We had a major breakthrough in Colby's "major developmental milestones"(not to mention my "major mental milestones") this week.
HE FINALLY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!
The reason this is a big deal is because:
1) most babies do this between 3-4 months at least occasionally if not all the time and Colby is almost 7 months old
2) Colby will not take a bottle which means Cuyler (poor guy) simply cannot help out with feeding him during these night time awake times so I have been on my own every night getting up with the baby every couple of hours (yes he eats that often- and now you know why he is in the 97th percentile for weight!)
3) I am going to be sane again (hopefully)
Here is how it happened.
A couple of friends were over for a playdate this week- both of whom are expert mothers. They asked how he was sleeping and I told them how much he wakes up to eat. They were like, "Oh, you must be so tired all the time." And I realized how true that is and how it affects everyone around me and more importantly- ME! So I decided that it was finally time to "sleep train" the little bugger. I had read lots about it in anticipation of having to sleep train my first child way back when, but it turned out she just started sleeping through the night on her own. So I had never had to do it with her and I guess I just sort of expected that Colby would start sleeping through on his own too. And he is such a HUGE baby that I figured he really was hungry all the time. I also was running to him as soon as he cried because I didn't want him to wake up his sister.
Thursday night was the first night we were going to let him cry it out. He went to bed at 7:30. We fully expected to have to suffer through lots and lots of ear piercing sobbing three hours later (his usual time for first night time feeding). But to our surprise he fussed for less than 10 minutes and was back asleep. We heard some small peeps out of him a couple of times later in the night, but ignored them and he was in dreamland on his own those times too. He woke up at 6:00 am the next morning and has been sleeping 11 or 12 hours wach night since!
So I am a convert to the "cry it out" method described in the book shown above. It works. And i works FAST!
I am a happy woman!
5 comments:
I'm so happy you're blogging, jess. I just got caught up on all of your posts...as you know, I worked an insane amount of hours for a mom this week...ANYWAY...
I'm so glad you sleep trained colby!! so so so so so happy for you.
good luck with the no TV thing...nate and I haven't ever put one in the bedroom...even thought I think we both have wanted to at times. just find yourself a boring book to read every night. :)
hugs not drugs. peace out.
SWEET DREAMS TO ALL !!!!!!!!
Wow, i didn't even realize he still wasn't sleeping through the night. Hopefully now you'll be able to be a little more rested. Love you! -Sara B
Yeah! Another very important milestone for Colby! Now Jess, get some rest! Miss you guys! Lots of luv from the Hill! ~Kim
um, so my 9 month old isn't sleeping through the night.... I'm scared to try the cry-it-out method because a lot of the time she'll wake up an hour or so after I put her down to sleep (like tonight), and yeah, she cried for 45 minutes before falling back to sleep! Persistant little bugger. So to let her cry that long at 4 AM just doesn't sound so swell. But then again, not waking up anymore at night sounds like heaven. We'll have to discuss this....
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