At 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days (seriously!) Oliver slept through the night! He slept eight solid hours. I however stared at the monitor all night, and mornng, in disbelief. Fail.
I have been religious about Oliver’s nighttime routine for two months now. I start every night between 7:30-8:30pm. (Since he is fed on demand his feeding schedule fluctuates a little.) I start twenty minutes before he should be due to eat with "Bath-time for Big Boys!" Next he gets lotion with a baby massage, all to the tune of mommies terribly off key lullabies and made up songs of how much I love my big baby boy. Then I nurse him, which 99% of the time ends in him passing out. I swaddle him tightly and put him in his crib. He normally stays asleep or sometimes stirs from gas, but rarely do I have to work at getting him back to sleep.
I have made the choice to put him to sleep at 8pm instead of 11 pm like three of my other girlfriends with babies the same age. This way I can still have a few hours of peace and quiet in the evening before bed. Possibly if I kept him up that late I would not have to get up at 4 am for a feeding, but rather 6 or 7. I really don’t know that for sure and I have no desire to get my baby used to staying up until 11pm, so 8 it is.
Unfortunately, my dumb ass cannot get to sleep before midnight! So I am still only getting 4 hours, if that. Yes, I can hear you saying WTF? And really I don’t know WTF! I’m working on it. I just think I enjoy the quiet time at night so much I can’t get to sleep, plus I am a night owl.
After Oliver’s 4 am feeding he falls right back to sleep and then, unfortunately, is up between 6 and 7 with a gassy ass. It never fails! Once he passes the gas he wants about an hour of playtime, before he is ready to go back to sleep for up to 3 additional hours! Why can I not just get him to skip the hour playtime and sleep through to 9am?
Anyways, MY BABY IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!! Yes, I am doing a little dance in my chair. I have been waiting a very long time to write this post.
One thing I know for sure after being a mom for 4 months, is that I should not get used to any of this. His sleep will change now that he’s pulling 8 hours. I hope it’s going to get closer to the 12 hours older babies sleep straight, but regardless I know my baby can sleep 8 hours now and that is HUGE!
I plan to try to sooth him back to sleep at 6 am and limit stimulation. If that doesn’t work I may just let him lay there. I really do not know. I keep reminding myself he is just shy of 4 months, so having any plans or expectations at all is foolish. For now I am just going to bask in the glory of his 8 hours of sleep, and hopefully, soon mine too!
