Sleep, Glorious Sleep!

During pregnancy we read everything about sleep training that we could. I wanted every advantage at getting Micah into a good sleep pattern.

Well, last night was a triumph! He didn't nap during the day for longer than 30 minutes. I was worried he'd be overly tired at bedtime and be hard to get to sleep. But, after his 9 p.m. feeding, he went right out and slept until...drum roll please...3 a.m.! Woo!!!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get to sleep until 11:30. I thought I was taking a half an hour nap, but was pleasantly surprised when I woke up at 1 a.m. and he was still asleep. But, when I woke up at 2:30 I had a different reaction--an intense need to wake him up. I know at this age babies should start sleeping for longer periods at night, but I still worried that he was hungry. Afterall, he's been eating every three hours for the last 3.5 weeks. Since it'd been 5.5 hours, I was sure he'd wake up starving. So, for the next half hour I only lightly dozed because I was expecting him to wail in hunger at any second.

He never got far enough to cry, though. At the first stretches and grunts I heard at 3 a.m., I grabbed him out of bed and went into the living room to nurse. If I hadn't been irrationally worried about his hunger, I bet I could have gotten another half hour of sleep.

This is the first time since he's been with us that I've gotten more than 2 consecutive hours! I'm not naive enough to think he'll continue to sleep as well without any hiccups, but I'm happy to know he's progressing and that all of our tactics of sleep training are working.

I'd tried to establish a routine of us getting up at 9 a.m. as well, and now it seems his own internal clock is set because, like clockwork, he wakes at nine on the dot and we settle in to nurse and watch Regis and Kelly (or Surviving Motherhood, if no one good is on R & K).

I'm so excited to see him progressing. Now, we've got to work on getting his long nighttime nap to begin at 10:30 or 11 rather than 9, so I can get the most shut-eye. WOW- I can't imagine the things I could get done after getting a full five or six hours of sleep, glorious sleep!