Wednesday, January 4, 2012

16 weeks: sleep training in the middle of the night



Drew is 16 weeks now, but he's not 4 months officially until late next week. He doesn't have his 4 month check up until even later in the month, but I think he is over 18 lbs at the moment. In case you can't tell, he loves to suck on those fingers and hands!

Thursday night was the first day of nighttime boot camp for little Drew. I was hopeful since he has never been one to cry for long stretches at other times of the day, maybe a handful of times in his life. However, he is still pooping in the middle of the night regularly. My plan was to send in daddy for the middle of the night diaper change and swaddle if he woke.

Night One:
He woke at 10:00pm sharp for dreamfeed. I nursed him like I normally would.
He woke at 1:45am (not normal, never wakes this early.) Dad changes his diaper (poop,) swaddles him, and puts him back down. He cried on and off for just over an hour. He was back asleep before 3am.
He woke at 4:30am. We did not go in at all. He cried for about 30 minutes straight, took a 7 minute break and was back asleep by 5:20am.
He woke at 6am and I got him up and nursed him to start the day.
During the day on Friday, he was very tired and had trouble staying awake his normal time.

Night Two:
He woke at 1:15am and cried just long enough for me to wake up and hear him. He stopped and went back to sleep.
He woke at 3:34am. Dad changes his diaper (no poop,) swaddles him, and puts him back down. He cried for only 5 minutes and then was quiet for 10 and cried a couple more and went back to sleep.
I woke him at 7am to nurse and start the day.
During the day he stayed on his regular schedule nursing at 10, 1, 4, 6:30, and 10. (One minor change that wasn't his fault was a bottle of breast milk at 4 (by dad) of which he only took 1.5 oz and I nursed him at 5 when I got home since the second bottle attempt didn't go so well.

Night Three:
He woke at 3:34am again. Dad changes his diaper (poop,) swaddles him, and puts him back down. He cried for only a couple minutes and then went back to sleep.
He woke at 6:30am to nurse and start the day.
Mass cut his first nap short, but had a good second nap, a mediocre third nap, and a regular evening nap.

Night Four:
He slept through the night until just minutes before 6am which is good enough for me. And if the wind storm at 4am hadn't woken me up (and kept me up) when something hit the window, I might be a well rested mommy right now.
He did the same napping as the day before where he took three short naps and one long one (2nd nap.) He was very uncharacteristically cranky all day.

I am sure the middle of the night waking (and pooping) is far from over, but at least we are making progress and have a strategy that is working. I especially like that the strategy involves someone else getting up in the middle of the night besides me. :) Not sure that Brian feels the same way though.

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