Hello all -
Our DD - almost 4 months old - tends to become wide awake during middle-of-the-night diaper changes. If she hasn't pooped, its much easier to keep her settled, and will usually take about 15-20 min of rocking/shushing to get her back to sleep. When she poops, though, the diaper change tends to make her much more awake - she'll be smiling and cooing. It usually takes a good 30 min of rocking/shushing to get her back to sleep.
Here's the deal - my DH feels that since DD is awake, we should have play time. He feels the 30 min of rocking/shushing is a waste of time, and that play time would be more educational/productive. He feels if she is awake, she's awake, and we should treat her as such. After some play time, she'll eventually get tired and go back to sleep.
My feeling is that if we do this - give her play time in the middle of the night - this will become a pattern. That is, we are just teaching her to wake up in the night and not helping her to establish a good sleeping routine. Rather, we should be trying to get her back to sleep, and teaching her that night time is sleep time.
I have no proof, no scientific evidence, though, that letting her play in the night could become a habit. While I shudder to think of my DD getting up at 3 am every morning for play time, how do I really know this will happen? And, while the experiences of so many other Mommies weighs a ton in my book, to my DH, it is all speculation. His counter-argument is that if we have to help our DD learn how to sleep through the night, aren't naps just teaching her to sleep in the day? I can totally see his perspective, but my gut tells me play time at night is just not a good idea. As you might have gathered, this is our first baby.
Would love to hear thoughts, opinions and experiences from the other Mommies out there.
