Sleeping through the Night

...aka STTN, was an early goal for us, as I found waking up to feed Jane in the night tiring.  Well, of course it was tiring :)  It really affected me during the day, because I would often have trouble going back to sleep and found it hard to relax even when Jane was asleep.   I was always thinking she could wake at any minute.  When she slept next to our bed, I didn't sleep very soundly, which is probably natural. I was alert to every sound she made, and after her night feedings she always grunted a lot in her sleep.  STTN is the holy grail for many new parents, although some enjoy getting up with their babies in the night so they can bond.

I am proud to report that Janie is not only STTN, but she also just dropped her "dreamfeed" or late night feeding, which means I don't need to pump every night anymore.  I was pumping and Michael was feeding her around 10 pm every night, which he reports was very cute :), but pumping is a little tiresome.  The last two dreamfeeds Michael did, Janie actually woke up and smiled at him, which may be a sign that she is getting too old for it :).  She used to sleep right through it and was downing 5 oz.

Now, Janie is going to bed between 7 and 8 most nights and waking up between 7 and 8 in the morning.  More often than not, we actually have to wake her in the morning.  The other day we all accidentally slept until 9:10!  She was our alarm clock for a while, waking up like clockwork in the close vicinity of 7 am.  Now she just sleeps and sleeps.

It's amazing how infrequently she eats now compared to early on.  She is down to only four feedings a day.  A few weeks ago we switched from an every-3-hr. feeding schedule to an every-3 1/2-hr. schedule, so she has one less "cycle" and consequently one less nap per day (2 long and 1 catnap in the evening).  For the first 3 months or so, she had four naps a day (3 long and 1 catnap in the evening).  Now she eats around 7 am, 10:30 am, 2 pm, and 5:30 pm and makes it all the way through the night.  She is amazingly resilient--she gets very unhappy when we don't put her down for a nap because we are on an outing, but she always recovers almost immediately and gets right back in the sleep groove.  It is nice to have one less feeding and for Janie to sleep a bit longer at naps--I think it will make it easier for me to get stuff done when the school year starts.  She can also stay up longer for her awake time now.  She used to stay up about an hour total at a time, including feeding time. Now she can stay up about an hour and a half or two hours before she needs to sleep.  We do the EASY cycle (Eat/Awake/Sleep & You time). 

One big change since we dropped the dreamfeed is that Janie is not pooping very much.  We hope this is ok.  It is a big change since she used to have overflowing, projectile, liquid movements several times a day.  Lately she is going a few days between movements which means it may be practical to start using cloth diapers.  I am wondering if this is because of so many less feedings?

Janie first started STTN in New York in late May, at 2 months old, which I think is typical for a baby on a sleep and feeding schedule.  Then she went back to waking once, but at 5 am instead of 3 am.  She did that for a few weeks and then went back to STTN until 7.  Sometimes I would feed her when she cried out at 5 am and sometimes I would give her a paci.   When she cried at 5, she wasn't really awake.  I'm not sure if the paci helped her learn to STTN (the Baby Whisperer suggests it), but she has consistently STTN ever since June.

She also does great with going to sleep on her own.  She has a routine that may help her know that it's sleep time: I change her, change her clothes or put clothes on (because of spit up), swaddle her on the bed (usually leaving her left hand out so she can suck her thumb), give her a paci, say "time for night night," and put her in her Moses basket (which she'll outgrow soon) in her quiet room with the fan going for white noise, then I close the door. In the evening Michael also gives her a bath before bed, then I bundle her up in a towel, brush her hair, and get her in pjs.  Sometimes when we put her down to sleep, she makes a little noise and sometimes she can't go to sleep right away, especially if her schedule is off and she is overtired, but for the most part she can.

Janie is really an amazing baby.  It's amazing to see how her body just falls naturally into this schedule.  She is really a joy to be around at all times, and is so happy when she wakes up. We can definitely tell that her getting enough sleep is a big factor in her happiness and peacefulness.  She starts to fuss or show other signs of tiredness when it's time for naps or bedtime.  We used to wait for two yawns, but now she has other signs like rubbing her eyes.  She also does an energetic little dance before bed and has started sucking her thumb in her sleep.  We are convinced she's the sweetest and cutest baby ever :)