Sleep?

When Aidyn was first born (or even a month or two old) I would get annoyed at people that would say, "What are you doing? How are you feeding him? Where is he sleeping? Mine started sleeping through the night after ___ days/weeks. Are you doing this: _____?"

Not mad or offended, just annoyed. I loved hearing "success stories" and hoped one day I would have one of my own, but at the time I wasn't always so interested, haha. Any new mom that isn't sleeping through the night will totally understand.

But guess what? Now, I do (finally) have my own success story. I am finally able to remember and enjoy what a night of sleep feels like...kinda. :)

On Sunday evening, Aidyn ate his last bottle at 10:00pm. I woke up at 6:15am Monday morning and realized that he never woke me up. I didn't even wake up in the middle of the night. When I realized what time it was, I quickly (and a little panicky) tip-toed into his room to make sure he was still alive and breathing. That was the first time I have done that. The whole way to his room I was thinking, "Please be alive, please be breathing. Please be alive, please be breathing."

When I saw that Aidyn was ok, I went back to bed and didn't wake up until he did...at 8:00am! Yay! I was sooooo excited! He has continued this pattern every night since:

Sunday: Ate at 10pm & Woke up at 8am
Monday: Ate at 9pm & Woke up at 5am to eat, then slept until 9am
Tuesday: Ate at 10:15pm & Slept until 7am
Wednesday: Ate at 9:45pm...hopefully sleeps all night again

The reason I said "kinda" in the earlier paragraph is because he will still wake up at least once on most nights, but all he needs is his pacifier and he is back asleep within about 30 seconds. There is a BIG difference in his waking up still tired cry and his hungry, feed me cry. But being up about 4 mintues doesn't really phase me.

I prefer Aidyn to be on a 7-10-1-4 eating schedule. It works well with our day's activities and dinner schedule. And, the later he eats and goes to bed, the later he sleeps in. :) I hate admitting that...but every honest parent would admit that it's true how valuable sleep becomes.

I am not sure what our "success story" is. We have been feeding Aidyn spoon-fed cereal with each feeding during the day (with the exception of his first morning and last evening bottles) since Saturday. I am trying to get him used to eating more solids and starting on vegetables since he will need to start these things when he goes to school. I want to introduce this new "skill" and not leave it up to the CCLC workers.

So, I am not sure if the cereal has had any effect or if it was just "his time". I've had many people suggest cereal and many more claim that the cereal is the magic key that helps babies sleep. Since he was not sleeping through the night at 4 months, the drs assured us that Aidyn was waking up because he wasn't getting enough to eat during the day and was still hungry. We added cereal to his bottles (to thicken and help with reflux) and I assumed that would help. When there was no difference in sleep patterns after a few weeks, I decided to add cereal to each feeding. Not sure if it's the reason...but nonetheless, I'm glad I did.

Aidyn ate at 9:45pm tonight and was asleep by 10pm...hopefully our new "routine" will continue and become permanent.