Hooray for Sleep!

Last night our little Squeaker miraculously slept from 9:30 pm to 3:30 am! And then, after nursing, until 7:15 am! I think that kids know just when the sleep deprivation is really getting to their parents and they kick the sleeping in just before the parents totally lose it. In this case, I think we also had a few helpful little things that made our Squeaker sleep better.

First, he is one month and one week old now, which means he has gained some weight since birth and probably doesn't need to eat as frequently. We will find out how much he weighs at his two month check up in 3 weeks but I have read that after babies reach 12 or 13 pounds, they are more likely to sleep better.

Second, our friend Sarah let us borrow an Especially for Baby inclined sleep positioner to try out. We thought that maybe since our Squeaker seems to get fussy after feeding that he has a bit of reflux and the slight incline might help. It seems to be working very well after two nights of use. We have a mountain of baby and toddler stuff but this is one thing that we never bought -- so thank you Sarah!

Third, we have been reading a book that Vince's aunt gave us as a gift for our Howler. It is called Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady's Gentle Guide to Helping your Child go to Sleep, Stay Asleep, and Wake Up Happy by Kim West and Joanne Kenen. This book was a good guide for us while we were teaching our Howler to sleep and the same techniques seem to be coming in handy with the Squeaker. Like any parenting advice there are probably a million ways to do it but we have taken what we like from her practices and made them our own. I think the things that have worked with the Howler and now seem to be working with the Squeaker are: putting him down drowsy but awake, nursing upon waking instead of nursing to sleep, and keeping to some sort of a schedule.

We are most likely not out of the woods yet in terms of night wakings but I think this is a good start. And, there is nothing like several consecutive hours of good solid sleep to make the parents feel refreshed and capable!