April 16, 2008
I think we’re gonna make it.
Well I’ll be darned.
One of David’s coworkers sent him this article about babies’ sleep cycles. Apparently, once a baby awakes, she’ll be sleepy again and ready for a nap in 90 minutes. If you miss this opportunity, it will be another 90 minutes before she’s ready to sleep again. If you follow this pattern during the day, supposedly your baby will get the sleep she needs, she’ll sleep better at night, and peace will reign over your household, or something like that.
Well, I thought I’d give it a try. Anna woke up at 7:00, she ate, I got a shower, I gave her a bath, and I had her dry, warm, and swaddled by 8:30. And she went to sleep. For an hour. Interesting, I thought. Coincidence? Maybe the bath? Anyway, I turned into speed-mom and dried my hair, made the bed, did laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, dusted the bedroom, and ate a snack.
She woke up around 9:30, and sure enough, was getting drowsy a little before 11:00. I wrapped her up again and rocked her quietly, and she fell asleep by 11:00. For two hours! I rested the first hour, then ate lunch and did a few things the second. She woke up at 1:00, was back to sleep by 2:30. I thought I’d catch another nap, but she only slept until 3:00. Oh well, some naps will be short. She should have gone to sleep again at 4:30, but she was howling at that moment trying to work out a gas bubble or something. When she stopped crying, she was pretty alert. I figured I missed that cycle, and it would be 6:00 before she would sleep again. And she did. And still is.
The best part about all this was how much better I felt. I wasn’t frustrated wondering when/if she was ever going to sleep. I wasn’t left wondering why she was howling her head off 5 minutes after I put her down, when I had been sure she had been asleep. During the awake times, I enjoyed playing with her and interacting with her, rather than trying to get her to sleep when she wasn’t ready, or dealing with an overtired, fussy baby. And when I put her down, she actually slept. In her crib. By herself.
I don’t know how all this translates into nighttime yet. Supposedly getting the days under control is the key to the baby sleeping better at night. And I realize Anna is still very little, and it’s going to be several more weeks before she’s on any kind of schedule. But this is a start. I know it’s only been one day, but maybe there’s something to this. I hope this isn’t just a fluke and things don’t fall apart tomorrow!
***UPDATE: I’m amazed. In addition to a great day, we had the best night ever. She woke up last evening around 7:45. I thought she would go down around 9:15, but she was having a fussy fit then, and maybe I missed the cue and it was really closer to 9:00. So I figured she would go down around 10:30. I wasn’t frustrated, because I knew she wouldn’t go to sleep until 10:30, so there was no point in fretting about it. I fed her, she went to sleep around 10:30, and slept… until 2:45! And so did I! I fed her again, and she went back to sleep and slept until 6:30! I got another nap when she went back to sleep this morning, so I feel like I’m good to go for the day!
This seems to work great as long as you stay home all the time. I need to figure out how you can go places with the baby, or do anything you already have scheduled. I’m thinking maybe I should buy the book, unless any of you moms have it and would loan it to me. :-)
Comments(5)
Yay! Isn’t it nice when things finally click? The one book that helped me TREMENDOUSLY was “The Baby Whisperer”. She recommends this same type of sleep-cycle thing. She doesn’t use 90 minutes exactly, but she does say the baby wakes up, eats, plays a little bit, and then gets tired. She mentions the over-tired babies who can’t fall asleep. Been there done that!
Just for the record, neither of my babies was even close to being on a set schedule until after 6 weeks. By 2 months they each had fairly predictable nap times and eating times. Schedules are definitely the way to go, but don’t try to force one on her. Wait until she seems to kind of develop her own and then capitalize on it. This 90 minute thing is a good first step. Doesn’t it feel good to think you’re in control again? hee! hee!:)
Congrats! It’s great to know when they’ll fall asleep. But don’t worry – even if this doesn’t work out (hopefully it will though), all these sleep-deprived days will be but a dim memory and the craziest thing is that you might even miss those late night feedings.
Pretty interesting… I just went to ebay and ordered the book:)
Wow…I had never heard of the 90 minute thing…although I had hear of the eat, play, sleep routine. I know how frustrating “not knowing” if they will sleep or not is, I was almost desperate at times to just know that a break was coming some time in the next hour or so, and scared it wouldn’t (all the time knowing that they have to sleep sometime!). It is all just so overwhelming. Seems like you are hanging in there and doing great. Amazing what 4 hours of sleep versus 2 hours does for you huh?!
I read that article and wondered how well it worked. Thanks for the first-hand recommendation! We’ll try it with the next one.