Nighty Night

Who knew that a slight modification in our bedtime routine would result in Preston sleeping all night long? Our previous routine consisted of a bath followed by his night-night feeding in his room, lights out. Thus, he would get sleepy and have no problem laying down to sleep. Given he is now 6 months old, he is physically able to sleep most of the night without another feeding. However, he was waking around 11:00 or 12:00 at night, crying until he was nursed back to sleep. After discussing our situation with a friend and fellow breastfeeding mom, she gave me some AMAZING advice her doctor had suggested: Don't nurse him to sleep. Ha! I was skeptical that Preston would be a willing participant but I had to give-it-a-go anyway. So, we reversed our routine to having our night-night feeding in the family room with lights on and t.v. noise. Then we had our bath, lotion w/our lotion song, pj's and goodnight kiss from Daddy. Now to the hard part. Per my instruction from my friend, I was to rock him for a few minutes (gradually decreasing each night) then lay him in his crib. He did get a bit sleepy while being rocked but as soon as I laid Preston down in his bed he gave me this look of "What the heck are you doing, Mom?" I turned on his music, inserted the paci and left the room. The crying came about 30 seconds later. Continuing with my friend's advice, I was to go in every 5 minutes, calm him down and give the paci back. It took me going in twice and he was fast sleep. He slept until 5:00 a.m. that first night! I was in complete shock. I couldn't believe that such a small change could have such a drastic effect. This has been about 2-3 weeks ago and while we've had a few night awakenings, he is consistently sleeping from 8:00 p.m. until about 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. After he eats, he goes back down until 9:00 or 9:30, sometimes even later! I will let him sleep as long as he likes in the morning. This is simply because he refuses to allow this type of routine for naps later on in the day. Previously, I was able to get Preston to nap in his crib but I had to nurse him. I found out the hard way that this messes him up at bedtime. The poor guy was getting confused. So now we have to find a new way to get him to nap in his crib for naps :) And side note, Preston now goes straight to sleep when I place him in his bed at night. No rocking necessary. I hum his favorite little lullaby (ironically it's "Go to Sleep") a few times and slip out the door. I have to say, I have missed my long lost sleep and it has been extremely nice to get some much needed zzzzzz's. Speaking of, I'm off to bed!