Sleeping update

Several have asked how Aly's sleeping has been going these past few days.

Somehow Aly has begun to sleep through the night again (my definition of this is sleeping from bedtime until 4a (8-9 hours). Anytime after 4a I will feed her, after which she falls asleep immediately and sleeps another 2-3 hours.

I've been perusing several books (I won't get to read any of them closely until my classes are done in a couple weeks), but I'm really enjoying some of the Dr. Sears stuff. The book I've been looking at closest is The Baby Sleep Book. Although I don't like some of Sears' stuff, I do like others. Particularly, they say, "trust your own instincts and make your own decisions about what is best for your individual baby and you" (5). I love how they empower the parents to make decisions based on what works best for the family, instead of saying that one certain way works best for all families.

I think we decided she's too young/sensitive to let her cry it out right now (she's 7.5 months old now). I really think it was separation anxiety at its peak-- she's starting to ease up during the day from being very clingy, so maybe we're on the downhill? Last night was a rough one- she woke up at 1a and then at 4a, wanting to be asleep SO bad, but just very restless, tossing and turning. We gave her some teething tablets, and she went back to sleep after they kicked in.

So, all this to say, I think right now we're taking it night-by-night, knowing that some will be rough due to anxiety issues or not enough food during the day or teething, but as long as we're not noticing a pattern in the times she wakes up, it seems like it's okay and probably related to external circumstances instead of an unable to self-soothe issue. We've heard her cry a little in the middle of the night, but then within a minute or two, put herself back to sleep. Hopefully this means she's learning how to sleep, but other things are just getting in her way?

I'm going to post more of my reading after Christmas!