As you all know, Carter has slept like a champ at night from day one. When he was itty-bitty, we used to wake him up to feed him because he'd sleep five or six hours at night, and we were concerned he wasn't gaining enough weight (ha ha... if only we'd known!) It took some patience to get him to go to sleep then, but once he was out, he was out.
Since about two and a half months, he's been going to sleep and staying asleep like a champ. We've adjusted bed time a few times, but it always happens the same way. We go upstairs and make a big ordeal about getting undressed and taking a bath; singing, dancing -- the whole bit. Carter has a blast taking a bath, then proceeds to lose it while he's being dressed/diapered, but the calms down again as he settles in with a bottle. He eats, then I put him in his crib either already asleep, or drowsy. Sometimes he even gets a second wind at this point, but he either whines a bit or plays happily and drifts off to sleep for the rest of the night.
But then last night, things changed. Brian and I had been out and by the time we got home, there was no time to feed Carter a solid dinner. (Shame on us.) So, we made him 8 oz instead of his normal 6, and went through the motions. He whined when we put him down, then went into a full-blown cry.
And we just stood there, looking at each other like a couple of idiots and not saying a word... but our mutual thoughts were loud and clear... "What the hell do we do now?!"
Last night we fed him another 2 oz of formula and it worked. But then tonight it took Carter a full half hour or so to go to sleep. I sat on the end of my bed and waited it out since there was no real crying. When I got up and walked across the [ridiculously creaky-floored] hallway, he woke up again and whined for another 10 minutes, while I sat on the stairs and held my breath.
All along I've been intensely aware of what a blessing it's been that Carter sleeps so well. But now I'm beginning to realize that it's also a curse. Because now I'm also realizing that I have NO IDEA what to do in the event that he wakes up at night, or doesn't go to sleep easily. I've got my fingers crossed that these two nights have been a fluke, but we might be in for a rocky stretch here in the Cool household. ::deep breaths::
3 comments:
I have no sympathy! Hahaha, just kidding -- I wouldn't do anything to intervene at this point, he is an awesome sleeper and if he is waking up a bit or whining or taking a bit longer to go to sleep, I would let him work it out on his own! If you intervene now, you will begin a nasty habit you will just have to break...
This is our plan for now, Erin. My biggest fear is he'll wake up and we won't be able to get him back to sleep without feeding him and THAT's a habit I don't want to start 10 months into this gig! I'm hoping it's just teething. He's been "off" all week. Fingers crossed!
Sounds like teething to me. Give him some Tylenol or Motrin and hope for the best! I'm often very relieved that we actually 'sleep trained' Colin. The few times when he does wake up, he still knows the drill. I agree with you. Feeding him to get him to go back to sleep is a very very bad idea. Even if he is hungry (which he probably isn't) teaching him he can eat in the middle of the night at this stage would be a big step in the wrong direction.
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