Sleeping Like a Baby

Dave and I both wanted to get Jessica on a regular sleeping schedule. We had watched friends and relatives who did and did not have their kids on regular rest, and we decided it was important to us. With others' advice (especially Dave's mother,) we used the book Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old, something I discovered at the library when I was babysitting another little girl. Gratefully she has an easy disposition and isn't collicky.

At first she needed feeding every 3 hours, except in the evenings when she was fussy & scarfed more. At one month old, Jessica dropped her 5 am feeding. During her second month, she starting sleeping through from 7pm to 2am, her only night feeding, and sleeping again until 7am. Dave took that middle-of-the-night feeding on the weekends, and I took it during the week.

But at 8 weeks old, I was sick of it. I announced to Dave one morning, "We're waking Jessica up at 10pm from now on, feeding her, and hoping she shifts her 8 hours to the same as us." She did, and except for a few ounces at 10pm, (which we are slowly weaning her from), and a few random awakenings, she now sleeps 12 hours at night. The evening is ours after 7pm. Yay for us!

It's taken some juggling and debating to get to this point. We had to find the balance between "gentle" formula, which gives her gas, and soy formula, which gives her diaper rash. And in the evening she demands extra food and extra attention to keep her awake until bedtime: we take turns entertaining her starting around 4pm. Then Dave takes her for a walk at 6, and I bath her at 6:30; then bottle & bed. (We're enjoying it now, but I'm sure she'll get sick or start teething and it will all go out the window.)

Smokey likes to snuggle to whenever I feed Jessica on the couch.

She's so adorable when she falls asleep after food during her burping!

Dave loves to hold and feed his daughter after a long day at work. He took a lot of morning feedings so I could sleep in, too; he's such a sweetheart.

We do the 10 pm feeding with her still half asleep.

She reminds us of a limp cheetah hanging in a tree.

Her favorite starfish position.

Sometimes she arches her back so much she's halfway sleeping on her side.

And sometimes, after all that work, she puts us to sleep!