Sleeping Through the Night!

Hi. I am Laura S. I am a first time mom and my baby boy is now 4 months old. A co-worker of mine gave me the Babywise book when I was pregnant. She commented “some people think its mean, but, whatever, my baby sleeps through the night.” At the time, I had no idea what she was talking about (nay-sayers to Babywise method I would come to find out.) I read the book while still pregnant and found all of it very informative and the method seemed pretty simple. I glanced at a few other “method” type books but had heard so many success stories from people in my life about Babywise that it was worth it to give it a try. People said they had kids sleeping through the night anywhere from 6 to 10 weeks old. That was perfect since I would be returning to work after 7 weeks. So I read the book and highlighted some key points and tucked it away until my baby was born.

 

Come February, we have a beautiful 8.5lb boy via C-section. He was very good from the beginning. While still in the hospital, I tried to remember what I had read and when I should start training my baby. I started breastfeeding but it was all so sporadic that I was worried about the schedule. Well, a week after being home from the hospital, I had gotten an infection underneath my incision and had to have surgery. Long story short, the incision was reopnened, drained and stitched back up. That set back my recovery, I was struggling with breastfeeding and being a brand new mom (and all of the emotions that come with THAT!), I feared that all my plans for having a baby sleep through the night were out the window. I was seriously panicked. My baby was almost 4 weeks old and I had not done a thing except manage to keep him alive. Luckily, I found this website and others that support Babywise and learned that most don’t even start training until 4 weeks! I was ecstatic. 

 

I immediately started following a schedule of eat, play, sleep on a 3 hour schedule. I needed to get it down solid because I was returning to work soon and I NEEDED him to sleep through the night (for my own sanity 🙂 It was kind of hard (and tricky) at times but it seemed to be working. I must also note that we have a very well-mannered baby. He has always slept well and did not have any issues with breastmilk, formula, colic, reflux, etc so that made it all that much easier for us. (Of course there were nights that were hard, but my overall experience is good). My baby would sleep 6 hours at night and wake only for a 4am feeding. Then, the night before Easter, the little man slept through the night for the first time. It was a little inconsistent at first but he is now regularly sleeping through the night. I was able to return back to work and many people would ask “Are you getting any sleep?” and they would be in total shock because I would say “yes, my baby sleeps through the night!”

 

At 12 weeks, I had to stop breastfeeding and switch him to formula but this had no negative effect on him and the schedule. It is so nice because at any given time during the day, if he starts to get fussy, I can tell you why. All of the caregivers at his daycare absolutely love him because he is so happy and well mannered. The only times he really cries is when he is hungry, wet or sleepy. The rest of the time he is smiling, playing and interactive with everyone. He is still on a 3-hour feeding schedule and we are looking to move him to 4-hours as we start to feed him solids.

 

We were blessed to have a good baby and we were successfully able to get our babe to sleep through the night. I believe that it is a combination of a good baby and babywise that allowed this to happen. I do not argue methods with anyone (who has time for that?), but I do recommend Babywise to all of my friends who get pregnant. It may work for them, or it may not. It worked for us. My baby is now 4 months old, formula fed, happy, thriving and healthy. I am so glad my co-worker gave me the book and that I chose this method. I can only say good things about Babywise and that if it doesn’t work for others, I can only hope that something else does becuase a happy baby that sleeps through the night is a wonderful thing! 

Thanks for letting me share!

1 thought on “Sleeping Through the Night!”

  1. Hello, posting this in the hopes I can get some schedule advice! I am a first time mom to a girl who will be 6 weeks old on Friday. I've been working on the babywise eat/play/sleep routine since the third week (baby was super sleepy until then!), and for about the last two have worked on the 2.5 – 3 hour feeding and napping schedule. Some days are pretty good, others are a flop! Our weekends definitely throw off the schedule too.What I am working on is a 7:30/10:30/1:30/4/7/9:30 day schedule, with a dream feed around 12:30am. I put her to bed around 8:30, and get her up for the 9:30pm feed and the dream feed. She then wakes about 4:30/4:45 on her own. This morning she woke at 4:45am and was up for the day; did not want to go back to bed! My husband does the early morning feed so I can sleep, and he brought her to me at 6:30am to eat because she was still awake. The rest of today has been quite the flop trying to get her back on schedule.A couple questions; is having a dream feed around midnight just not a good idea? We were letting her wake naturally until a few days ago, and that happened around 1 am and 4:30am. We decided to try the dream feed to help stretch her sleep after midnight, and so both my husband and I can get some sleep (he sleeps 10-4am, I sleep after the dream feed). My plan was to move it back to 11 pm over time, once she can sleep until 7am reliably. But I am wondering if it is interfering with her nighttime sleep too much.Also any ideas on why the 4:45 am wakeup-and-alert issue? The night prior she went right back to bed after her 4:30am wakeup, and slept until I woke her at 7:30. What is a good plan for when this happens- let her COO in her crib until she goes back to sleep? Try another soothing tool? I think feeding her at 6:30 was a bad idea, the rest of today has been a mess!

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