Great Advice
Yesterday after having a more difficult time with getting Eli to sleep well I decided to ask my veteran "Babywise" mom a few questions. The advice I received from Katie McDonnell was some of the best advice I have gotten yet!
Eli is on a routine- or at least we are trying our best to get him on one. We are also trying to get him to sleep through the night. As you may know babies require 16 hours of sleep a day and I am quite sure Eli was no where near reaching that recommended amount of sleep. He was only getting maybe 5 during the night and he was also having trouble going down for his naps during the day- so I asked Katie what I should do differently.
Katie's advice was to feed Eli at his scheduled 9:00 pm feeding but give him no awake time after he was done eating ( I was purposefully keeping him awake then- silly me!). Once he finished I should put him to bed and just let him sleep till he awakes naturally. I, on the otherhand was again purposefully waking him up at midnight to eat and when I would do this he'd be so sleepy that he never really ate much!
So last night Aj and I tried this plan of action. I fed him at 9:00 and put him down to sleep and guess what- he did!! He went 6 1/2 solid hours!!! It was awesome it was the most uninterupted sleep AJ and I have gotten since Eli was born. He woke up at 3:30 am to eat again and then went right back down to sleep again until I woke him up for his first morning feeding and to start off his day and routine. It was so nice.
Here is another benefit of following Katie's great advice- Eli has been so happy today and he has taken great naps too. His whole temperament seems to have been positively effected as a result of getting a good amount of sleep. I guess no one can perform well if they're sleep deprived huh?!?
Now I am very curious to see how he'll do tonight and tomorrow with his new schedule. I hope he continues to sleep so well and be so happy! It is certainly a blessing. It is funny how even though something can seem like common sense you still need someone to tell you about it! Geeze- poor guy his mommy was just keeping him awake to much and not letting him sleep like he wanted to! But I am glad we are closer to figuring out what schedule works best for him!
posted by Kellie # 12:48 PM
