Saturday, December 20, 2008

All I want for Christmas is a Silent Night

...and I got it!!

After nearly a year of broken sleep, Katen and Mommy are sleepin' through the night. Hallelujah!

I truly wish I'd started sooner but this is how we did it.
Katen was waking at 12-ish and 3 or 4-ish in the morning wanting a bottle. She truly as hungry and would wolf it down in no time before going back to sleep. In order to break the habit of needing the extra calories in the middle of the night, I cut back on the amount of formula in her bottle adding water instead.

Night one, her bottles contained 4 oz formula and 1 oz water.
Night two, her bottles contained 3 oz formula and 2 oz water.
By Night three her bottles contained 2 oz formula and 3 oz water and she was done with it. She did not want the watered down bottle. She's start sucking and then stop. I'd rocker her a little and then put her back in her bed. She'd fuss a little while she got comfy but went back to sleep.
On night four she skipped the midnight feeding and only fussed a little at 4am before putting herself back to sleep. She did the same on night five and six, but by night seven (one week!) she was sleeping through the night. Wahoo!
Like I said, my only regret is that I didn't give this a shot sooner.

I was worried that our sleep training would all go down the toilet when we took a trip to California (two time zones away) two weeks after starting but everything ended up just fine. She slept mostly through the night unless she was cold (the heat in our condo was funky) in which case Katen got to cosleep next to Mommy for the first (and probably last) times. Admitedly... I liked it. She's a great snuggler and doesn't move around too much. Nonetheless, I didn't sleep much after she came into the bed with us. I definitely wouldn't do it full time.

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