Friday, March 13, 2009

Do I dare say...

A. Miles slept 7 hours straight last night
B. We've established a routine
C. We now understand how some mommies are rigid about their routines
D. All of the above

At 6 weeks I thought I would never say that my child slept a whopping 7 hours in a row. I was hesitant to even post this because I don't want to jinx it, but I'm sure we'll go through 5 bajillion more routine/sleeping mishaps. First off, I've read multiple books out there on sleeping and routines and didn't agree with any of them completely. I took bits and peices from each book and now I'm pleased to say that we have a routine that works for us. Let me give you some insight into what works for us. We wake up around 7:30am, feed, stay awake until 8:15am, and then sleep until 9:30am, feed, play, do some tummy time, and then down for nap we go around 11:30am. We then sleep until 1:30-ish (these times are all ishes), feed, play some more and down for another nap around 3:30pm until 5:30pm. Then around 8 pm we start the bedtime routine. Some days it's a bath, and other days it's just the book and singing. Nevertheless, while some books advise putting your child down while awake I've never been able to do so. I've always either rocked him, nursed him, or worn him down to sleep and it seems to work for us. So down to bed he goes around 9pm. AND HERES THE KICKER...he doesn't wake up until 4am-- SEVEN HOURS LATER! Then I change his diaper (in the dark and I don't stimulate him with any "hellos") and nurse him back to sleep. Usually at his 4am feeding he nurses for about 15 minutes and then back to bed he goes until around 7:30am (and Tim feeds him at this time of the hour allowing me to get some shut eye). The only thing that stinks is that when breastfeeding no matter how many times he wakes up in the night I still have to get up every 3-4 hours and pump.  I bet now that I've posted this we'll have a terrible night of sleep.  I'm sure I've jinxed it.  Wish me luck.

6 comments:

Salt H2O said...

Lucky!

We only have one part of our routine established- we keep Sam awake after 6- she then sleeps from 9 till 2- then from 2:30 till 4:30 then from 5 till 6.

the rest we're still making up as we go along.

Tiffany said...

Wow... Gabby is almost 4 months already and I swear she eats more at night than during the day. Good job on the routine. Although I do have to warn you, there is a reason they suggest putting them to sleep awake. It's hard to do but as they get older it can be really hard for them to learn to fall asleep on their own (Colin, who is 3 is a great example). And the kicker is they are mobile enough to escape about anything.

Tyler and Erika Hanks said...

That is AMAZING! Carson is 4 months and just started the 7 hour stretch. It sounds like the same routine we do...baby wise! However, do you know if you don't pump, your milk will regulate itself! It's amazing, it will produce less milk during the night hours when you don't pump but still give you all the milk he needs during the day. A nurse told me...all you have to do is go through 1-2 nights of waking up really full and maybe leaking, but after that, you are golden!

Jeri said...

Sounds like you guys are doing well. I could never get my kids on a routine- probably because I was only home for the first 6 weeks and then back to work. Are you going back to work? If so, the routine will most likely change. I just feed my kids when they're hungry and put them down for a nap when I see signs of sleepiness. At around 4 months you'll want to start putting him to bed awake so that he can learn to soothe himself to sleep. I have a book on how to do this (because it's really hard) if you're interested.

Teisha said...

I was never able to do the whole routine thing. Mostly laziness on my part! 7 hours would have been nice though!

Sabrina said...

I'm so glad you got a routine going. I swear we'd get there and then he'd get a cold or something to mess it up and then it seemed we'd have to start over again.

I wouldn't pump at night. Your milk will regulate. You'll have a couple night of leaking and soreness but then it will regulate so you can sleep when Miles sleeps.