A Sleeping Baby...

Abigail wasn't always a "sleeping baby".  When we first brought her home from the hospital, there were some ROUGH nights at the beginning.  And I do mean rough. Rough that some nights I didn't think I Was going to make it.  Abigail had her days and nights mixed up and would not go back to sleep at night after nursing. In fact, some nights it seemed that she hardly slept at all!!  It seemed I would spend the entire night breastfeeding her! I would nurse her, we would put her down... eventually she seemed to fall asleep then maybe 20 minutes later she was crying again!! Cluster feedings were the worst for me.  I didn't have a lot of patience at 2 am in the morning.  My husband was crucial when this was going on.  HE had to remind me that it was not about me...it was about Abigail and her needs.  He tends to give me a reality check wheen I need it. 

Finally a few weeks into it, or maybe a month, she seemed to finally sleep for longer periods.  First, it was a 4 hour stretch... then 5... I remember her pediatrician had told us at the 2 week checkup not to let her sleep longer then 5 hours...but I have to admit, I didn't wake her up to breastfeed, no matter what others said.  I let her sleep and wake herself up when she was hungry.  We never had problems breastfeeding or with milk supply. My body has always adjusted to Abigail's needs. 

Eventually she did get her days and nights straight. However, then she became a night owl and didn't want to go to sleep until 11 pm, sometimes close to midnight!!

Ryan and I were both going back to work when Abigail was 6 weeks old.  When the time was coming, I sat Abigail down and we had a discussion.  Well, I discussed and who knows what she understood.  :)   Anyway, I told her that Mommy was going back to work and had to get up early now.  So Abigail will need to fall asleep earlier.

Wouldn't you know, that first week that we went back to work, Abigail actually fell asleep around 9 pm?  I swear to this day that she listened to me.   Ever since then, she has been a wonderful sleeping baby... I put her down to bed between 8:30 and 9pm usually,depending on whats going on that night, and she falls right asleep without fussing 99.9% of the time.  She will sleep through the night and wakes up hungry usually between 5 am and 6 am, sometimes late, sometimes earlier.  I always nurse her at least once before I head to work.  Then she goes back to sleep and my husband gets to sleep in with her until 9:00-9:30 every morning.  He's a lucky duck!!

A lot of people told me at the beginning that if I don't wake her up to nurse in the middle of the night, my supply will go down, but Abigail has been breastfeeding since the day she was born and my supply is fine.  My thing is, she will wake up when she is hungry. And she sure lets me know!!! Besides, you can tell from the pictures that she has been gaining weight just fine! She will be 5 months soon, and we are still going strong.   I hope to continue breastfeeding for as long as Abigail wants :)

I love my sleeping baby!  I know that it could change in the future, when she gets older and starts teething etc, but I certainly am enjoying the fact she she sleeps so well right now!!