Wednesday, March 3, 2010

BRYCE and the process of sleeping

I thought of writing this post especially because I'm really interested in how his sleep patterns will develop as well as as a testimony for our future kids.
From the first day we brought Bryce home from the hospital we realized more and more each day what an interested person he is and also a very determined, kinda of independent one, if you will; I know it's a strange concept for babies but this is the feeling that we get as the days go by and it just becomes stronger and stronger.
He just had a way of teaching me how to trust him and as crazy as it sounds, being a first time mom, I just followed it.
These are some examples:
- when I've started giving him formula, I was afraid I would overfed him; Bryce never drunk more than he needed, he would push away the bottle or just turned his head;
- when I swaddled him at night, I remembered he was already 4 months and half and still doing it and thinking if it was ok, reading about it, until one night when he just wiggled until I've let him free and he fell asleep and never swaddled him again;
What about his sleep?
You read and hear all kind of stuff about it; people are giving you advices: "Oh, he's 6 months old and he doesn't sleep all night long? Do you give him a bottle of cereals before he goes to sleep? bla, bla, bla". I generally don't listen to these kind of talks; I strongly believe every baby is different and that is very hard to set up a general rule especially when it comes to sleep;
So, how does my baby sleep at six months of age?
During daytime, he's a 3 hours napper: meaning that every 3 hours he needs to go back to sleep, no matter what.
So:
-if he wakes up @ 7:00 am he will go back to the nap morning @ around 10:00 am;
-if he wakes up @ 8:00 am he will go back to the nap morning @ around 11:00 am;
This morning nap usually lasts for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
The lunch nap is happening 3 hours after the above hours, so:
- at around 1:00 -2:00 pm and it is the longest one and lasts for about 1- 2 hours
The afternoon nap is the shortest one, around 30-45 minutes, usually around 5:00 pm.
Now, at night, I'm still a little bit confused, as I don't seem to see any kind of pattern or maybe there is one and because I'm too sleepy I don't see it.:) So, usually he goes to bed @ around 7:30-8:00 pm. He sleeps for about 3 hours, wakes up, eats, goes back to sleep and after that, as he sleeps in between us, he pretty much wakes up, I would say every 2 hours, eats, goes back to sleep. There are some random nights where he just wakes up like wide awake and has an appetite for playing and talking.
So, having said that, I'm left wondering: should I trust my baby in the matter of sleep as well? I guess, I should. Because, as unpleasant as it is for us at night, putting all the hours together, he does sleep around 12-14 hours a day. He does not look sleep deprived, he's totally full of energy and well rested.
And just to end in an optimistic note, I've read this article in "The American baby" magazine, saying that in the first year of life baby schedule changes so much in so many different ways that it's hard to get in a routine so parents should not feel frustrated about it.
But, I MUST ADMIT I LOOK FORWARD TO LONG HOURS SLEEPING NIGHTS. :)

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