As you may recall, about a month or so ago, Elliot decided that he was "too big" to sleep with me anymore- and he let me know my screaming, kicking, punching, and pulling out clumps of my hair whenever I tried to get him to lay down with me. This pretty much broke my heart, because I love cosleeping! I got tired of fighting with him, though, so Elliot eventually got his way and started sleeping in his crib or pack & play.
So, you may be wondering, what are our nights like now? Well, Elliot goes to sleep around 9pm every night, right after he has his bath and a bottle. At one point, he was sleeping for a lovely four hour stretch until 1am, but, I'm sorry to say, he is now back to waking up every 2-3 hours again. I shouldn't complain too much- he never really fully wakes up. The minute he starts squirming and fussing, my hyper-active mommy sense kicks in and I jump up and make him a bottle. Five minutes later, Elliot is sound asleep again with a full belly.
Everyone keeps telling me that babies "his age" don't need night feedings anymore. Before you say it, yes, I have tried just getting him to go back to sleep without eating. Believe me when I say that it did NOT work. He got so worked up that his face turned bright purple and by the time I finally succumbed and gave him the bottle, he was so wide awake that he refused to go back to sleep, deciding instead to have a nice three-hour squeal-fest and playtime instead. If he didn't really "need" to eat in the middle of the night, he wouldn't gulp down six ounces in four minutes flat. His body is clearly telling him that he needs to eat- and I'm fine with that.
So, he still wakes up every 2-3 hours {usually two, not three} throughout the night. I'm so used to it by now that I don't even remember what a full night's rest feels like! Around 3 or 4am, I take him back to bed with me and he {happily!} sleeps with me until he wakes up for the day between 8 and 9am. He must be indecisive like his mama because he's suddenly decided that, hey, sleeping with his mama is pretty swell.
I call myself a part-time cosleeper. I'm really happy with it, because it's the best of both worlds- I still get some "me time" to sleep/do whatever by myself, but I also get my cuddle time with the little man later on. Because, who are we kidding? I wasn't ready to stop cosleeping. Those 2 or 3 weeks when he slept in his crib all night long just about killed me.
As far as I'm concerned, Elliot has his whole life to sleep through the night in his own bed like a big boy. For now, I'll enjoy the fact that he still depends on me while I still can!
PS: whoever said that cereal makes babies sleep longer, must be on crack. I haven't noticed any change whatsoever- and he gets a full bowl an hour before bed!
