Last night Landon slept from 8:00 PM to 6:00 AM. That is through the night people. Landon's wake up time is not my top choice, but it's a whole lot better than multiple wakings between 2 and 5 AM, so I'll take it.
After six months of night feedings, night cuddling, and night crying (not just Landon), we finally decided to follow Ferber and our pediatrician's advice and let him cry it out. He is 6 months old, weighs 17.5 lbs, and has a belly that could sustain him for days in the desert. For the past two months when we fed him during the night, he'd only drink about half an ounce and then want to play, so he obviously didn't really need to eat. And the few nights that he did sleep more than 7 hours, he was much more cheerful in the morning (and so were his parents) and napped better during the day. He needs sleep, we need sleep, and that mantra is what got me through the past two nights where he cried for 1-3 hours without us picking him up (as Ferber suggests, we periodically went in and checked on him, patted his back, and left- the visits made him more mad, but kept us from imagining all sorts of terrible things happening to him in his crib). Our pediatrician promised it would work quickly, and it did! The first night he cried, off and on, for 3 hours. The second night it was about 1 hour. Last night, he didn't wake up at all. It was glorious. I forgot what this felt like- to not hear a baby cry at 4:30 am, argue with your husband about who should get up with him (JP actually did more night feedings than me, one of the many reasons why I love him), and then get back in bed just in time for a short nap before your alarm goes off.
Landon was so chipper this morning when I went in to get him, he babbled all the way to Maya's, and had lots of smiles when I handed him over. If I wasn't so behind in my reading and paper writing, I'd have lots of smiles too. But well-rested stress is infinitely better than sleep-deprived stress, so my world is looking pretty bright.
Delurking to say a great big YAY to baby sleeping through the night! When each of mine slept through (both had to have a little sleep training, too) it was one of the happiest days of my life. Sometimes the little ones just need to realize that it's not all that fun to be awake at 4 am.
ReplyDeleteCongrats!!! Everyone laughs at me when I tell them the exact day (Sept. 1) that the Peach slept through the night, but it's easier for me to remember than her birthday is! I bet you feel awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat is great! CIO is hard but so so worth it. Enjoy all that rest!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that CIO worked for you ... we just could never do it (after the first try, Gray wouldn't let us NEAR the crib for weeks and weeks afterwards ... he was traumatized, poor thing, and so were we).
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to add that now, at almost 18 months, he DOES sleep the night through (although it's a relatively new phenonmenon, and subject to the whims of teething and illness). Sleep, in my experience, gets better and worse over time, so celebrate your vicotry, enjoy your rest, and understand that it might get bad again.
Eh, such is life, I guess!
Thanks Moo- I was just thinking about that. I was sleeping through the night by 2 months old (so I hear), but I was terrible between ages 5-10 about getting up at night and coming down to my parents room because I was scared or lonely or who knows what. But as you said, we're celebrating our victory for now :)
ReplyDeleteLandon never showed any signs in the morning of remembering anything about the night before- and that's what made it possible for us to use the CIO method. He would cry, yell, and scream for hours, but then be all smiley and cheerful when I got him out of his crib a few hours later. I'm pretty sure he was just purposefully trying to drive us crazy...
yay yay yay!!!! i am so happy for you! we never had to do CIO, but we do have a rule of "10 minutes" if he starts at night. We wait for 10 minutes- then go get him...it's worked. JP has learned to soothe himself back to sleep!! Congrats!!!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! Uninterrupted sleep is such a glorious thing!
ReplyDeleteI'm so jealous - my son is teething now so all the progress I'd made on sleep with him is totally busted.
ReplyDeleteWoo hoo! K just started sleeping through the night during the past month or so -- I've been meaning to write a post about sleep training, since we tried various methods. We finally also let him cry -- we were really lucky and the longest he ever cried was about 10-15 minutes, the first night. Now I kiss him goodnight, walk out of his room, and he wails as if his heart is breaking... for about 30 seconds, and then complete silence as he settles down and goes to sleep. We're all happier in the morning. He sleeps later now too, waking around 6 a.m. instead of 5 or earlier.
ReplyDeleteHooray!!! When I first had my baby, I was very opposed to CIO. Fast forward to when my 9 month old was STILL waking up 2-3 times a night. 3 nights of CIO later (and our baby was STUBBORN - she cried for 3.5 hours the first night), she was sleeping through the night. Things are not perfect, but once we figured out that nothing bad would happen to our baby after CIO and that she still loved us in the morning, I realized that sometimes being a parent means that you have to feel "mean."
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about the future, LL. There will be times, I'm sure where Landon gets up at night with nightmares or teething pain. You'll know when he is truly scared. Whether or not you do CIO, nightmares are a normal developmental stage.
Yea, Landon! I know how good it feels to wake up at 6 and think, "He slept through the night!" It's a glorious feeling.
ReplyDeleteSam has the same cruel wake-up time, and we've tried everything to try to shift it. Maybe we should "pay them back" by getting them up at 6am when they are teenagers!
I'm getting a little worried about this sleep business. I'm kind of averse to books about parenting, but the one and only book I've registered for is something about a "no cry sleep solution." But no matter what it says, I'll keep your post in mind several months from now!
ReplyDeleteIt's so wonderful when they sleep all night, like a real KID.
ReplyDeleteOur daughter kind of sleep trained herself around 6 weeks. (Don't throw things at me!!) But since she was in our room, she wouldn't go to sleep until we did, but she did go 8 hours without eating.
By 3 months she was sleeping in her crib, and we had to do CIO for the first few nights. And since I was nursing, I had to get up every time, so it was a BIG relief when she slept through.
I was about to have a psychotic break from lack of sleep.
I am so jealous! We're grateful for four hours of interrupted sleep. Oh how I long for eight hours.
ReplyDeleteman when he gets older he's gonna regret missing all that sleep!
ReplyDeleteYIPPEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! Congrats to all 3 of you!
ReplyDeleteyay congratulations. I bet its so hard to listen to your baby cry-- but I'm so glad it worked!
ReplyDeleteYeah sleep!! Isn't it the best ever?? Be careful, though! Regular sleep is what made us decide to have #2!
ReplyDeleteyeah Landon!!!
ReplyDeletethe crying thing is hard...very hard...had to do it with Gavin when he was close to a year old, then again when he was about two...he just didn't want to go to bed. But after a couple nights of it, he got the idea and would go to sleep nice again.
I was afraid I was going to have to do it with Cooper, too, but it turns out his issue was his teeth...so for a couple nights I'd give him tylenol or motrin before bed and that seemed to help. Now his teeth aren't bugging him as much and he goes to sleep on his own.
hey- I just wanted to say- congrats on landon sleeping through the night! One thing I would like to suggest- a video monitor! Those things ROCK. We got one for our DD around her seccond christmas (she was 1 1/2) and I wish I'd had it earlier- it works with night vision, so if it's dark you can still see your kiddo- plus it's fun to watch her sleep without waking her up. I thought it was a rediculous idea, a video monitor, but it's truely an incredible thing!
ReplyDelete