Jeff was asking me today about sleeping and napping, comparing Brooke to Ryan. We moved Brooke into her own room (from our room) on New Years Eve, the eve of her three month birthday. For Ryan that will be about 2.5 weeks from today.
He assumed she was napping regularly when I moved her into her room, but in fact (as I looked through the blog) I didn't start scheduling her with naps until Jan 9th, a week after she moved into that room. So you would think that Ryan is on the same path, right? WRONG.
One of the crucial elements to "sleep training" is that your child sleep through the night, which is at least 6 hours straight. You then build a nap schedule off of wakeup time, assuming a baby about 3 months old can only stay awake about 1.5-2 hours before needing a snooze. Brooke at three months was sleeping about 12 hours a night. I dont even want to talk about the horrible nights I have with Ryan. The longest he sleeps consecutively is 5 hours, and that on a really lucky night. On a good night, he is brought up to bed at 10:30 and asleep by 11:30 (Brooke was put to bed at 7PM at 3 months). He is generally up for the day no later than 7:30. He also wakes up once in between to eat. Thats a good night.
Last night, for example, I brought him up at 10:30. He fussed and cried until he fell asleep a bit after midnight. He slept a whole 5 hours (YAY) until he got up to eat. I fed him at 5AM and he never fell back asleep. He was in his crib grunting, whining and fussing until 7AM, at which point he started screaming and crying to get out. Thats a more typical night.
Will he move into his own room in 2.5 weeks? Looking at how we are doing now, there is no way. Not only do I not want to spend all those hours in his room trying to get him to sleep, but all of his noise (from grunting to full out screaming) is likely going to be heard by Brooke as her room is only separated from his by the bathroom that lies between the two.
I wish I never looked back on the blog to see how different the two were. I thought Brooke was sleeping 9 hours a night. Right now I would kill for 9 hours of sleep. Seriously. Then I look back and see she was sleeping more like TWELVE HOURS? It made me a little mad at the fact that Ryan continues to wreak havoc on my nights. Every. Single. Night.
I know you cant compare kids. I know Brooke was a pretty awesome sleeper. I'm not asking for 12 hours. How about just 1/2 of that? How about 6 hours of sleep? Is that too much to ask?