I am literally over the moon! This is the third consecutive day now. The first night hew slept for 6 hours, then 6.5 hours then last night-- get this, 7.5 hours!
And Bud actually went to sleep on his own during his afternoon nap. No pacifier, no rocking, no feeding.
At his age, "sleeping through the night" means about 4-5 hours of sleep so I wasn't complaining about waking twice during the night to nurse him. It was getting him to sleep more during the day that was bugging me.
So I read "The No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley -- it is a must-read for all parents who believe in not letting their baby cry it out when putting him to sleep.
The tips given in the book are largely intuitive but there were some "Aha!" moments for me and I identified with many of the struggles of the test mommies.
My take-aways from the book are: sleep association and adopt a pre-sleep routine.
Basically, babies have numerous brief awakenings. So it is important to recognise that babies make sleeping noises and yes, even if it sounds that Baby is crying, he's really just having REM sleep; so don't rush to soothe Baby just yet. Often, Baby is able to go back to sleep on his own. Or if your baby is like Bud who tends to jolt 5-10 minutes after falling asleep, stick around and soothe him back to sleep when it happens.
Also, cut yourself loose from the chains of rocking, using the pacifier, nursing to get Baby to sleep. I have adopted a routine prior to Bud's sleeping time so he learns to associate those activities to sleep.
If you have a bub who wakes up several times a night looking for comfort, company and not because he is hungry or if you are like me who didn't quite know how to settle Baby down for a long nap in the afternoons, help yourself (your sleep and sanity). Grab this book.
You won't regret it.
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