3 Cheers!

Annie slept for an 8 hour stretch last night!!! WHOO-HOOO!!! Granted it was from 6:30pm - 2:30am but this is the longest stretch ever! I nursed her and then she slept until almost 6am!

To read more about our sleep journey click here and here and here!

Having a child who doesn't sleep well, sleep can become an almost obsession. Wanting to read books about sleep by sleep experts (and there are many - all with different researched-based perspectives), scouring the Internet looking for tips from other people in baby/parenting forums, writing down techniques and coming up with sleep plans.... it all seems so exhausting. But not nearly as exhausting as NOT actually sleeping.

Earlier this week, I participated in a Live Health Chat via The Chicago Tribune's website which featured two of the leading sleep experts and pediatricians: Dr. Marc Weissbluth and Dr. Bob Sears. They have very different perspectives on night time sleeping.

Dr. Weissbluth, in his book Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child gives parents a solution to the child's night-waking (assuming that night-waking is a problem) with the premise that a baby can and should sleep well and through the night and a well-rested child is not only a happy child, but one who can function with full potential. He is the doctor who coined "sleep training." His approach is definitely met with resistance as he advises parents to let their child "cry-it-out" in order to learn to self-soothe with the aim that the child will no longer need nighttime visitors.

Dr. Bob Sears (along with several members of the Sears family) advocate for the Attachment Parenting lifestyle. In his book The Baby Sleep Book he explains that nighttime waking in babies and children is normal and that they should be parented to sleep - i.e. rocking, nursing, singing, shushing, etc. - and that when the child awakens in the night, the child should be attended to. Crying is not necessary and could trigger feelings of abandonment and learned helplessness ("Nobody is coming to me when I signal for help = Nobody cares about me"). And that the high level of stress hormone in the body (cortisol) could alter the normal brain functions of the child.

So what's a parent to do???

I'm definitely more of an Attachment Parenting kind of mom (babywearing, breastfeeding, highly attuned to my children's emotional radars), but while participating in this chat, I found Dr. Weissbluth to actually be more helpful! Even though I won't be letting Annie "cry-it-out", Dr. Weissbluth's comments on baby sleep were actually constructive and practical. One of the things I took from this chat was that Annie could be waking up frequently because I'm putting her to bed too late. She was going to be between 7-7:30. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, last night my little cherub was fast asleep by 6:30pm. And although she made a few noises and cries, she settled down by herself and went back to sleep. And she never cried for more than a few minutes (until 2:30am which is when I went in to nurse her).

I'm still aiming for Annie to be able to put herself to sleep and stay asleep for longer stretches of time, but for today, I'm going to rejoice that she got a beautiful 8 hours in a row!!