Mission: Sleep Possible!

Video monitor - BEST investment!

There are two types of babies: 1)those who are born sleepers, and somehow miraculously figure out how to "sleep through the night" by two weeks of age; 2) those babies who somehow miss that boat and feel that they need to get up at least once a night for a nosh or just to stretch their eyelids!

Now in general there can be some confounding factors as to which type of baby one may have, for instance whether the baby is nursing. Breastfed babies tend to need a middle-of-the-night nosh up to about 4-6 months. And for them, 5-6 hours at a time is "sleeping through the night," although it's just not quite enough for the exhausted parents. Some babies grow out of this sooner, but everything one reads about the issue prepares a new parent for this fact.

Miss Addison Gee is definitely a Type 2 Sleeper, but we felt like we had really arrived when she had made the successful transition from bassinet to crib and was only getting up once a night around months two and three.

Then we reached month four. What to Expect says that around 4 months of age, babies may have a "wakeful period," because they have become so much more aware of their surroundings, and may want to get up to explore. (As an aside, What to Expect always seems to send out the right email article at exactly the right time for us! It has been very helpful!) Well we were gracing the darkness sometimes 3 and 4 times a night!!! For a new parent, the worst question someone can ask is, "Is she sleeping through the night?" No matter how much I knock on wood, if I say, "Pretty much, we're only getting up once a night," this seemed to bring on the opposite for the evening to come.

Now we can all agree that no parent wants to hear their child cry, and as parents we would do anything to protect our children from being sad or getting hurt if it were within our power. This is why we waited so long to begin this process, because I just imagined it would be torture for all involved. There are several camps when it comes to "getting your baby to sleep through the night." There is the "cry it out" method, which a lot of my parents' generation were encouraged to do. There is the Dr. Ferber method, a derivative of "cry it out" which suggests deciding on a timed interval at which the parents will go in to pat the child's back, but not pick up, and then leave again, and come back at the decided interval as needed. This method reminds the child that they are not "alone," but they still learn how to soothe themselves to sleep. Then there is the "wait it out and see if they come to it on their own" method. See I thought I was in this camp, but then a friend of mine told me she had tried this with her oldest, and her child did not sleep through the night until 3 1/2 years. SO....just after the 7 month mark, Eric and I mustered up our courage and just decided to give the Ferber method a go.

Day 1: Cried for 15 minutes with Mom and Dad checking in every 5, then fell asleep at 9:30pm. Woke up at 4:45am, cried for 15 minutes with Mom and Dad checking in every 5, and fell asleep after another 15 minutes awake in the crib.

Day 2: Naps were a little easier. Bedtime: lay awake in crib for about 8 minutes, cried for 3, then slept through the night!

Day 3: Naps even easier. I was worried about our night time routine because we ventured out to see Unk in Small Town Gossip (pics to come!), with the intention of leaving in time to get back to normal bedtime, but were having so much fun that we stayed a little later. We got home and changed into our Jam-Jams, then was out very quickly by 10:03pm! AND slept through the night!!!

Day 4: Schedule thrown off a little bit by a morning outing, so A.M. nap was in the car seat. Hit a snaphoo with the afternoon nap. We think she must have had a bad bout of gas or something, because she was crying a lot more and louder than before, and could not get herself to sleep. So we got back up to continue playing and see if she would wear herself out. After about 3 more hours, she was so drowsy, but again was crying and scrunching up like her tummy hurt, so Dadda finally had to put her in the car seat (different angle was better for tummy), and she was out instantly for 2 1/2 hours. Bedtime, fussed for just a few minutes and then slept through the night!

So...I'm hoping that by posting this I am not jinxing the "roll" that we are on. I keep saying we should have done this earlier, but I really think we waited until a good time when she was able to learn very quickly (we like to think she's "advanced!"). So to any new parents out there, it is possible! And to nursing mothers, I honestly wouldn't rush it. The thing that made me really go for it was making sure she was getting enough to eat during the day (check out Gerber's website and menu-planner!).

So good luck to those of you who have this ahead of you. I know we're only 4 days in to Mission: Sleep Possible, but it does seem like it truly IS possible!!! Sleep may be in your future =)