The Napping House

Several people have asked how we're sleeping, with a new baby in the house. We're sleeping pretty well, thank you!

At Konrad's eight-week check up, I told the pediatrician that he was going 5-6 hour stretches at night between feedings. She was surprised, but I responded "he's a five-month old", meaning his weight, because he's the size of a five-month old. She agreed that because of his size, he is perfectly capable of going longer stretches at his young age.

Since that doctor visit, he has bounced around between 3 and 7 hours between feedings at night. So sometimes I get up twice at night, and sometimes only once. He really should be going longer stretches on a regular basis, but I haven't nudged him to go longer on a consistent basis. By nudging, I mean waiting a few minutes to see if he'll go back to sleep when he wakes during the night, before going to feed him.

Have I mentioned what a happy baby he is? Even when he wakes in the middle of the night, it's not a scream or a cry for food, but a happy gurgling sound that he makes. Last night before we went to bed, I told Tom, "If he wakes before 3 a.m., I'm going to see if we can push him longer." I have to consciously verbalize my plans for the middle of the night before we go to bed, because otherwise I will be too comatose when he wakes to think what the plan is.

This morning he made happy gurgling sounds, and when I checked the clock, it was 2:50 a.m. Ok, that's pretty close to 3, and normally I would just go feed him. But it was the weekend, so if his noises disturbed Tom, it wouldn't be such a big deal. So I waited, and he eventually went to a tiny cry, but before five minutes were up, he was back to sleep. He next woke at 5 a.m. (7 hours after his last feed), and I got up and fed him and he was pretty hungry. Then he squawked again at 6:30 and I fed him again and then we were back to our average of feeding about every 3 hours during the day (sometimes sooner, sometimes later).

So tonight I'll do the same thing: verbalize my plan and then see how it goes. I wish I had worked on this last weekend, because tomorrow we're going to visit my sister in the mountains, and all five of us will be in one room in her guest loft apartment, so Konrad's cries could wake more than just me. So we'll see how it goes...with how easy he is, I wouldn't be surprised if one more nudge tonight and he's fine for going 7 hours from here on out. But the new environment and sleeping a lot in the car on the way up could change everything!

I've also been doing pretty well with taking a nap during the day while Natalie and Konrad nap and Lukas has quiet time. I don't always get a nap, but I usually get one at least three times during the week, and on the weekends I put ear plugs in while Tom watches the kids and I nap. When I go a couple of days without a nap, I really notice it! But Konrad's feedings at night are so short (I'm back in bed in less than 30 minutes) that I'm not missing huge quantities of sleep, it's just the interruption in sleep that affects me. Tom sleeps through Konrad's noises, and Lukas and Natalie are oblivious, although the first couple days that Konrad was home from the hospital, Lukas commented that he heard Konrad cry during the night.

But with Konrad going 7, then 8 or 9 hours at night, I soon won't need a nap during the day and just think how much more I can get done!