What Happened??
Topic: Reid's Sleep Pattern
For the past 6 weeks or so, Reid's been consistantly sleeping 9-10 hours at night, but over the last couple weeks, he's started waking at 3 or 4 am and not going back to sleep until I'd feed him. The doctor said he may be going through a growth spurt. I re-read through my book on Parent-Directed Feeding to try to figure out how to handle it. I learned that, rather than letting Reid wake me up in the morning at whatever time, I should be waking him at a regular time each morning to stay in charge and to help stabilize his metabolism. I also read that I should pick a weekend when we have nothing to do to re-train Reid to sleep through those hours. It definitely took more work than just getting up and feeding him, but after a few nights of getting up a few times to put him back to bed, he's since started sleeping through til his wake-up time again. What a relief!

For Those Following Reid's Sleep Pattern...
Topic: Reid's Sleep Pattern
So it's been a couple weeks since we've implemented the earlier bed time for Reid, moving it from 11pm to 8:30pm. While it's been difficult to sacrifice the uninterrupted sleep from 11pm-6am, it has paid off. When we first moved it, Reid started waking up at 3am again, but with some work & training, we got that 3am wake-up to gradually move to 6:30 am! The 9-10 hour nights of Reid sleeping have been bliss for us. Colby and I get some alone time before we go to bed and the uninterrupted sleep continues to refresh us for the next challenging, yet amazing day with our Little Man.

Zzzzzz...
Topic: Reid's Sleep Pattern
It's official. Reid, at 6.5 weeks is sleeping through the night! Last night was the 4th night in a row that Reid slept through the night, from after his last feeding at 11pm until 5 or 6am! We now have a new goal, which is to get that bed time moved earlier. Since receiving some recent advise from my new mommy friend, Kim, starting tonight we will try either putting him to bed immediatly after his 8:30pm-ish feeding or moving that last feeding up to 10pm, then later to 9pm, and eventually to 8pm. Whichever we choose, we will probably be temporarily giving up the recent luxory of an uninterrupted sleep, but we're hopeful it will pay off in the end.

Can It Be?
Topic: Reid's Sleep Pattern
Last night Little Man sept through the night again!!! His last feeding was at 11pm and he didn't wake me up until 6am! I was even able to put him down after that morning feeding for another 3 hours. 6.5 weeks old and he's already sleeping through the night, thanks to the routine Rebekah recommended. Thanks, Rebs!!

Progress!!
Topic: Reid's Sleep Pattern
Week 6:
Reid almost slept all the way through the night last night! His last feeding was at 11pm after which I put him straight to bed. He didn’t wake me up until 5am for his next feeding!

Happy Mom = Happy Baby
Topic: Reid's Sleep Pattern
Week 5:
Little Man has recently started sleeping longer between feedings at night. I’m noticing a pattern of a five-hour break between feedings (from start time to start time), followed by a 3-hour break, or vice versa, producing a much more sane and cheerful mommy! =)

No One Ever Told Us!
Topic: Reid's Sleep Pattern
Day 11:
I think we had a parenting breakthrough last night. =) Reid's wake time tends to be between midnight and about 3am. He's just wide awake and cries when we put him down to sleep, so one of us ends up getting frustrated and losing more sleep to rock him, sometimes while he's still crying. I'm starting to try to get him on a flexible routine by feeding him every 2.5 to 3 hours, waking him during the day when necessary. (At night I let him wake me as needed for feedings.) I try to give him wake time after day time feedings then put him down for a nap until the next feeding. I'm hoping he'll use more energy during the day, but it's been hard keeping him awake at all, so he still has that midnight wake window, just like when he was in my belly. So, last night during that window, I fed him, made sure his diaper was dry, got all the burps out of him and swaddled him tight, then put him down, even though he was wide awake. By the time I got back in bed, he started crying as usual. It escalated to a scream and Colby and I decided to let it ride. It was hard not to go pick him up to get him to stop crying but we did it and he only screamed 4 minutes the first time and about 9 minutes the next time (seemed like longer, but I was watching the clock!). Then, he must have used all his little body's energy on those cries, because he fell fast asleep, so then we did too. =) Yay!

Four Days Into Motherhood
Topic: Reid's Sleep Pattern
When Reid was in my belly, his kicks kept me up at night and my daytime movement rocked him right to sleep. Just as we suspected, this sleep pattern is no different, now that he's thriving outside the womb and it's definitely taking its toll on us -especially compounded with my trying to recover from the birth, our shock of this sudden overwhelming responsibility, and all the action around us welcoming Reid.

Considering that Colby and I are the first among many of our friends to enter into parenthood, I believe in the importance of being as honest as possible in this blog about what it's really like. While I could write about how you start to experience symptoms of insanity due to the lack of sleep causing you to dream while awake, I prefer to abide by the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words..."