To Sleep or not to Sleep....

When I was pregnant I read a book (who doesn't?), and it said that babies had the ability to sleep through the night by 9 weeks of age if you provided some structure and regular feeding times to their day (along with some self-soothing etc.). I thought, I'm totally going to have a baby who sleeps through the night by 9 weeks. No problem.

HA

As it turns out it's not that easy... LOTS more complicated with more variables than I thought. Actually William did sleep through the night by 8 weeks for 2-3 nights. Then it was never again. Dairy issues happened which = tummy trouble at night... then Christmas vacation happened with two weeks of go with the flow, whatever works.

But NOW we're home for three straight months before we live at someone else’s' house for the internship this summer, and I've decided that it is the opportune moment for what is commonly called sleep training. I know that to some, this has a negative connotation, but after talking to a variety of moms who had either done or not done sleep training, I decided that it was worth a try for me (plus this is my experimental child right??).

Anyway, this is night 6 of the "training" and while he is not continually sleeping through the whole night on his own, he does go back to sleep on his own almost right after he does wake up, AND he sleeps for a longer stretch without feeding now (8-9 hrs!). So I put him to bed for the night with a final feeding at 7:30/8pm and usually don't have to go in there anymore till 4:30am where he receives another feeding and diaper change for the final stretch of 3 hrs :) So I think I can say it's been successful for us, but as we start solids and he goes through teething and growth spurts, I'm sure changes will inevitably come and the victory will be short lived. All part of the parenting experience we signed up for :)

Look he survived his first night! (This is us that morning)

Then we also went for a walk (still sunny here for some reason...)

Then he survived the second night too :) which was actually the hardest.

On another note, Adam has decided to start comparing William to every baby even remotely close to his age. Cousin Alice is a whole TWO MONTHS or so older than William and is a roll'n, scoot'n, sitting girl these days. Daddy wants his boy to be achieving these skills overnight... I tried to explain the developmental difference. THEN we met a little girl a week YOUNGER than William who's roll'n, scoot'n and groov’n too... As we look at William who's wiggling on his back like he has for the past.. his whole life. lol. I have to admit that this made me have the same feeling, come on William, do a new trick! I know every baby is different, but it would be nice to see him satisfy his own need for entertainment soon. But I think I've settled on providing opportunities and knowing he'll get the hang of it when he has the right motivation.