All Night Long...

Finally sleeping like a baby!

OMG, the unthinkable has happened and Daphne is sleeping through the night! While Brett was out of town, I was able to focus and think a bit on how to handle her night wakings. They had gotten a lot less frequent but were still keeping us (and her) from getting solid restful sleep and were really wearing on our nerves and ability to fully embrace and enjoy parenthood.

With very little effort, she has dropped her middle of the night feedings and now eats a full meal at around 5am and heads back to bed for a couple more hours of shut eye. Her bedtime is still 6:30, so a lot of nights she is sleeping 13 hours! Seems like a lot of sleep but I swear we aren't forcing her to stay in bed, she seems to really need it an enjoys her crib.

I think there are a few factors that have contributed to this success:

She recently met the 16 pound mark, and I have read that that is the weight they need to reach to be able to go a good 10 hours without eating. These two event coincided almost exactly for us.

She is eating a big dinner of solid foods every night right before bed, followed by her usual bottle of breast milk, so I'm sure her little body is enjoying digesting that and she's not waking up hungry. Maybe it's the plain, full fat Greek yogurt? She loves it and I'm sure that protein and fat are good for her.

Daph has mastered sleeping any which way, tummy, side, smashed up against the railings… So she's not waking herself up in frustration anymore. If she wakes, she just grabs bunny and hugs her tight and goes right back to sleep—we've seen it on the monitor, it's so cute.

Not forcing the bedtime routine… For a while I felt we had to be so by the book, and the book said bath, bottle, book, bed. Well, if she's not into the book, fine! Only want three ounces? ok. Loosening up our expectations helped.

Naps are also much improved and they say that daytime sleep helps nighttime sleep. Yesterday she had two 2 hour naps! Sounds nice but I found myself constantly looking in at her for the afternoon nap since 45 minutes is the norm for that one.

I am so thankful! I no longer dread going to bed at night like I did just a few short weeks ago. Now if she can just make it through our upcoming trip to California and then the transition to the new house!