CIO: To Sleep, or Not To Sleep? That is the question.

CIO- Cry it out. I'm not a fan. I've never really tried it, and unless times get really rough, I don't plan to. I think most, or at least a lot, of Babywise moms do it. Beckett was sleeping through the night around 9 or 10 weeks. He doesn't do it anymore, but some people would say that obviously he is capable. Now he usually wakes up twice. Occasionally it will be once or three times, but it's usually twice.

Now, just because he is "capable", doesn't mean to me that he "should" be sleeping through the night. I am not an expert by any means, but my young motherly instincts tell me that if he is waking up, he needs something. If he were waking up 5 or 6 times a night and getting upset because he wasn't being held, or didn't have his binky, that might require some cry it out sleep training to teach him to self-soothe. I know that Beckett can self-soothe though because I can lay him down drowsy, and he puts himself to sleep. That leads me to believe that when he wakes up at night, he actually needs something. I feed him, lay him down awake, and within 5 minutes he is back to sleep.

I think that babies must go through cycles and phases. I don't feel like if I get up with him now, I will create a habit and he will always wake up twice a night to eat. What do people even mean when they say that? That when he is 8 years old he will be getting up twice a night to have a PB & J? I think he went through a phase before four months where he could make it through the night, now he is in a phase where he is growing and learning so much every day and he can't sleep through the night. I am ok with that. I feel like it is my responsibility to teach him good sleep habits, but it is also my responsibility to be there for him when he needs me. If it happens to be at 1 am, so be it.  If I have to get up one or twice a night for the first year of his life, that is ok! I am his Mom, and that's what being a mom is all about.

It's amazing how much your sleep requirements change after you become a parent. I used to feel unrested if I didn't get 8 hours, and if I even woke up once in the night. Now I'm good with 7 hours of interrupted sleep. I truly am. I go to bed a little earlier than I used to, but I do not remember feeling sleep deprived once since Beckett was born. I think getting him on a routine from day one helped him develop good sleep habits. A baby with good sleep habits = a mom that gets good sleep. It might not be perfect, but I think it's pretty good.