Elise just slept for four hours straight!!!
This is the first time in 7 weeks that I've gotten 4 consecutive hours of sleep. At first, I was literally getting 4 hours of sleep TOTAL each night. Her habit lately has been: sleep 3 hours, wake for an hour, sleep an hour and a half, wake for an hour, sleep an hour, wake up (and then it's time for me to get up and feed the cats).
I can't even explain how exciting this is.
Tonight at a foster parent meeting, I was talking to the foster mom of an 8 week old (Elise is 7 weeks old) and she asked me, "Is she sleeping through the night yet?" "Oh no. 3 hours is the longest she'll sleep." "He started sleeping through last week!" she beamed. She said it like we were having a contest and her baby had just won. Congratulations, lady. Formula-fed babies sleep longer at a stretch because formula is heavier in their tummies and they feel fuller longer. You aren't a better mother and you don't have a better baby-- you just don't breastfeed. Sheesh!
I have so much energy right now. My body is like, "It's time to get up now, right? You just got 4 hours of sleep, so it must be time to get up. I think you just overslept." I hope I can get myself back to sleep when the baby falls asleep again.
OH I remember that moment. Just wait until you get up before her and freak the hell out. You'll never get out of bed so fast just to go look at your sleeping child.
ReplyDelete-Maggie
The weird thing is that "sleeping through the night" only means getting 4 hours of sleep, because that's the longest you are supposed to allow young babies to go without eating. So Elise is doing awesome!
ReplyDeleteSleeping through the night is relative to their age and it increases around 6 months when they decrease feedings to about 6 times per day.
Andy was sleeping 4 hour stretches his first week, but this was because he was a preemie and couldn't stay awake even through a feeding (I made up for it by feeding every 1.5 hours during the daytime if he'd stay awake). Now he's back to 3 to 3.5 hour stretches at night, which is great because he's gaining weight like a champ!