I am kind of nervous to post about this because I don't want to jinx myself (no I don't really believe in jinx...lol).
Anyway for the last 7 days Pierce has slept for at least 10 hour stretches...and last night he did an 11 hour stretch!!!! It has been so good for me. This preggo needed some decent sleep. We have changed a few things in his night time routine...who knows if it has been one particular thing or a combo or him just growing out of it on his own. Here are a few things we have done.
1. We no longer let him fall asleep while eating. I have read that this is a really bad habit for a few reasons. The first is they associate that with comfort and sleep and will expect to be fed to sleep when they wake up (which is exactly what he was doing). Also when they go to sleep with such a full tummy they will wake up feeling hungry when they aren't so full even though they are not actually hungry (they are just not stuffed to the brim). So we feed him his last bottle 30 min to an hour before bedtime. If he falls asleep while eating we just wake him up and let him play for a few minutes. Yes it is kind of crummy, but so is waking up a bazillion times a night...yes a BAZILLION. Hehe
2. We have been laying him down in his crib to go to sleep for the night awake. This would have been a hard one for me but he actually just recently stopped liking rocking. Anytime I have tried to rock him to sleep he gets so squirmy and fights it so hard. So I have been putting him in his crib which for some reason he likes better. It has been nice doing this because for bedtime he is so tired he doesn't put up much of a fuss. Only crying for 10 min or even less and sometimes not at all. But this helps him learn to self-soothe a little better.
3. We have turned off background noise. We have done this for both kids and for some reason they are both sleeping so much better to quiet. We used to have music playing all night. Not sure if this is a coincidence but hey its working...so we are going with it.
4. When he woke in the night I would give him 10-15 min before I went in there and took care of his needs. I knew he wouldn't put himself to sleep but I did want him to realize that it is night time and it is the time to spend by yourself. 10 minutes was a good amount of time because I don't think it was long enough to scar him or be traumatizing and he knew mommy will come for you. But he did get the clue that mom should not always be there at night. (Although just a note 10 minutes at 2 am feels like 2 hours....)
5. I slowly weaned him from eating at night. When he would wake up I would feed him 4 oz for a few nights then 3 oz, etc...while I was also increasing his amounts before and after bed.
Then slowly little by little he slept through the night. There were a few times when he would wake up and I would give him the 10 minutes before I would go and feed him and he put himself back to sleep. And for the last few nights he has not even woken up crying!!!
Please don't think I am bragging...this has been a LONG and stressful road for us. I am just so thankful to finally get some sleep. And I am so thankful that I didn't have to "break" Pierce in the process. It was a relatively stressless (this is not a word, but you get the point) way. I am really proud of him. I am crossing my fingers that this is the end of our sleepless nights for a few months...
until little #3 comes along :)
Anyway for the last 7 days Pierce has slept for at least 10 hour stretches...and last night he did an 11 hour stretch!!!! It has been so good for me. This preggo needed some decent sleep. We have changed a few things in his night time routine...who knows if it has been one particular thing or a combo or him just growing out of it on his own. Here are a few things we have done.
1. We no longer let him fall asleep while eating. I have read that this is a really bad habit for a few reasons. The first is they associate that with comfort and sleep and will expect to be fed to sleep when they wake up (which is exactly what he was doing). Also when they go to sleep with such a full tummy they will wake up feeling hungry when they aren't so full even though they are not actually hungry (they are just not stuffed to the brim). So we feed him his last bottle 30 min to an hour before bedtime. If he falls asleep while eating we just wake him up and let him play for a few minutes. Yes it is kind of crummy, but so is waking up a bazillion times a night...yes a BAZILLION. Hehe
2. We have been laying him down in his crib to go to sleep for the night awake. This would have been a hard one for me but he actually just recently stopped liking rocking. Anytime I have tried to rock him to sleep he gets so squirmy and fights it so hard. So I have been putting him in his crib which for some reason he likes better. It has been nice doing this because for bedtime he is so tired he doesn't put up much of a fuss. Only crying for 10 min or even less and sometimes not at all. But this helps him learn to self-soothe a little better.
3. We have turned off background noise. We have done this for both kids and for some reason they are both sleeping so much better to quiet. We used to have music playing all night. Not sure if this is a coincidence but hey its working...so we are going with it.
4. When he woke in the night I would give him 10-15 min before I went in there and took care of his needs. I knew he wouldn't put himself to sleep but I did want him to realize that it is night time and it is the time to spend by yourself. 10 minutes was a good amount of time because I don't think it was long enough to scar him or be traumatizing and he knew mommy will come for you. But he did get the clue that mom should not always be there at night. (Although just a note 10 minutes at 2 am feels like 2 hours....)
5. I slowly weaned him from eating at night. When he would wake up I would feed him 4 oz for a few nights then 3 oz, etc...while I was also increasing his amounts before and after bed.
Then slowly little by little he slept through the night. There were a few times when he would wake up and I would give him the 10 minutes before I would go and feed him and he put himself back to sleep. And for the last few nights he has not even woken up crying!!!
Please don't think I am bragging...this has been a LONG and stressful road for us. I am just so thankful to finally get some sleep. And I am so thankful that I didn't have to "break" Pierce in the process. It was a relatively stressless (this is not a word, but you get the point) way. I am really proud of him. I am crossing my fingers that this is the end of our sleepless nights for a few months...
until little #3 comes along :)
Great post, Tylie! I was curious how this realm was going for you. That's such great news!!! We've gotten up to 7 1/2 hours straight for our little guy. But it's not always consistent yet. I have to keep reminding myself that he's not even three months old, so I can't expect a lot from him. Our next battle may be weaning him from falling asleep with his pacifier. When he does wake up in the night, he cries... If we put his pacifier back in, he often goes back to sleep. As you mentioned with feeding Pierce to sleep. I think he's come to associate falling asleep with sucking on his pacifier... Oops.
ReplyDeleteI hope Pierce hangs on to his new great sleeping habits!! What a champ!
I know I said it on FB, but I am SO glad that P is sleeping better. We did nearly the exact same things with O, and sure enough - long stretches. I guess they were ready!
ReplyDeleteYAY!! Nice work Tylie and Pierce! I hope you do get some good sleep. Baby #3 will be here before you know it. Can't wait to see you tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteWay to go to all of you!! So glad that you're able to get some sleep now!
ReplyDelete