A Full Nights Sleep

My daughter has always been a good sleeper.  When she was just a newborn she would sleep three (3) to 4 hours at a time and wake up screaming because she was hungry.  All my friends tell me they all went through it and most didn’t get in a full nights sleep for months; one person was still doing the three (3) A.M. feedings into the toddler years.

Eventually, my little one just moved into sleeping from six (6) to 9 hours at night and with the occasional night of back to three (3) to 4 hours.  I don’t know if this had anything to do with the fact that we were co-sleeping with her or if she just loved her sleep.  Sometimes I do think that my daughter just loves her sleep because anytime that I try to wake her from her slumber she’ll ignore me, wake up and go back to sleep or will be very cranky.

We finally got to a point, at about two (2) months, where she would sleep every other day or so for on average 12 hours straight.  I thought we were making great and early head way to us finally getting in a full nights sleep as well.  Than a turn of events, possibly another growth spurt, and she was back to four (4) A.M. feedings.  One thing that did change, she used to need to be cuddled and rocked back to sleep before putting her back down.  I decided to lay her back down in her crib and go back to bed myself to try to allow her to self-sooth herself back to sleep.  Within about 15 minutes I heard nothing coming from the baby monitor and of course I had to go check on her.  Success! She was back to sleep.  So every night from than onward, we would put her down to self-sooth when she woke up for her morning feed. 

After a couple of weeks of the early morning call, I than decided to try and let her self-sooth herself again back to sleep without me intervening.  First night I had no success, her coos got louder to a cry so I knew she needed a feeding.  Second night was successful, she cooed for about 15 minutes or so and than quiet, went in to take a peak and she was sleeping as if she never woke.  The third night she needed the feeding, I thought my luck had run out.  I did continue to see if she would self-sooth every night, I was successful every other night or so.  By the time she was three (3) months, it seemed so out of the blue to me but she was sleeping all through the night.  No waking up just would sleep right through with no problems. 

About a week before she was four (4) months she did wake up for a few four (4) A.M. feedings.  After only a few days she was back to full nights.  I don’t know if our “work” with trying to get her to self-sooth has paid off or she just naturally changed her sleeping habits.  We will never really know but I like to think the work did pay off, it gives more of a sense of accomplishment as a parent in my humble opinion.

I am very happy that she is sleeping through the night and giving us more mommy/daddy time, I mean I don’t really know any parent that wouldn’t be happy about that.  I do feel like her schedule will change again when she comes to another growth spurt, but I can at least see some light to going back to full nights again.  Now just to get more sleep of my own…  I value my me-time and sometimes need to take advantage with a sleeping baby.

When did your little one(s) starting sleeping through the night? Did you do anything “special” to get to that point or just went with your little ones schedule? If so, what did you do?  Do you have any tips that may help other readers?