Could it be??

Are we sleeping through the night?

It would appear so, if the past three nights are not a fluke. Since his first week home, Bennett has only been waking up once a night, with his 'morning' feeding being somewhere between 5-7am. I have been noticing the past couple weeks that Bennett's mid-night feeding was beginning to dwindle...he wouldn't eat for as long (more like 8-10 minutes total, instead of the typical 20 or so). I had just begun to think about baby sleep habits, sleep training, etc and when/what I was going to do with Bennett. He has always been a great night-sleeper, so I was hoping this would come easy. Well, it appears that sleep training won't be necessary! Our Bennett has decided on his own that he is ready to sleep for longer intervals - thankfully this one is at night!

On Wednesday night, I tried something 'new.' (Usually I fed Bennett at 9, then put him to bed)

I bathed Bennett around 6:45, then dressed him for bed and fed him. I put him down around 7:45pm. He cry-fussed a little, and I went back into his room twice to 're-insert' the paci. He then calmed down and just stayed awake in his crib cooing and looking around peacefully. He fell asleep around 8:45pm. I didn't go to sleep until 10ish, and decided to feed him before I went to bed, just to give him a full tummy and hopefully make this stretch of sleep longer. He was only awake enough to eat, and easily went straight back to sleep when I put him back in his crib. I went to bed (in the extra bedroom, which is where I have been staying since Stephen has contaminated our room with what we think is the flu).

I woke up to Bennett's low cries/moans and checked my cell phone to see the time (no clock in the extra bedroom). I was SHOCKED to see it was 5:45am!!!! Well, my body wasn't exactly shocked, it knew all too well that we had missed a feeding somewhere between 10pm and 6am....
Thursday night, I did the same thing. Bathed, fed and put Bennett to bed by 8. I fed him at 10:15pm and then went to bed. This time he slept until 6am!

Last night, I again repeated the 'bedtime ritual' (as this has now become). Bennett did wake me up at 1:30am last night with some light cries/coos, to which I got up and fed him, but he only ate for less than 5 minutes, so shame on me for actually getting up. I have a feeling if I had just let him talk to himself a little longer he would have gone back to sleep, bc he obviously didn't need the "snack." After putting him back in bed, he slept until 6:15 this morning.

I'm hoping that tonight will be another long night and that the wake up time will just keep pushing itself later and later. 7:30 or 8 would be GREAT! But I am just going to let him keep doing his thing, unless we get to a point where I have to intervene. He is doing a pretty good job at this sleep training himself! :) And I am a happy rested Momma for it!

Other than this amazing sleep thing, Bennett seems to have changed so much this past week. He smiles, coos, talks, amuses himself in his crib, responds to my voice (stops crying when he hears me come into the room, etc), focuses on everything, and he much prefers to be upright and faced either outward when held, or up on your shoulder so he can look over it. The cradle hold just doesn't cut it anymore, unless he wants to go to sleep.

One thing is for sure: this boy does love to be held, but then again what baby doesn't? :)