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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Sleep Training

I am going to attempt to follow the same method that I did with Sydney in getting Morgan to sleep through the night. I used a book called 12 Hours by 12 Weeks. It is really a good book that I order through Amazon (the link is to her sight). I think I started at 10 weeks with Sydney instead of 6 or 8 weeks like the book recommends, but it sure did work. In fact, she (the author) says that you can use if for any age past 4 weeks and a certain weight. I thought I would document my efforts with Morgan by giving a few updates along the way.

For weeks 6-8 you are supposed to make sure that the baby is eating every 3 hours and not less (such as every 2.5 hours). Morgan is already doing that so we can really move on.

The first step is to stretch feedings to every four hours during the day. You start by focusing on the first feeding of the day, which will be or 7 or 7:15 for him. I can't decide. This will also be his bed time in the evenings. Sydney wakes at 7 so it might not be the best time for him to be after her so I am not trying to do two things at once. So tomorrow morning if he wants to eat at 6:45 then I will try to hold him off as long as I can every morning until he reaches 7:15. He next eating time will be 11:15 and you do the same as the in morning. I think you can go for 4 on all the hours that day if you want or you can focus on each feeding separately until it is set and then move to the next. The thought is that he will be hungry from waiting long and will eventually start eating more at feedings. He will be consuming the same amount of food during the day, just by fewer feedings.

Step two is to start helping him drop off night feedings tracking how much he eats at each feeding and...well, we are a bit away from that so I will explain it when we get there.

1 comment:

Jana said...

Hey, I found your blog from your Facebook profile---and have been reading! I have a blog too and just love finding friends who have one too.

I remember feeling SOOO tired when MK was tiny...thought I would never feel normal again. She is a great sleeper now and does sleep 12 hours at night with an almost 2 hour afternoon nap, so I can't complain. I do think God allows you to FORGET how tired you were so that you will actually think about having multiple children. I am just starting to get to the point where I am thinking the idea of a baby is nice, but it still may be awhile off----still can't imagine having to be that tired with a 2 year old to take care of on top of a newborn. Hope you guys are surviving and when it is my turn again I may be emailing asking for sympathy! :)