Sometimes I should follow my own advice.
We've been quite blessed with G-Man sleeping most of the night since he was very young. Since he was about 6 weeks old, he has gone to sleep at about 9:00 p.m. and he wakes up at about 6:00 a.m., drinks a bottle and goes back down until 9:00 a.m. It's been very nice. I realize how lucky we are. Especially on the nights when he doesn't follow his own pattern.
The trip to Germany has made G-Man a little more unpredictable than he was before we left. He's still settling a little bit. One new thing is that he has been waking up at 2:00 a.m. Because when he wakes up he is usually hungry, I've been feeding him. But then, he was still waking up at 6:00 and going back down until 9:00. It is making me tired.
Last night, he woke up at 2:00 a.m. again. Diggity has a cold and was knocked out with some NyQuil, so he wasn't going to be able to tag team with me. I laid there and listened and suddenly recalled a conversation I had with my friend who is having a similar situation with her 9 month old. Though the baby doesn't need to eat in the middle of the night any more, she still nurses in the middle night because my friend wakes up and feeds the baby. Another friend and I tried to tell her that she should have her husband go give the baby a pacifier (have the husband do it because the baby associates mom with food) for three nights in a row and that by the third night, the baby would likely be sleeping through the night. With these little guys, it is really so much about behavioral conditioning.
Recalling that advice I gave, I rolled over and counted to 20 while I listened to G-Man fussing. And then....G-Man went back to sleep.
P.S. This strategy also worked with his naps. He usually sleeps for an hour and starts to fuss and cry. So I get him up. I decided to count to 20 and wait before running upstairs, and he is now going on two hours with his afternoon nap. This has NEVER happened before. Woo hoo!
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3 comments:
Looks of luck with the behavioral conditioning ; ) I hope it works. I hope the 2 hour naps continue.
good girl! i think the biggest secret to training a good sleeper is to be willing to let them fuss a bit in their crib. hope that g-man gets back on his own time zone schedule soon!
Thankfully, I don't have a problem letting G-Man fuss in his crib when we are at home. After writing this blog, I realized that I've been getting up quickly in the middle of the night to feed him because we have been in hotel rooms and staying with family and friends so much this summer. He's such a good baby, but I was really paranoid he would wake someone up in the middle of the night.
And...last night, I put the binkie back two times instead of feeding him in the middle of the night and he slept until 8:00 a.m. It was an exciting morning.
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