Thursday, March 10, 2011

Question for Moms

Allow me to preface by saying that I am very aware that every child is different.


With that said....


Brody is 6 weeks and 2 days old. He is no longer in his bassinet by our bed; now he is sleeping in his crib. I was hoping to have him sleeping through the night by 2 months. That gives me one week and 5 days. I know, I know that could be wishful thinking for some. He is such a good baby and I was just crossing my fingers that this is a possibility, but at the same time I'm okay with waiting. I read Baby Wise -- good book. The authors mention that most PDF (parent direct feeding) babies start to sleep through the night, on their own, by 8 weeks (2 months) -- my goal! The most he's gone from feeding to feeding is 5 hours and he hasn't done that in about a week.


Please offer any suggestions that worked for you and your little one. Did your child just ON THEIR OWN start sleeping through the night? Did you offer more milk at the late night feeding? Did they wake up crying in the middle of the night/early morning and you just let them? How long do you let them cry? (I'm sort of a wuss)


Also, what is a good time to offer the last night time feeding before they hit the sack until morning? 7:30 p.m.? 8:00?


Please don't be bashful. I would love to hear what you did.


I hope my tone doesn't sound like I'm stressed about this, because I'm not at all. I'm just curious to know what works.


Because I don't like to post without a picture, here is our sleepy little man.

3 comments:

Shawna Young said...

Congratulations on being a new mommy!!! A lady I use to nanny for had twins and a daughter who was 18 months older than the twins. She lived by Baby Wise, so it definitely is a good pick :)

kate said...

Oh, TOUGH subject. I wish I had a single answer or solution, but it wasn't that simple with Reese. I'm a big fan of Baby Wise, but I didn't get the "sleep through the night" baby at 8 weeks. It took her much longer, and in fact, she still wakes up some. I just don't go in until it's time to wake up for the day. I definitely have had to help her in her sleeping habits. It's just hard because Reese changed soooo much from week to week. We do a dreamfeed at night, and it's around 10pm. At two months, she probably went to sleep around 8, and then I fed her between 10 and 11 without really waking her up too much. I hope that makes sense. Sorry I really don't have any advice, but if you think Brody seems anything like Reese, I'll tell you more. You are so right though...I think every baby has to be so different! Good luck, and I hope you get lots of sleep really soon! :)

Cary said...

I think every baby and every mom are different, so you just have to figure out something that works for the Swanns, you know?

I started to let Winnie cry it out at night when she was around 4 or 5 months. My pediatrician told me to wait until her birth weight doubled, I think. It's all a little fuzzy now. I would nurse her right before I put her down (8:00). At first, Andy would also give her bottle at around 11 when she would wake up. We did that for a couple months, all the while letting her cry out/patting her/whatever the other times she would wake up. It took a few months of all that before she slept from 8-8. or 8-9, but it worked.

With Rush, I never did anything. I decided that I would look back someday and miss nursing my baby and being with him in those quiet moments of the night. (sappy, yes, but I don't care) So, I nursed him every three hours until he was about 8 months and loved every minute. He started then just sleeping through the night on his own. He also slept from 8-8 or 8-9, so the end result was the same.

All that said, I took two drastically different approaches, and they both sleep about 11 hours a night and take a nap in the afternoon. I don't think the details matter, as long as you feel good about what you are doing and you and Justin think it's the best thing for Brody.

Love you! I love watching you being a mom...you are doing a great job. I can't wait to meet the little guy. I never called (sorry) but that blizzard messed up a lot of my Conway plans last time I was in town:(