Sleep Baby Sleep!

I haven’t been able to write at all since the last post because I was finding my hands full with the flurry of activities revolving around baby. He’s been sleeping a lot less! So I’ve got to work a lot harder at entertaining him during the day.

For a couple of days in early December, I thought he was starting to sleep through the night (read: sleeping 4 – 5 hours at a stretch). But alas, it was short-lived joy. Now, he’s been waking up at least 3 times a nite at 2 – 2.5 hourly intervals. Argh. Why?

I am trying to study my schedules to see if I can spot anything I’m doing that is causing this. But no. Even before we went to HK for a short Christmas break, he was doing the same thing at night. Funny thing is he sleeps a lot MORE when we are out. Perhaps he really does need to be in the sling to sleep because that is how I carry him when we are out. Oh! But my poor back!

What I’m trying out now is Shichida’s method called ‘the power of suggestion’. I just read it in his book, Babies are Geniuses!, last night and decided to try it out. This is akin to the ‘power of confession’. In a nutshell, this power of suggestion works by having you, the parent, talk to the child in a positive fashion. For example, if the baby is fussy and impatient, gently repeat the sentence, ” You are not a stubborn , fussy or impatient baby. You are considerate, gentle and patient” each time you pick him up.

So that was what I did last night with a little modification. Since he was already asleep, I whispered to him, telling him that he is a baby who LOVES sleep, who will sleep well for at least a 4 hour stretch through the night and will sleep for another 4 hours after. Did it work?

Well, it might have been a coincidence but he  slept for more than 4 hours He woke up 4.5 hours AFTER his last evening feed. Unfortunately though the rest of my suggestions didn’t work. He then woke up thrice after that. However, at 5 am, I tried the method again and told him to sleep for at least another 3 hours and wake up at 9am.

He woke at 8.30am, 2.5hours after he slept. So it is not working exactly to my suggestions …yet. I shall just persevere with this method and see how it goes.