The Ouch Factor

Nine hours, people! Nine hours. That's how long my boy slept last night. Not in segments...straight! WhoHoo!!! Now - on the other side of things....ow ow ow! Lots of pain, feeling like I'm about to burst! Not to mention, I'm still overcoming mastitis, so that made it a little worse. Again - ow ow ow...

I'm so excited! He had been going b/w 6 and 6 and a half hours for maybe a week and a half. Then he went through a growth spurt. Every.Four.Hours or less for several days. Talk about being thrown into sleep deprivation again for a while. Then 'BOOM' - Monday night we go 8 hours. Talk about pain that morning. The mastitis came about the next day - another 8 hour day accompanied with 101 degree fever, chills, body aches, and lots and lots of pain in and around the infection area. (A doctor's visit and a round of antibiotics later, I'm doing MUCH better!) And then last night, he went 9 - and was woken up at that point so he wouldn't sleep longer than that. This sounds stupid, probably, but he's not quite 8 weeks old yet and I'm not sure how long is safe at this point. Besides - my body needs time to adjust if you know what I mean. The "ouch factor" needs to completely go away before it comes back two fold. You know??


This is the picture I saw when going in after this nine hour stretch.


Sleeping so soundly! Almost made me want to not wake him up - then I remembered why I wanted to wake him up!

So let me share why he's sleeping so soundly so soon. It's a combination of this -

and this -

The top picture is of the book that I've read and followed with both kiddos. It's a Christian author who really just puts common sense thoughts in a book for mothers who after reading it go - yeah...that makes sense - but wouldn't have thought of it otherwise. For example: The book has two main points that are revisited throughout the book.

1. PDF (Parent directed feeding) is their push. This is really a balance between demand feeding and schedule feeding and one always becomes submissive to the other. The goal the first two weeks of life is to get the baby to take full feedings. If full feedings are achieved, the baby falls naturally into a 2.5 - 3 hour schedule (which happened with both Zoe and Ethan). If full feedings aren't achieved, they snack a lot and will want to eat sometimes every hour or so. Following the first two weeks, the 2.5-3 hour schedule is your goal. The clock is submissive for most of that time unless the baby is wanting to consistently feed sooner than 2 hours (indicating that maybe they're not taking in full feedings) or go longer than 3 hours. In those cases, you turn to the clock as your aid and try to do more schedule feeding. Otherwise, you pay close attention to the hunger cues and feed them when they exhibit those. You know, like when you're out at walmart holding them and they decide to go looking for food RIGHT THEN in front of the whole world! And yes, I'm speaking from experience. Of course, there are those times when they're in growth spurts and you must learn to be sensitive to those times. The ultimate goal is really just to be on that 2.5-3 hour schedule for the majority of the time. The time extends to 3-3.5 hour schedule as they get older, and finally to a 3.5-4 hour schedule.
2. The second push of the book is to rotate the following cycle throughout the day. Feed-Wake-Sleep. In other words, don't feed them to sleep except in the middle of the night. Feed them, have some play time with them where they're awake for a good hour or more after feeding (this time isn't more than 15-20 minutes when they're less than a month old), and then put them down when they start to show signs of sleepiness. At this point, Ethan can stay up for an hour to an hour and a half after he eats. Sometimes, he's so sleepy that he only stays up for 30 minutes or so after eating and sleeps for 2 or more hours straight. He usually eats in ten minutes or less, so he's only up for a little over an hour and a half at a time. Then he'll sleep for an hour or more. When he wakes up (assuming it's close to the 3 hour mark), I'll feed him. If it's before, I'll wait until he shows hunger signs. The good thing about this is that by keeping them awake and waiting until they're tired to put them down, it teaches them to put themselves to sleep. Then during the night, you have no wake time. Feed them and put them right back down.

As they get older - 3 months or so- you aim to move them to specific nap times - 10, 2, and 5ish...and then as the months pass, they will eventually drop one nap at a time and move to an after lunch nap (which is what Zoe does now).

Ethan was totally a sleep during the day baby and not at night for the first week or so. But once we really started to push this, he was pretty easily trained.

It's WONDERFUL b/c it allows for a consistent and predictable routine. The baby knows what to expect, and the mama knows what to expect - something I thrive on as a parent.

And the second picture is a miracle blanket. No seriously - it's really called a miracle blanket. It's a gigantic swaddle with arm flaps and a foot pocket. I'm sure those of you who had kids remember the Morrow reflex (the startle reflex) where they startle themselves awake constantly and throw their arms up in the air. That's what the little arm flaps are for. It helps keep their arms securely by their side. I know, it looks like a straight jacket. But it gives them the feeling that they got used to for the nine month period prior to birth. The claim on the blanket was hilarious. They said, "even at the sight of the blanket, fussy babies will calm down and relax". The sight of a blanket?? Are you kidding me?? But seriously - it works. He could be fussing up a storm and when I bring the blanket out and start wrapping him up, he'll stop...unless he's really hungry. It's partly a cue and routine, but man...talk about instantaneous. We strip him down to his diaper before putting him in to prevent him from overheating and he stays in it during the night.

So, I'm convinced that we haven't just lucked out with two good sleepers. I'm convinced that between these two things, they started sleeping 8 hours or more through the night - both kids at 7 weeks. Wonderful, wonderful sleep....