Sleep Training-Step 1: Redefining definitions

When I was pregnant, I went to a baby shower for a friend. One of the women there said: "All of my kids slept through the night from the day we came home for the hospital, and here is how I did it...." I thought to myself....no way! How does a newborn sleep 10-12 hours straight without waking up to eat??

That is where I began to set myself up for failure. According to my research, from the book as well as random sites online (if you want more info, just ask me) experts define a baby sleeping through the night as sleeping anywhere from 4-8 hours straight. So....wait a minute....if I put my kid to bed at 9pm (the current bedtime for Peanut), and he wakes up around 2am he slept through the night technically?? Sucky!!!

All though this Momma would love to sleep for 8-10 hours straight every night, I had to come to the realization that it just wasn't going to happen anymore. Especially for my son who had trouble gaining weight. He HAD to eat in the middle of the night up until a week or so ago (between 15 and 16 weeks), and he still needs to eat some nights depending on how much he has eaten throughout the day. This means, if Peanut will sleep from 9-2am, wake up and eat a few ounces and then sleep again from 2:30-7:30, not only did I get my 10 hours of sleep, but he got the food he needed, and only interrupted my sleep for a little bit! :-) Now since he is only 4 months old, we need to work on extending his nighttime sleep a little, but so far we are on the right track!

Another thing I need to realize is how much my son really needed to sleep a day. I thought he was sleeping enough, but he really wasn't. Through my research, I've found a few different opinions on how much a child should sleep by age, but it is all pretty close. Remember though that you should always double check with your pediatrician in case there are certain reasons your child should be sleeping more or less.

Here are some sites where I found information.

Baby Center
Parents.com
WebMD

As you can see, they are all a little different, so again, check with your pediatrician and decide what is the right amount of sleep for your little one!

And then here is some random information on children and sleep, just for the heck of it! National Sleep Foundation: Children and Sleep


Next post: Step 2-Sleep Logs