SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!

I couldn't be prouder to post that Reid Bennett Hanks is sleeping 9-10 hours a night!!! My prayer has been that he would be doing this by the time I went back to work and the Lord heard our prayers!!! This will make the transition from full time mommy to full time WORKING mommy so much easier! It wasn't easy being so anal about Reid's schedule and I'm sure when I told people that we "have to go home now because Reid needs to lay down in the next 30 minutes" they thought I was crazy. I have truly been a stickler on this, but it has paid off!! He gets his bath between 7:45 and 8:00 and then takes a bottle and lays down (awake) at about 8:30. He goes to sleep on his own and doesn't wake up until between 6-7:00!!! Praise the Lord.

We have been doing Baby Wise since Reid got home from the hospital. He eats every three hours, plays, then takes a nap. And we stuck to it. It was hard especially as a newborn because he just wanted to sleep all the time, but we did our best. Then slowly those awake times started getting longer and naps a little shorter, but we stuck to the eat, play, sleep schedule as much as possible. Eventually Reid started only waking up one time a night which was HUGE! We were so excited to drop a night time feeding, but we felt that he really was ready to be sleeping all night.

I then read "Healthy Sleeping Habits, Happy Child" which said to start your child on an early bedtime schedule. We had been putting Reid to bed around 9 or 10 in hopes that he would only wake up once or not at all in the night. This suggests that the earlier you put them to bed the longer they'll sleep. Soooooo, I decided to try it. Reid did great! He was still waking up once, but was getting WAY more quality sleep and going longer and longer every night.

Then it happened...one Saturday night I was home alone with Reid because Jes was out of town and he went to bed at 8:30 and woke up at 4:00am! I got up and changed his diaper and decided to just try putting him back in bed. He went right back to sleep until 6:15!! He did that for a few days where he would wake up with a poo poo diaper in the middle of the night and we would change him and he'd go back to sleep. Now, he sleeps straight through the night and doesn't wake up ONCE!!!

A huge helper in this has been those crazy swaddling blankets. The ones where the baby looks like a loon in a straight jacket! A friend gave me some and we've been using that in conjunction with all this and it is a miracle worker! Reid cannot get of it no matter what and therefore can't wake himself up with those hands that are ALWAYS moving!!

So, I am writing this as a rested mommy. It feels so good to get a full nights rest and wake up to a super happy, rested baby boy! Jesse is loving it too as he was the one who got up for the middle of the night feeds. :) Thank you, Lord for rewarding our diligence! I'm already excited about the good nights sleep I'll be getting tonight! Ha!!!