Sleeping Through the Night

The standard definition of sleeping through the night is if babies sleep for at least 5 hours straight. Baby has been doing that for a couple months already. However, my definition of sleeping through the night is when baby wakes up when I'm ready to. =D So he's not quite there yet but last night was a definite step towards that goal. Ever since we fed baby solids, he has been sleeping longer and longer. A lot of people say that eating solids doesn't have anything to do with babies sleeping through the night but I don't agree (for my baby anyway). I think they only say that so you don't start with solids early.

Anyway, baby slept from 8pm to 4:30am! (I gave him a bottle and he went back to sleep until 7am) If he was in a different room, I would not even have known because he didn't cry. He was just lying in his bed, awake, sort of moving around. I wake up at the tiniest noise so I woke up but I didn't go to him yet, he didn't seem to need me after all. After a couple minutes, I felt thirsty so I stood up to get water. That's when he knew someone was there so he gave a small cry. I checked up on him and saw that the whole left side of his clothes is wet (+ the sheets). This has been happening for quite a while now ever since he slept for longer periods of time. I actually bought Huggies overnights diapers (but they're still in the states) so I hope those work. I tried using a size larger at night but that doesn't work.

When baby was a newborn and woke every 3-4 hours, I was sleepy and tired every single day. A lot of people say it gets better during the baby's 3rd month. So that's what kept me going, the thought that he will turn 3 months soon. Also, I was getting used to the rhythm of waking up, feeding, then easily going back to sleep. He was really getting better sleepwise before 3 months, he can sleep 5 hours straight then wake up 2-3 hours after, then every hour until I finally decide to get us both out of bed. Three months came, we went on a week-long vacation to the states and then started sleeping hell. He woke up every 2-4 hours. Sometimes he would wake up at 3am and wouldn't go back to sleep until 5am. I was cranky and irritable every single day due to sleep deprivation. I wasn't good company at all. I started to read a sleep help book. The pedia even suggested to just let him cry it out. I just couldn't do it.

When he was 5-months old, we went on another vacation to the states. This time it was for 2 weeks. Since we were in the country and malls were like 1 hr away, I had no choice but to stay at home. This was actually a good thing. I was able to monitor baby and developed a schedule for him. We also became consistent with a nighttime routine: bath, book, bottle. When we came home from the states, he didn't relapse. He was still easy to put down for the night. By 8pm, he was asleep compared to 10-11pm before. Hubby and I were able to spend some quality time together - have dinner together, watch tv, etc. Baby would still wake up around 12-1am then again at 4-6am. But it was definitely better. When we started him on solids (at the 6-month mark), that was when things really began to look up. Now there's the new problem of leaking. But that's probably a better problem than sleep deprivation. The fact that baby's getting enough sleep is also good to know. He naps a lot better too: 1-2 hours twice a day and another shorter nap.

The past 2 days, I was even able to put him down for a nap without rocking him to sleep. He's definitely growing up. Some people choose to let a baby cry it out.. I was going to do it too because I was afraid if I didn't do it, baby would never learn to sleep on his own. But I learned baby has his own time. The times we tried letting him cry out (I only lasted 20 minutes of intermittent crying, when he started to cry like he was being abandoned, I gave up), I couldn't take it.. he probably wasn't ready yet. So I abandoned that method (for now I said).. I was thinking of trying it out again once he was older and he had his own room (which meant we had to move first hehe). But I guess I don't have to do that anymore (Thank God!). I only considered it because we weren't a happy family anymore because of all the sleep deprivation -- Dr. Weissbluth said a well-rested family is the ultimate goal and I agree with that. If I'm sleep deprived, I can't be a good mommy. But now, I'm getting enough rest, I don't even need a daytime nap.

6 months is definitely a good age =)

**Disclaimer to people who want to have a baby, every baby is different. My baby seems to be really difficult sleepwise but a lot of other babies sleep easily :)

**Before writing this blog entry, I put baby down for his nap. By the end of the post, he was asleep.