Last night it finally happened - I reached one of my goals. Sophia slept 11.5 hours without waking up, at all. She slept all the way from 8.15pm until 7.45am in the morning. No crying, no nursing. Just sleep. It was great. She's been going about 10 hours in the last few weeks, but my hope really was to get rid of that last early morning nursing at 6am, and just move on with life. I'm so excited for this mile stone and hope it's here to stay. The secret though to this success, I suspect, may be Sophia's new sleeping location - our walk-in closet. My sister is visiting right now, and we decided to have Sophia sleep in her pack n' play in our little walk-in closet. She's been sleeping like a champ in there. Her naps have been great, as well as her nightly sleep. It seems like she zonks out instantly in there, and doesn't wake up at all. We're not sure whether it's the utter darkness or maybe not hearing geese and trains, but it's been great. Maybe we'll keep her in there, having her grow up in a closet like Harry Potter.
Anyway, last night was great. And I'm thrilled that we got here without the whole 'letting them cry it out' thing. We have been working very diligently on helping her to go longer with her sleep, and I think it has worked well, but it didn't involve me let my baby scream for hours in the middle of the night. Thank goodness. And before I hop off of my anti-letting-babies-cry-it-out-soap box, I should add one last thought on this. It just occured to me the other day when I thought about someone recommending to let Sophia cry it out when she was not even 3 months old. I've read about a gazillion 'sleep training' books. And of all the books that suggested or promoted letting your child cry, all of them (with one exception) said that you shouldn't start the sleep training and letting them cry it out until your child was at least 4 months. The only exception was the "Baby Wise" book, that seems to think the earlier the better. So, really, I don't get letting tiny babies cry it out. I'm glad we didn't have to resort to this. I'm glad with how things went, and I'm glad Sophia is sleeping so long now. And, just in case someone is reading this now who is all about letting their kids cry it out: I don't judge you. I don't think you're evil. I won't even tell you (to your face at least) what I think. Just don't ask for my approval of your method. Because, I personally am not a fan of letting little babies cry it out. But, I'll concede that I don't know what's best for you and your family. So there. Now, everyone go do whatever. To each their own, right?
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11.5 hours?!?!? For real? SOOOOOO Jealous! What techniques did you use because maybe I should try them. Thaddeus has never slept longer than 7 hours at a stretch and usually its more like 6.
I agree with the not letting them cry other than a short time. I am glad you had that wonderful progress.
Beautiful baby. She gets cuter daily.
ruth
Put him in a dark closet, Reni!
Well, what we really did, was slowly stretch her out. She used to wake up at 3am all the time, even though she used to sleep longer. So, at that point, I decided to make her wait before I feed her again (she'd always go right back to sleep after I nursed her). But, I'd do it gradually, like get her to go 30 min. or so longer. Once she slept longer, I'd add another 30 minutes. It was very gradual. She did cry, to be honest. But, I'd go and comfort her, and she didn't have to sit there, alone crying, and waiting for hours wondering what's going on. She switched from 3 to 5pm pretty quick. Then I'd nurse her for a few weeks at that time all the time, to make sure she's used to sleeping till 5pm. Then I started making her go a little longer again. It worked really well, and she actually never got really upset or cried hard or anything. I think not making her wait too long helped her not go crazy.
We started this probably about...2-3 months ago, so she was about 10 months old when I started making her wait a little. I also decided to make her wait a bit because at that point she had slept a handful of times through the night (like 10 hours) and I thought apparently she can go longer than the 6-7 hours she started averaging. So, that's what we did.
yep, no need to let babies cry. I just heard a terrible, terrible story from a friend, I don't want to share it because it's just too horribly sad, but all you moms who have babies that wake up many times during the nights, be grateful (although it's hard, trust me I know), at least your baby is alive. babies that wake up during the night have much less of a risk to die of IDS. Just saying. Maybe it's a good thing they don't sleep tightly when they are small. It's nature's way of protecting them.
Rant over. :)
Sounds like a sad story... As you know, I agree! We didn't let Avery cry, and she is sleeping pretty well. She doesn't go for almost 12 hours but, soon enough. After two kids, I've decided they stop waking up when they stop needing things at night.
SIDS is awful. I can think of so many reasons why it's so sad to just let your kid cry and not even check on them. The one thing that comes to my mind right away is when we had put Sophia to sleep on night, and a few hours later we heard her wake up and cry. We went in right away to check on her, and I'm glad we did. There she was puking all over the crib. She was already covered in throw-up, and so was the whole crib. She kept throwing up for an hour. Try to imagine us not checking on her for a long time because we're trying to let her 'cry it out'. She would have been all alone there, totally sick, puking over herself for an hour, sitting in barf etc. The mere thought makes me shiver.
I know some people say they know their baby's cries. I'd like to claim that I do, but honestly, I don't think I can always discern her cries. I think now that she's older, it is a little easier for me. But when she was little, I certainly could not tell what was a 'hunger' cry and what was a 'hurt' cry and what was a 'lonely' cry or whatever. It all sounded pretty much the same to me. I think when kids are still so little and crying is their only form of communication, it's important to listen and act. When they're old enough to talk and you know what's going on (ie they're not sleeping because they just 'don't want to' or something) that's different.
i don't think baby's cries even starts to be distinguishable before a year or so. Definitely not when they are small babies.
And about the puking. That's what happened to my friend. She found her baby the next morning, and it had died from suffocation.
Ohhhhhh, that's so awful! I'm so sad for your friend. Stuff like that is just beyond tragic.
Good job Sophia!! My kids definitely sleep better when it's darker and quieter too.
I think discerning cries probably comes more whenever baby starts being able to mimic voice inflections. I can say now, I can distinguish between a puke cry and a tantrum. But 3-4 months ago, I couldn't. So sad for your friend. I imagined something like that had happened.
Henry
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