Yup.
Right now, as of this minute, my daughter is sleeping through the night.
By Christmas (at seven months old) I was getting really over waking up anywhere between 1 – 6am to feed and settle. This was on top of the Dream Feed I was still doing around 11pm. It was like I’d run out of juice. Where I’d previously been bouncing through the day on five hours of (broken) sleep, suddenly I was mainlining sugar just to get through the day.
I started by trying to drop the Dream Feed a few times, but failed dismally. She wouldn’t have a bar of it. We ended up losing it with the unorthodox approach of flying 12,000 miles. I know, not that easily done – but I’d recommend it! The jetlag from a long-haul flight knocked LB’s Dream Feed out the window.
Right, one down.
On arriving home in January we embarked on a month of upheaval, house-moving and portacots. I just didn’t feel right cutting out her overnight feed while there was so much else going on – especially considering we’d also just been overseas for a month. I wanted to allow LB plenty of time to settle back into her own cot and her own routine.
February became The Month. And randomly, as she woke up ‘early’ for her overnight feed at midnight one Friday, that became The Night.
Being a beautifully stubborn little thing, I was fully prepared for my daughter to give me hell for weeks, once I turned off the overnight tap. The first night she grizzled and cried for an hour, with Mr Bun going in every 10 – 20 minutes to settle her. She then slept through until 5am, stirred, and slept again until 7. I, of course, woke at 4am and stared at the monitor, wondering when she’d wake.
The next night I went to bed almost hoping she’d wake up, so we could continue bedding down the ‘new approach’. But, she slept. From 7pm until 7am, waking at 5am and putting. herself. back. to. sleep. This kid NEVER resettles herself, not when she wakes up after midnight.
I was so confused.
There was one night, about a week later, when she woke at 3am. I spent almost two hours going in and out of her room, settling and soothing as she grizzled, until she fell asleep again. And that was almost two months ago. Since then, I pop her down into bed and she smiles and laughs as I tuck her in. She’ll chat away to herself for a while before falling asleep. She’ll then stir a few times throughout the night and early hours, but settles again until waking up around 7am.
Forgive me if I’m sound boastful here, but it is bloody amazing.
I believe in sleep training, and I was fully prepared to commit to it as long as it took. But it didn’t really take long … no, it didn’t really take at all. You see, she was ready. She was probably as desperate as I was to get more sleep, but just didn’t know how to go about it. All she needed was a little bit of encouragement.
The amazing thing is, she’s sleeping more deeply at night. I can now pop my head in and check on her when I go to bed, whereas before that would definitely wake her up, and she’d be hollering until I fed her. AND – wait for it – she’s napping better during the day.
Since she was eight weeks old my baby hasn’t napped for longer than 40 minutes. It has absolutely been the hardest thing I’ve had to manage, hands down. To have her roll out a few one or even 1.5 hour sleeps in a week is amazing for me.
I am aware this will change. There will be teeth, colds, developmental leaps, slumber parties and bad breakups with boyfriends. BUT. This Mama is getting some sleep for the first time since les bump was small enough to let me sleep through. And that is a BLOODY GREAT THING.
the (once) bunless oven 