Sleep, Glorious Sleep

Juliet passed out on our bed after some tummy time.

 
Over the past couple of weeks, Juliet has begun sleeping through the night.  Before I was a parent, I would have considered "through the night" to be something like 10:00 pm till 8:00 am.  Now, I understand that for an eleven-week old, six or seven consecutive hours of sleep counts as "through the night."

Juliet now consistently goes down at 10:30 pm and sleeps through until at least 4:45 am.  Three times now, she's slept past 6:00 am.  On more than one occasion, I have woken in a panic thinking, "OhmyGod!  She's not made a peep since 10:30!  Is she still breathing?!?!"  Thankfully, she's been happily snoozing in her crib when I've gone to check on her.

This morning, she slept till 6:26.  When I woke up and looked at my watch, I couldn't help but smile and say a prayer of thanksgiving.  It's as if our sweet little angel knew we needed to sleep in.  (Oh, how sad that sleeping past 6:00 am is considered "sleeping in" for us!)  Yesterday was Ray's birthday, and we spent the better part of the day with our CrossFit Black Box family.  The gym was having a fundraiser and multiple workouts.  We took Juliet with us when we went to the gym at 9:00 am.  She stayed there with us until I took her home a little after noon.  Then, we took her with us to the CFBB Christmas party, and we passed her around to several gym members.  (I am so thankful that she's such a happy baby and lets other people hold her without crying.  It makes me feel like we're raising a sociable child, and it makes me feel less anxious about others holding her if she's happy while they're doing it.)  I guess because her day was so busy (she was awake a lot), she was worn out and slept well.  I know Ray and I were worn out, so the extra uninterrupted sleep was something we both needed.

Ray credits On Becoming Babywise for this sleep.  In fact, the subtitle of that book is something like "Giving your infant the gift of sleep."  While I'm sure Juliet likes to sleep, it really is more of a gift for the parents at this point.  (Perhaps later it's a gift for her?  The ability to sleep through the night must surely be good for her growth and development.)  The book helps you build a schedule around your child's natural eat-wake-sleep cycle.  By encouraging and fostering that pattern, most Babywise kids sleep through the night by three months of age.

It's so funny to hear others talk about when their children sleep through the night.  On one end of the spectrum are people like my parents who say, "You and Patrick were sleeping through the night at two weeks old!"  Um, somehow, I doubt that.  But if we were, maybe that's why we're both of smaller stature... We were STARVED!  (Kidding, Mom!)  Hospital staff beat into mine and Ray's heads that we were to wake Juliet every 2.5 - 3 hours to feed her for the first several weeks, and everything else we read (including Babywise) said the same thing.  At the other end of the spectrum are people who say, "Wow! I haven't slept through the night in six years since our first was born!"  Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou, Juliet, for letting Dad and Mama sleep!

I do think that the schedule and routine we established with Juliet are the main reasons we're getting such good sleep now.  But I also think that we're also very lucky.  Our Juliet is a pretty easy baby from what I've been able to discern.  As I'm typing this, she's napping on the couch next to me, and I have to wonder... Is Juliet an easy baby because that's her personality?  Or is she an easy baby because of what we've done based on our parenting philosophy?  Regardless of the answer, it's awesome to have a baby who doesn't need to be rocked or sung to sleep and who sleeps through the night already.  Reasons number 2387429374 that we love her and think she's the best thing ever.  Ever.