Sleep training updates

I was going over my old posts and I realized that I have not posted any sleep-training updates in a while but this is good.

My friend, Swe-cha's Ninang A, was right. It's okay to "lose" your training because it's much easier for infants (well, kids) to be reminded once they're back to their normal routine and this was true in Swe-cha's case.

It didn't take long before he started sleeping longer and longer. I was all set on giving him water to eliminate the 7a feed but he didn't wait for me and sort of just weaned himself off of that feeding. He'd start whimpering and my usual response would be to pick him up and try to pop the bottle in his mouth but there came a time when he would automatically wave his hand in front of his face when I picked him up to push away the milk bottle.

I now realize that his 7a feed wasn't really a feeding. He would just wake up because he is uncomfortable in his wet diaper. We've now settled on a routine - always change to a fresh diaper when we go to bed and I change his diaper when I wake up for a milk-pumping session (anytime between 4a to 6a).

If he goes to bed with a partially soaked diaper, even if it was just minimal, he doesn't usually make it till 4a and will wake up before then. The same thing goes for the 4a-6a change, if I find his diaper not full and don't change him, he won't make it till the morning.

My friend R suggested I switch to a larger sized diaper at night, I tried this and he just sleeps a bit longer before expressing his discomfort. I plan to try her other suggestion and get those overnight diapers.

So now, I'm happy to announce that despite me*, our son is finally sleeping through the night. I never thought that I'd ever get to say this at all, for a while there, I thought we'd be waking up for his night feedings for the next few years (my nephews did until they were 4!).

Now, ... if only I could get him to bed and awake at a normal time ? :P Current schedule is bedtime at 12mn and wake up at 10:30 - 11a, with two 2-hr naps during the day.

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*despite any mistakes I've made in not training / disciplining him earlier.

Sleep training

Swe cha is doing so well.

So far, he's been going to sleep on his own w/ need of being rocked to sleep and he's consistently sleeping till 7a. By 7a, he stirs and asks for the bottle but he only drinks somewhere between 1-3 oz before falling back to sleep again. He wakes up again for milk at 9a (this time, he drinks more) and goes back to sleep before waking up for the day at around 11a (bedtime is 11p to midnight). I'm thinking that we just need to eliminate the 7a feeding because it does not seem necessary as he drinks so little.

I've also noticed that he sleeps so much better (i.e. no waking up because of gas) when we put aceite de manzanilla on his tummy & back before he goes to sleep.

I'm sort of sad because this means that he should be ready for his transition to the crib, as per my requirements (1. goes to sleep on his own, 2. no more milk in the middle of the night). I miss my baby already.

I also was able to find a nearby daycare facility with an opening, will be dropping by to check it out one of these days. They have F/T and P/T options available so it does seem ideal for us.

Nanny search is still a big fat 0 but I did ask hubby and he does prefer to bring Swe-cha to daycare rather than have him stay home alone with a stranger. Tama rin. I am still hoping to get nanny recommendations though.

Sleep training

Swe-cha did well last night. He drank 8 oz of milk at 11p, fell asleep at 11:30p (no rocking / carrying him to sleep). He woke up at:

4a - 1oz diluted milk (1/3 water)

7:30 - 2oz milk

He woke up for the day at 9:30am. Seeing that he only drank 1oz diluted milk at 4a and only 2oz milk at 7:30a tells me that so long as he drinks enough milk (8oz or more) before he goes to bed at night, he should be okay till breakfast time.

I'll dilute his milk a little bit more tonight.

Sleep training

Swe-cha is back to east coast time again, yay! We're back to normal now (+/- a couple of hrs) so life is a bit easier in our household.

Our main sleep issues now are that:

- he does not sleep on his own again and wants to be rocked to sleep with me standing up (no sitting for mommy).

- he wakes up all night to feed