Sleeping Through the Night

This week, Lucy has been successfully sleeping through the night!

{Lucy's newborn portraits}

When Lucy was about 8 weeks old, her typical bedtime was around 10:30 p.m. She usually woke up around 4 a.m. for a little late night snack before going back to bed and sleeping until 8 a.m. Lately, we've been attempting to move her bedtime earlier and earlier. She'll be 12 weeks on Sunday, and we are getting to the point that we would all benefit from an earlier bedtime. (Mainly because M will be starting classes in the fall.) 

This past week, we focused on developing a bedtime routine: bath, pj's, book, bed. For the most part, she was still awake when we put her down. Usually, I ended up feeding her one last time before she would actually go to sleep, so we incorporated a bedtime feed into the routine as well. We have been shooting for an 8 p.m. bedtime, but we don't always make it. By the time we eat dinner, clean up, and do the whole bedtime routine, it ends up being more like 9 p.m. That's still better than 10:30, so we'll take it!

I was worried that, with an earlier bedtime, Lucy wouldn't be able to make it all night without a feeding. But for the past couple of nights, she has gone to bed around 9 p.m. and slept until 6 or 7 a.m. I usually go and get her out of crib, feed her, and then we cuddle in our bed until 8 a.m. 

If you define "sleeping through the night" as sleeping for 12+ consecutive hours, we're not quite there yet. Still, I'm so proud of our Lucy girl. She's moved out of our bedroom and sleeps in her crib. She lets us get at least 8 hours of sleep a night, which we certainly appreciate! 

By the way, it has not always been easy, and we are not super parents. We read two books that really helped us: Baby Wise and Healthy Sleep Habits. I never want to give the impression on this blog that we have it all together... If you've spent five minutes with us, you know better :)