Switching Roles

Ever since her gastro-intestinal virus a few months ago, our baby had been waking up frequently at night, and nursing to her heart's content. At first, I did not mind as she had lost almost 1kg. Then she doubled her weight...But joking aside, I was starting to get very tired. During our recent trip to Cambridge, her nighttime wake-ups became even more frequent, to the tune of every 1-2 hours! A few days after our return, when she showed no sign of letting up her frequent middle-of-the-night nursing sessions, I decided that something needed to be done...

I came up with the idea of switching roles with my husband. He had been putting our toddler to sleep for quite some time, and going to her during her infrequent wake-ups. But curiously, he slept through all of our baby's wake-ups, even though she sleeps in our room...

So this last week was an experiment of sorts...My husband put our baby to sleep with a bottle, and offered her the next bottle around 12 hours later. When she woke up in the middle of the night, he would rock her back to sleep. She protested only slightly the first night (a few seconds), but seemed to realize very quickly that he had no milk on his person. She looked over at me a few times, but quickly fell asleep. The following night, and every night thereafter, her wake-ups became less frequent, and shorter in duration.

Last night was day 7 of the experiment, and she slept 10 hours in a row! For the very first time in her young life...Why had we not done this earlier? Why had we not tried this with our first child, instead of waiting until she did it on her own at age 2!?

My husband keeps reminding me that it was only one night, but I remain hopeful...

Mealtime with Froggy and Monkey

Chocolate cake frosting