For the first couple months of Oliver's life, he slept beautifully. People would joke with us, "Is anyone getting any sleep?!" and smile, expecting to hear us tell them all about the crazy nights we've experienced. Instead we'd smile back and proudly say, "Actually, yes. Oliver sleeps through the night." Well... Those days are long gone, and have been for over a month now. I think part of it is that Oliver is so aware of his surroundings, so if something catches his attention (the pattern of his bedding, the nightlight, the toys on the shelves) he can't settle down and fall back asleep. I see him staring at these things when the lights are on so it doesn't surprise me. The other part of it I'm sure is hunger. We still feed him 5 ounces every 2.5-3 hours, but as he's growing I'm sure he needs more. Most people start solid foods around this age, and give rice cereal before bed to fill them up. But we're very serious about waiting to start ANY kind of food until 6 months (google "open gut" and read the KellyMom.com article). So we decided to try an experiment and see if a little nighttime routine will help. We naturally fell into a routine for awhile– we fed him his last bottle sometime between 9 and 10pm, swaddled him, then put him to sleep. Some nights we'd read a book or sing songs, and John and I would trade off doing this at night. We know kids need a predictable schedule and routine, and figured it couldn't hurt establishing one for Oliver.
Around 8pm every night, I give Oliver a bath. I wash his hair, play with the rubber ducky, let him "swim" on his tummy, and he splashes around like crazy.
After we're done, I bring him into the room (that is dimly lit) and give him a little baby massage and put on his jammies. John takes over from here– he first reads a story, then feeds him his bottle (which we now fill to 8 ounces), swaddles, rocks and then puts him in his crib.
The first night we did this, Oliver slept from 8:45pm until 4:30am. I was SO excited– it worked!! Our routine worked!! I know, 4:30am doesn't seem like anything to celebrate but after a month of 1am feedings, this was amazing. I was so excited the next night, and after the same routine... No such luck. Oliver was wide awake at 1:30am "singing" in his crib, patiently waiting for mommy to feed him. It's now been over a week of our new routine, and Oliver continues to wake up between 1 and 3am. Oh well! It's just how it is. Some babies sleep through the night, others wake up multiple times. Oliver ALWAYS greets me with a smile, no matter what time it is, so it's hard to complain. I'm hoping a little rice cereal before bed time at 6 months will help... I guess we'll see!
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