Sleep... I never thought I would spend so much of my day thinking about sleep. How many hours will he sleep tonight? What can I do to help him sleep better? What time should I put him down to sleep? Do you think he's ready to go to sleep now? Will I ever have a full night of sleep again? I don't know the answer to any of these questions. I did however, get some perspective on the sleeping issue in our house.
Conrad is almost 4 1/2 months old. Some babies sleep through the night at this age, many do not. Conrad's sleep has been regressing for at least a month. At about 2 1/2 months he slept one four hour stretch and then up every two hours. Since then, he's been back to every two hours, at least. I don't know if he's really hungry every time he wakes up, but I also don't think I'm ready to start any official sleep training with him. I've also noticed that he does not seem to be nursing as effectively in the daytime. He seems distracted during his feedings. An article I found supports that theory. It says that around four months the baby starts getting more interested in their environment and has less tunnel vision when it comes to nursing. This can cause them to nurse less effectively during the day for a while and then want to eat more at night while it's calm and they can concentrate. Aha. Well doesn't that just make sense.
I know that not everyone has an exactly 4 month old baby, but I thought that this might be a good reminder that sometimes babies are doing things for a reason, even if we don't know what it is. We don't need to rush to "fix" everything right away. Click here for the link to this particular article. This website has other great articles that may be helpful if you are in a different stage, but still looking for a clue into their mysterious sleep behavior!
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