Thursday, April 22, 2010

On sleep


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.






2 comments:

Michelle said...

Seriously!! Isn't all the conflicting information maddening?? You wouldn't believe what some people said to me when we were trying to figure it all out -- it was infuriating. They stopped spouting judgement disguised as "advice" when I invited them to take over for a few nights ;) Maybe we could write our own books -- if we ever get any sleep, that is!!

Alana said...

Haha I know exactly what you mean..you are the woman to do it. Send me a copy when you finish :)