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Jan 16, 2009

Sleeping Beauty?

I never imagined it could be so hard to make someone sleep. I've been told I was easy to put to sleep, and it did not take many months until I slept all night. Sebastian has surely not inherited my sleeping skills. We've been working really hard ever since his colic symptoms faded to give him good sleeping habits. Whenever we tried to put him to sleep, he used to cry his eyes out.

After more than a month of hard work he is finally a bit easier to put to sleep during the day, but he is still putting up a fight when nighttime comes. We're not sure why he still puts up a fight, because he is not being rewarded in any way. He is not only fighting to fall asleep, but he never sleeps through the night. He usually wakes up every other hour with a scream, and needs his dummy before going back to sleep. We hear about 6 month old babies who go to sleep at 7pm, and sleep for twelve hours. What are they adding to the baby's food?

It's not all that bad right now. After a month or so we have discovered Sebastian is a creature of habit. If we follow the exact same procedure every night, he usually puts up less of a fight. So for anybody else out there with the same problem, here is our routine as Sebastian likes it. (And for Sebastian, timing is essential). Between 6:30 and 7pm Sebastian gets fed by Mom. Then at 7 dad gives him porridge (The porridge seems to keep his tummy full for a longer period than just milk). Around 8 we give him a bottle of milk to drink. At 8:30 we put on his jammies and put him to bed. If we're lucky he's asleep by 9, if not it'll be 9:30.

After we started the routine including the porridge he usually wakes up just once or twice now (Unless something is bothering him. His tummy is still not a 100%), and he doesn't have to feed until 4-4:30. After that he usually sleeps until around 7am before it is time to get up. We're gradually giving him more and more porridge, and hoping he'll sleep through most of the night in the end.

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