So last night I had a couple of glasses of wine during Grey's. No big deal, because Cayden went down shortly after 8, so I figured I had until 12:30 for the juice to be out of my system before I fed him.
Then he woke up at 11:30. Damn. So rather than give him a bottle, I decided to try something new: I bounced him for a while to drowsy, then went into the living room with him. Put him in his rocker with the calming vibrations turned on, and I rocked him, while laying on the couch. The goal was to get him to 12:30 or 1 a.m., when I would nurse him.
Worked like a charm. In no time, he was out, and so was I. Then he started fussing a little while later, so I took him back in the nursery to feed him and put him back in his crib. Thought it was a little funny that my right boob was very swollen and a little painful, but I thought -- hey, maybe milk production is just up tonight. When I walked in the door to Cayden's room, the glowing blue light from the clock radio informed me it was 4:15 IN THE MORNING!!!
Lesson learned? That little crapper does NOT need to eat every three hours as he's had me convinced for weeks. Rather, he can apparently go eight hours between feedings at night, and he simply needs to be put back to sleep! What a little fibber. Or maybe a silly Mama, for not trying something different, sooner.
Same thing happened when he woke at 5:55 a.m. I went in the nursery, and instead of putting him to the boob like I have done every morning for weeks, I bounced him back to drowsy, then put him in his swing. Where he slept until 8 a.m., when I had to wake him because I thought my left boob was going to explode.
So last night, at about three and a half months old, Cayden woke three times as usual, but he ate only once. Maybe if he starts learning that he doesn't get food every time he wakes up, he'll just stay sleeping through that 11:30 p.m. and 5 to 6 a.m. waking. Hopefully it's not an aversion to the crib that wakes him up. But we'll address that issue another time, after he learns Mama is not an all-night buffet.
Friday, November 13, 2009
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2 comments:
This is great news, and hopefully the start of him going longer stretches consistently. Good luck!
That's exactly how it happens. Apparently once they about double their birth weight, and you can soothe them back to sleep - even for an hour - you can start stretching out those night feedings. And - it's super helpful if Dad goes in to do the soothing. It sucks for Dad for a couple days, BUT - YOU GET UNITERRUPTED SLEEP for the first time in almost 4 months!!! Too bad for Dad!
My experience is: at 3 months we were doing bedtime at 9pm, up at 12am, 3am, and 6am to nurse. At 4 months - bedtime at 9pm, up at 1:30am and 5am to nurse. At 5 months - bedtime at 9pm, up at 1:30am to nurse and we stretched the next feeding to 6am. By 6 months - we sent Dad in for 2 nights to calm her down and Yay! we had 10 hours of sleep!! Good luck! (Oh - and FYI growth spurts and teething screw everything up so don't get too comfortable!)
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