Sleep

Eli and his prune mustache. This kid loves his prunes!

I'm so grateful that at 8 months Eli is sleeping through the night. We put him down between 6:30-7:00, and he usually will sleep till about 7:30-8:00ish. At 4 months he was still waking up 3 times a night to eat, and I remember at the pediatricians office he told me "He should be waking up once, maybe twice to eat, but anymore than that you should let him cry." Let him cry!? Thats the hardest thing to do especially when its 3:30 a.m and your husband has to get up at 5:30 a.m. Crying in the middle of the night always sounds so incredible loud too. So I decided it was time to start sleep training. I had tried the no cry sleep solution, looked at the baby whisperer, and finally it was time to try Dr.Ferbers book. For those of you who dont know Dr.Ferber's name goes along with the cry it out method (CIO). I picked up the book and decided to was time for us all to start sleeping through the night. I like his book "Solve your Child's sleep problems" because it is catagorized to solve your problem. So if your issue is baby waking for night time feedings, or baby wont take bottle, or weaning from soother, etc you have a chapter to read for your issue! It was really easy and within a few weeks we had Eli sleep trained, and we had him realize that he didnt need to eat at night. It was great, and we never at one point let him CIO! So if anyone is looking for a good book on sleep training, I definitly reccomend starting with his book! We loved it, and more than anything we love sleeping through the night!

Your probably asking "why are you telling us this?" Well because, Eli decided to wake up at 3:30 a.m last night and wouldn't go back down! He started screaming when I left the room. I caved, gave him 4 oz to eat, changed his diaper, put the soother in his mouth and walked out. He cried for 5 minutes and finally went to sleep! He slept until 8:45 a.m this morning! I was happy!

I'm going to be completely honest with you. I have alot of girlfriends who are already talking about when they're going to start trying for another baby! Not me! I love Eli to death, but I also love just having him to focus on, only have 1 bum to change, 1 baby to feed, 1 baby to tend to! I see newborns and think "Okay, we're having another one right away!" and then I remind myself of the feeling I had for the first 4 months of his life! Sleep depravation does something crazy to you! I'm so content with Eli, and just Eli for now. I have alot of respect for moms with more than 1 baby, cause there are some days where I struggle to do it with 1!

So now that Eli is down for his nap, I have dishes to do, and papers to tidy. Mom came over this morning to visit which was nice. Eli likes spending time with her and I appreciate it too because it makes the morning go by faster! We're stuck at home today as well because Andy's car wouldn't start this morning so he had to take mine. I guess thats what we get for letting it sit out all weekend in the cold. Anyways, off to do the dishes. Have a good day!