Thinking back over the last year and a half of being a parent and talking to other mothers, there are definite times when babies are easier: 15 months is an obvious one for me at the moment (one waking last night! hurrah!). 10 months is often a good window to change things, although I don’t remember it being great for us. 20 months to 2 years (depending on the child) is supposed to be much easier as well. These are probably good times to alter things (night weaning, moving to own bed etc.).
Conversely, there are bad times you have to grit your teeth and get through however you can. There seem to be far more of these, or maybe I am remembering the bad times more than the good. Moxie has a great summary of some of these spurt times (I found growth spurts the most difficult times to get through as sleep was replaced with the need to feed constantly). My own memory of months 1-15 goes like this:
Day 3: just before milk comes in, feeding ALL THE TIME. No sleep. Still shell-shocked.
Week 3: first big growth spurt, constant feeding for a week. Most people tell you spurts last for a few days, well not for us.
Week 6: another one. Grrrrrrr.
Week 12: getting bored of this now…
Month 4: even more disruption as a big sleep regression kicks in
Month 6: I thought starting solids was supposed to help with sleep! Not in this house, baby is waking more because he’s unsettled. Going back to work probably doesn’t help. This is the point where we give up on the cot completely and co-sleep to preserve what little sanity I have left.
Months 7/8/9: at least one growth spurt, feels like lots. Sleep is disrupted for a looooong time. Also teeth popping through constantly. Not good. Sanity lost a long time ago.
Month 12/13: another ****** growth spurt. Baby is behaving like a newborn again. Tempers fray. Molars breaking through.
Month 14: things start settling down and a few 3 hour blocks of sleep keep us away from the loony bin. Naps settle down. Bedtimes start to be an issue.
Month 15: action taken on sleep (getting baby alseep before midnight, into cot and not feeding at night). Rather shocked when it actually works. Good thing too, because
Month 18: things are supposed to go belly-up again. Time to bank some sleep now…
January 17, 2008 at 6:21 pm
so where do the good times fit in amongst all of that growth spurting and sleep regressioning??
February 15, 2008 at 6:30 pm
We must be Luck, our son is 3 months old, and while he is cranky during growth spurts he has been sleeping 6-8 hours a night uninterrupted for the last month.
I know however that this will not last and i will return to my former zombie state.
March 11, 2008 at 11:42 am
I thought I was going insane with sleep deprivation. Tried everything, even tried to put her into a routine. All that about naps during the day helps for a better sleep, tried it!!! Giving solids to help baby sleep..now how many times have I heard that…even the health visitor told me to do it!!!
At least I know from this blog that it’s ‘normal’…well if at least one other person is going through the same, it is!!!
March 11, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Farhana, I know what you mean, there seem to be no quick solutions. I think it’s a matter of time and maturity and a lot of parental patience.