Did I tell you that Judson started sleeping through the night (it should be noted, that he did sleep through the night a few sporadic times, but it was never with any consistency)?! Yes, indeed I truly want to have it printed on a t-shirt and wear it around, or maybe get a bumper sticker, proud mother of a baby who sleeps through the night. You know, like those badges of honor that parents proudly sport when their child make great grades.
But, I won’t.
He’s been sleeping wonderfully for a few weeks now, around 12 hours each night. I don’t have a magical answer to explain the sudden change in his sleeping, but I am loving every peaceful moment of sleeping through the night.
I do wish I could give you the link to some amazing product or book that helped, but I came up pretty short in the sleep tricks department.
Here are a few things I learned:
1. I have no idea how or why he started sleeping through the night. Everything is exactly the same, still on the same schedule, same bedtime routine, same mama (or daddy) rocking him to sleep. I remember thinking back around the 6 month mark, what if he never sleeps through the night? Dramatic, I know.
2. Judson was a fantastic consolation to sleep deprivation. I’m convinced you couldn’t find a happier baby than Jud if you searched the world over. He is the most content little guy and even in the middle of the night he would just laugh and smile at us, snuggle up to us and go right back to sleep. For an hour or two, until he was ready to wake us up again.
3. I may never be able to handle crying it out. It’s true, and it’s funny because BK started sleeping really well around 6 weeks. I would tell people, Oh, sure we let her cry it out and then she went right to sleep. I’m sorry for all the lies I told. Apparently, there is a big difference in BK laying in her crib and looking around, fussing for little while, and then drifting off to sleep and a baby crying it out. This isn’t a debate, just a simple fact, for me personally.
4. Sound machines, do they work? He has always had the same sound machine in his room. White noise when he did sleep, white noise when he didn’t sleep. Basically, I have no idea if it matters, but I’m not going to turn it off and see if it makes a difference. I’m not messing up a good thing.
5. Schedules? Sure, we got ’em. I’ve been following Mom’s on Call, the only difference is, we rock him to sleep, instead of putting him in his crib awake. However, we have laid him in his crib for naps and bedtime and he has drifted right off to sleep.
6. Which brings me to my next point, I still rock him. It’s like sweet bliss in my days and I always want to rock his tiny self to sleep. In all those late night rocking sessions, I learned that’s one thing I don’t want to change anytime soon.
7. Speaking of change, nothing changed. Nothing. Same schedule, same sound machine, same room, same everything. One day he was on this routine and waking up anywhere from 2 to 4 times each night, the next week he was sleeping. It wasn’t gradual, just a sudden switch.
8. Sleep deprivation was no fun in the beginning, but at some point waking up in the middle of the night became the new normal.
9. There’s a market for sleep deprived moms and you can find everything promising to give you a good nights sleep on Amazon, if you’re a Prime member most of it will ship for free. We tried a million and one different things, sleep sacks, swaddles, some suit that made him look like a starfish. Nothing made any kind of difference in his sleep pattern.
10. If Jud wakes, Jennifer wakes. Allen was always willing to take care of his nightly wake ups, but as soon as I would hear him on the monitor I would be wide awake. It’s crazy how light of a sleeper I became. Good news, I’m sleeping a little deeper these days.
Honestly, I never felt the need to complain about our middle of the night parties. We are so grateful for him, and this life, and if waking up in the middle of the night is the only issue, then I don’t really think there is anything to complain about.
Just like with everything related to baby, I kept reminding myself this too shall pass. And indeed, it did.
Wyatt didn’t sleep through the night until he was about 15 months old. I’m kind of expecting the same with Stella. If it happens sooner than I’ll just be really happy! She did really well at sleeping until she was about 4 months old and now she wakes up about every 3 hours. No explanations. She’s a great napper though so there’s that at least. It’s good to know that it can change over night like that though!
My son just randomly started sleeping 12 hours as well and he is also 10 months! I’m not sure what it was but I’m not complaining! Yay for more sleep!
I know exactly what you have gone through and it’s so amazing to be on the other side of it 🙂 My daughter has never consistently slept through the night and she is almost three and a half. We have tried everything, but the only thing that is mostly guaranteed to work is letting her sleep in her big brother’s bed. He turns 6 tomorrow and is not a fan!
So glad he is sleeping for you!! That is so refreshing for mommy!
This sounds exactly like both of my kids! They both started sleeping through the night at 10 months and we did nothing different. It was just overnight. It’s so strange how that happens! Yay for getting more sleep! 🙂
You’re lucky….Georgia made me tough it out SEVENTEEN MONTHS. No joke.
Whoa, mama! I bet you were happy to finally get some rest!!
This gives me hope as a mama of a 10-month-old who is still waking every 3-5 hours in the night. Good to know that attempting to micromanage it is probably a waste of energy and emotion, since my instinct was to just buckle down and wait for it to pass!