The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be exclusively breastfed for "about" the first 6 months of life... Let me tell you why they say "about"...
About a week before Oliver turned six months old, he started sleeping like crap. He was up every three hours demanding to be fed. Once Ollie goes to sleep for the night if he wakes up before 4:30am I always send dad in to calm him. In the past hubs could get the little guy back down without having me nurse him. Last week that changed. So much so, hubs refused to even try to sooth him. “You know he wants the tits! You go in there,” was pretty much all I would get from dad. He was always right.
I just chalked it up to a growth spurt and fed him. Four days and a well baby check-up later, I was ready to start Sleep Training. I was over the reverting to the old days of up every three hours. I told the hubs it was time to get serious about sleep training, and he was going to have to help me. On the first night, Ollie’s six-month birthday, we gave it a shot. Dad went in and tried to sooth him. Out he came, “This is stupid, he wants the booby milk!” In I went. The hubs was right. Again.
Night two of sleep training… well I should back up to DAY two of sleep training. The doctor told us at the 6-month check-up to start feeding Oliver twice a day. So I fed him a lunch of pureed or really mashed up avocado, then a dinner of mashed sweet potato. I mix it with purified water to soften it a little. By the end of the day, I had a happy, non-fussy baby. Real food was doing wonders for his mood.
I put him down for the night and didn’t hear a peep. SWEET ASS! This food thing was working. I decided to pump a small bottle and mix it with rice cereal for a dream feed. I gave him that at 11pm and didn’t hear from that sweet little boy until 6:30am! HELLOOO FAT AND HAPPY BABY!
I nursed him at 6:30am and he went right back to sleep, not waking again until 8am. I could not believe my eyes when I looked at the clock. My poor baby was really hungry all this time!
Lesson Learned- Feed the monster and he will sleep.
