Alana's Blog: April 2010

I have read a few different books on baby sleep. I am surprised at all the conflicting information out there. I just feel like I don't know what I am doing. I am trying not to over analyze...it's hard for me though.

Here's what we are dealing with:

From birth to 9 weeks William was up every 2 1/2 hours to eat all day and all night. There were a few nights where he would stretch one of the night time feedings to 4 hours at a time. At 9 weeks he started sleeping 6 hours and then 3 hours and was pretty consistent from 9 weeks to 11 weeks. He even slept 8 hours a few nights without me imposing any type of routine or sleep training on him. He was even completely night weaned for over a week. As you can imagine I was quite pleased and was just praying this would last because I just felt so much better! Of course, it did not last, and week 12 William woke every 2-3 hours again, not necessarily to eat, but because he was practicing rolling over, or rather practicing trying to roll over. Now we are in week 13 and things haven't improved a bit. In fact I feel as if we are moving backward. He's going to sleep earlier..like 8:00 and waking sometimes 4 times between then and 6:00. So you are probably thinking, "Oh he must nap a lot then"....nope..he takes three 30-45 minute naps every day. Oh and he's been sleeping in his bed since about week 3.

Here's what I have read or been told.

About sleep training:

You can start sleep training at 3 months.

You can't start sleep training until 4 months.

You can't sleep train until they can talk.

You can't sleep train until they start eating rice cereal.

You can't sleep train until they start eating baby food.

About night weaning:

Breast fed babies should get 9-10 straight hours of sleep at night at 3 months old.

At 3 months babies should be sleeping 12 hours waking twice to eat.

At 3 months babies should be sleeping 10-12 hours and not waking to eat.

About naps:

At 3 months babies should be napping 1-1 1/2 hours 3 times every day.

A 30 minute nap is not a nap for your 3 month old and you should train him to sleep longer using cry-it out method.

About bedtime:

Keep him up late he'll sleep longer.

Put him to bed earlier he's over tired.

I mean really? At this point I am giving up, and putting the books away. I am putting him to bed when he's tired, I will feed him if he's hungry in the middle of the night, and I will not let him cry himself to sleep. All I can hope is that this doesn't last forever and that I can stay happy and try to enjoy this time without sleep.

My sweet baby boy you are now three months old. Every morning no matter how early your daddy and I look forward to seeing your smiling face. You still love your mobile, books, and bright colors, but most of all you love when we talk or sing to you. You talk all the time now in the form of 0's, goo's, and aah's. I predict you will be a talker just like your daddy. You just learned to roll over one way and have spent the last few nights practicing in your sleep all while fussing and grunting. You are sleeping good at night but refuse to take a nap that is longer than 45 minutes. You still like to be bounced or rocked before bed and would still rather sleep in someone arms than your crib. You bring such joy to our lives every day!