All of my kids have been so different when it comes to sleep. My first sucked her thumb, and therefore started sleeping through the night around 4 months old. My second didn’t sleep through the night until about 18 months old due to his tummy issues. Last night, my little man slept for 9 hours straight. This was the first time this had happened. I was thrilled and jumping for joy! (Actually, I was sleeping). Am I hoping that this trend continues? Absolutely. Am I counting on it? No.
I’ve written before about sleeping through the night and how I had to decide to just follow what felt best for me and my baby. Getting a child to sleep through the night is no easy task. Like I’ve said before, defining sleeping through the night is not easy either. But, last night there was no question. He woke up at about 11 pm after being in bed for about 3 hours. We fed him, and then he slept until 7 am this morning. Heavenly.
But, when this happens, I am constantly trying to think of a way to re-create exactly what happened the night before. Unfortunately with babies, the only thing you can expect is the unexpected. I remember with my first child she was sleeping great, and then all of a sudden, she started sleeping terrible. Some nights, my husband slept on the floor in her room because it was the only way to calm her down. We started to question everything like you do when you are sleep deprived. As first-time parents, we thought to ourselves, “What are we doing wrong?” But, the truth was that we weren’t doing anything wrong. I don’t even remember now what the issue was. I think she was teething maybe, or probably trying to accomplish a milestone, or maybe she was just being stubborn, but whatever it was, she got over it in a few weeks. We all moved on and we had our happy, sleeping baby again.
During times of transition for your baby, you can expect that things will change. Bumps in the road will come, and you have to just go with it sometimes and try not to worry. That is hard to do though when you are tired, and sleep-deprived. It is especially hard when you are a first-time parent to not think that you are doing something wrong, or that you are scarring your child for life. Don’t worry. You aren’t.
I don’t know what caused this miracle to happen last night. Maybe it was the entire jar of baby food he devoured a couple of hours before bed, or the fact that he is getting more mobile now. I’m really not sure how it happened, or if I can re-create the sleep pattern tonight, but I’m just glad it did happen, and that for one night, I got a little more sleep.
*Photo courtesy of Morguefile.com