Alright moms I'm calling shenanigans on this one, there is a secret out there that either no one is telling you OR you know and are hiding it for yourself!!!
I knew this book existed because my mom had it when my little brother was born 12 years ago. She failed however, to tell me how magical it is! I should have gotten this before Nathan was even born so I could have started it right away. I didn't though and have now started using the advice within this holy grail of a baby book this week and within days my beautiful little man has slept through the night. Oh yes. He has.
The main thing I've been implementing (or Caleb has since he's home all day) is the Eat/Wake/Sleep cycle. After Nathan eats he is no longer allowed to immediately go to sleep. We intentionally keep him up for a little while after he eats. The whole reasoning behind it is that we as adults don't go to sleep right after eating a large meal (in the rare occasion that you do, do you ever feel very good?) and so it might help regulate a babies "clock" if they follow the same pattern. Well does it ever!
The first three nights after starting this Nathan skipped his 2/3am feeding and only woke up for the 4/5am feeding (he was waking for both). That means he was sleeping from 10:15ish to 4:30ish. That's a good six hours. Well, last night my little man got to bed a bit late due to a trip out to see friends in Wheaton. I was a little afraid that would screw everything up, but no. He slept in the car ride home, went right to bed once we got home around 12:15 and slept until after 7am!
The other awesome little tid-bit that I like is that they make it okay to let your little one cry for 5-10minutes when you put them down for the night. Now I still am not on board completely with that concept. I don't know that I will ever let my future children cry it out when they're brand new, but at three months I could kinda tell Nathan would be okay with it. It's a different cry. Plus if he cries for more than 10mins I'd go get him, but he hasn't yet. The book STRESSES putting baby down to bed awake so they can fall asleep on their own. It's definitely worked w/ him. First couple nights he cried for roughly all of the 10mins before falling asleep. The last few nights though he's only cried for about 5mins and then it was only off and on as he was falling asleep.
This kid has got it down...I only see it getting better from here!
Again, shame on you moms out there who were hiding this and go get it for those of you still not sleeping at night!!
I read the book but didn't use it because I didn't agree with most of it. All my kids are great sleepers and they've always been allowed to eat whenever they wanted, as babies. Glad it's working for you!
ReplyDeleteI don't really agree with the eating schedule either. All we've been really using is the Eat/Wake/Sleep aspect of the book which is just where you keep them awake after eating.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really get their concept of the feeding schedule either because they said they weren't the hard-line "only feed on a schedule" but they weren't "on demand" either. They said to set a schedule but feed the baby if he gets hungry. Well, isn't that just on demand?
I dunno, we didn't feed Nathan on a set schedule and he's just gradually come into his own schedule of every 3 hours (7,10,1,4,...)