Hi all,
We post so many problems and issues we are all having, so I wanted to post a success story. Maybe it will help one of you. Samuel is 20 months and I have been up pretty much at least once a night since he was born. He has maybe slept through the night a handful of times ever. The past 6 months he has always usually (outside of teething/colds/ect) has woken up between 11 and 2 am to have milk. It was the only thing that would settle him back to sleep. My dh always felt it was hunger ('he's growing') and I always felt it was habit. But the thought of sleepless nights (I work full time) verses getting up once for 10 min to feed him - the 10 min feed always seemed better. And I have been through these message boards often looking for miracle solutions, but not really taking the time and determination to do the cold turkey method and be consistent.
So, reading a post early last week I got motivated - knowing that I had a string of vacation days that I was taking so lack of sleep would not be as bad. So, I started a week ago. For background, Samuel has always been awesome going to sleep independently at night, naps we have worked long and hard on since birth - now is quite good at 1 2/2 or 2 hrs.
Night 1 : woke up for milk at 12:30. He kept saying milk and down (meaning downstairs - out of his room) and I kept saying it was night night time and that milk was all gone. We were up for 1/2 hr when he finally went to sleep. I tried to pu/pd, but he got really upset so I ended up rocking him. Woke up 1/2 hr later and was up for 45 min doing the same thing. Stayed alseep rest of night
Night 2 : woke up at 1 am. Never asked for milk (and hasn't since), asked to go downstairs. Picked him up to settle, as soon as his head would start to settle on my shoulder, I put him back down. Did this for 15 min. Slept for the rest of the night
Night 3 : woke up at 12:30. Settle back down in 5 min
Night 4 : SLEPT THROUGH!!!
So I realized it was more he didn't know how to settle himself back to sleep rather than wanting milk. People told me this many times, I didn't listen. He still is waking often at that time, sometimes settles himself and sometimes I have to go in. I read in another post that deep sleep cycle is for 3 hours, then the rest of the night is light/dream sleep - which definitely fits his pattern. He wakes up from deep sleep and needed help to settle. I have also realized he is a big dreamer and that often wakes him up too. I am just happy to not have to expect being awake every single night. YAY. Plus, my dh didn't buy into this plan so I did it myself and lo and behold it worked. He owes me big!!
I hope this helps some of you. If you have any questions, feel free to post back. Part of me thinks his age and good communication skills helped - I can ask him what he wants and he understands milk is all gone whereas a few months ago I think he would have just kept asking. Who knows. I just love the feeling in the morning and realizing "HE SLEPT THROUGH". I hope you all can get this feeling too!!
Nicole
