Operation Golden Slumbers, part 1
Over the weekend, I casually picked up my bible, "What to Expect the First Year", and started to reread the chapter with topics relevant to Isaac's age. I ran across "Still not sleeping through the night" and gave it a look-see. Here I will quote:
"...If the night-waking habit continues into the fifth or sixth month, however, you can begin to suspect that your baby is waking not because he needs to eat during the night, but because he's become accustomed to eating then"
And
"If he's waking and demanding food every two hours (maybe neccessary for a newborn, but not for a thriving two- or three-month-old)..."
AND
"There are some breastfed babies who continue waking and feeding at night well into toddlerhood, not because they need the food, but because night after night they're presented with an offer they can't refuse: the comfort of nursing."
Basically, the book is telling me that my darling bouncing breastfed baby, who routinely wakes up every two to three hours during the night lately, is playing me for a fool.
We still snooze together for some of the night, and especially now that he could teach classes on rolling over, this is a bad bad bad thing, because he tosses and turns and when he bumps into me he wakes up. And because it is 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning, I am barely conscious enough to do anything else but whip out the boob to nurse Isaac back to sleep. And while this usually works, it has become increasingly less successful as time wears on. Last night I decided that it's time to stop the insanity; that both baby and mommy will sleep better if Isaac starts sleeping in his crib all night long. I also decided last night at 2:30 that he really didn't need the boobie, and he proceeded to loudly disagree with me. We argued in that fashion, me trying to convince him to go to sleep, him trying to wake up the neighbors, until we woke up Dad, who managed to get Isaac to go to sleep for about a half-hour. At that point I figured, well, we at least staved off the feeding for a time, so I nursed him in the middle of the night without falling asleep -- a first for me -- and put him in his crib, and he slept there by himself for three whole hours. He made a single peep about 5 minutes after I put him down, fast asleep, and then no more until it was time for us all to get up anyway. Dad has decided that my new plan totally sucks, because now he also must wake up in the wee hours from loud baby noises, but Mom has spoken, and her word is law.
"...If the night-waking habit continues into the fifth or sixth month, however, you can begin to suspect that your baby is waking not because he needs to eat during the night, but because he's become accustomed to eating then"
And
"If he's waking and demanding food every two hours (maybe neccessary for a newborn, but not for a thriving two- or three-month-old)..."
AND
"There are some breastfed babies who continue waking and feeding at night well into toddlerhood, not because they need the food, but because night after night they're presented with an offer they can't refuse: the comfort of nursing."
Basically, the book is telling me that my darling bouncing breastfed baby, who routinely wakes up every two to three hours during the night lately, is playing me for a fool.
We still snooze together for some of the night, and especially now that he could teach classes on rolling over, this is a bad bad bad thing, because he tosses and turns and when he bumps into me he wakes up. And because it is 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning, I am barely conscious enough to do anything else but whip out the boob to nurse Isaac back to sleep. And while this usually works, it has become increasingly less successful as time wears on. Last night I decided that it's time to stop the insanity; that both baby and mommy will sleep better if Isaac starts sleeping in his crib all night long. I also decided last night at 2:30 that he really didn't need the boobie, and he proceeded to loudly disagree with me. We argued in that fashion, me trying to convince him to go to sleep, him trying to wake up the neighbors, until we woke up Dad, who managed to get Isaac to go to sleep for about a half-hour. At that point I figured, well, we at least staved off the feeding for a time, so I nursed him in the middle of the night without falling asleep -- a first for me -- and put him in his crib, and he slept there by himself for three whole hours. He made a single peep about 5 minutes after I put him down, fast asleep, and then no more until it was time for us all to get up anyway. Dad has decided that my new plan totally sucks, because now he also must wake up in the wee hours from loud baby noises, but Mom has spoken, and her word is law.
posted by Claire at 2:41 PM
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