Sort Of Sleep Training

Elise was sleeping through the night there for a while, then she started waking up one or two times every night again. I've noticed over the past several weeks that when Elise wakes up in the middle of the night and I offer her the opportunity to nurse, she suckles for a while and then promptly falls back to sleep. I'd started thinking, "She's not eating, she just wants help going back to sleep."

Then I read in a book that by four months old, babies can sleep through the night because they don't need to eat for the up-to-10-hours that they might sleep. This thing I was reading was talking about "sleep training" which advocates that whole "let your baby cry it out" mentality. I'm not for that. I just can't let Elise cry and not try to help her feel better.

BUT

I don't want to "train" Elise to wake up at 2:30 every night, just to have me pick her up and nurse her. Especially if she doesn't need it.

So four nights ago I started an experiment. She usually sleeps from around 8:30 p.m. or so until about 10:30, then she wants to eat. I still let her have her 10:30 feeding. But from 10:30 to around 4:30 a.m. (another time she regularly feeds), I decided that I wouldn't feed her or pick her up out of her bassinet. Six hours. This eliminates her 2:30 a.m. feeding.

I decided that when she wakes up and cries, I would change her diaper, talk to her, touch her, and sing to her, but not pick her up or feed her.

The first two nights, Elise was not happy about the new arrangement. Though, in all fairness, she cried for a while the first night, but once she gave a good, loud fart she was okay. So it might have just been gas.

Elise began to realize that she could comfort herself by sucking on her fingers. And that's what she does now.

She does not seem to miss the 2:30 feeding. She slept just fine the past two nights, without waking up at 2:30. She adapted to the new schedule very quickly. In fact, she got hungry around 9:45 last night and was in her bassinet by 10:00 instead of 10:30.

I hope this sticks! I forgot how nice it is to sleep through the night.