"Sleep?!"

First of all, my husband is wonderful.

The other night he told me to sleep in another room and HE would take care of Miles all night every time he woke up. (which lately is about every hour or two)

Miles hasn't been sleeping well for months. From about two to four months, he slept through the night. For those of you who don't know--this is something no one tells you before you have a baby, sleeping through the night actually means 5 or more hours at a time. For Miles it was from 8pm to about 2am. So you see, it's not the blissful 7pm to 7am that most people think of when you say "sleeping through the night". It's also the most annoying question you'll get once you have a baby... especially if he isn't.

Well, my baby hasn't for about three months now. It seemed to be just one thing after another. At about five months he was diagnosed with Acid Reflux, which is the worst at night and so it would cause him to wake up in pain. He is on medication for that now.

Check.

Then teething set in full force. The bottom two are now in.

Check.

(I know the teething keeps going, but it's pretty easy to tell when he's waking up because of that or just out of habit).

So my quest for more sleep has begun.

I am philosophically against the whole "cry-it-out" method that most books and even doctors recommend. It just doesn't make much sense to me. A baby doesn't understand that all of a sudden we stop responding to their needs just because it's night time. A lot of experts now say that it is actually detrimental to let a baby cry it out because of the stress hormones that are created when the baby cries and the loss of trust that often arises. Besides, anyone who says that a baby is "supposed" to sleep through the night, doesn't know what they are talking about. Many babies don't, even at 8, 9, 12 months. Plus all babies are different, there is no such thing as "supposed to". So don't let anyone bully you into "sleep training"!

phew...ok, there, I've said it. It's a very emotional issue as you can see....I think the sleep deprivation makes it even more so...

Anyway, I'm trying out some things I found in this book, "the no-cry sleep solution". It's one that meshes with my values about sleep, and even talks about specific examples for co-sleeping families. I will let you know how it goes. It's a much more time consuming approach than the traditional "cry-it-out", which is why maybe a lot of people chose the later, but to me, good things are worth the wait. and this would be a VERY, good thing.

For the longest time, I had just resigned myself to this situation and told myself that eventually he would grow out of it. But after that night of uninterrupted sleep, I have found new determination. Now that I've tasted it, I can't go back.

When I finally crawled back into my bed and snuggled up next to my baby to nurse at around 5am my husband turned to me and asked, "did you sleep through the night?"

Yes...yes, I did.