing, grinding, mind-deadening months! And we doubtless have some sleep regressions still ahead of us (oh teething, please be merciful), but I'm choosing to celebrate anyway, because seriously people, my baby is sleeping 10 or 11 glorious hours in a row, regularly. I'm happy for him, as much as for me. He seems happier, is napping better, smiles and laughs all the time--look at this magnificent baby! The picture of cool contentment.
I know you're going to ask me how we got here from where we were back in April, when he slept so badly we seemed to be getting up every 45 minutes all night long, and I frankly don't know. He got older. We did some sleep training (this did involve letting him cry some, but never to hysteria and never without frequent checks). He started solid food.
I know all the expert publications say it's an old wives' tale that rice cereal makes babies sleep longer, so maybe this was a coincidence. But the first night we started rice cereal, the newtlet's first waking pushed back from 2:30 to 3:15. And as we added sweet potatoes and he started spitting out less and swallowing more, that night feeding crept forward pretty quickly up to four and then five and now sometimes six. So I don't know, I think the solid food helped. Me, I tend to believe old wives. Who knows more about babies than old wives? Old wives are your go-to resource on stuff like this.
Heck, I'm a wife of advanced maternal age my own self.
8 comments:
That is awesome! Some kids just sleep more than others. When I was a nanny K was up by 6 every day but she took a THREE TO FOUR HOUR NAP every day. Even when she was five she still took an hour nap. Saints be praised. Sometimes a girl just needs a wee break from hours of Sparkle Magic Tea Party. Which she always wanted to play at 6:15 a.m. Have you even had to drink water flavored with sweet tarts at 6 am?
Old wives are geniuses!
Congrats. It is a blissful thing when that happens. I resorted to mixing formula with breast milk since I heard that it "stuck" a bit longer than breast milk alone. It worked too. By the way your baby is absolutely adorable.
I'm jealous. Oscar still woke up every 2-3 hours until he was 14 MONTHS OLD. I used all caps there to convey horror and not joy.
I'm working very hard at suppressing those memories right now. Because THIS baby is going to be a sleeper, dammit.
Duuuuuude. The Dude is a champ!
I'm so happy for you!!! I'm a firm believer it old wives tales too and I know EJ certainly sleeps better when he gets solid food before bed.
Yeah for STTN!!
So are you telling me that I have 2 months more of agonizing sleep deprivation? I think so...unless mine will be like that other poster that says she had to suffer for 14 months. La la la la...not listening to that poster...not listening. Seriously though congrats. I dream of the day.
how are you doing? :) Your little newtlet is beautiful!
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