The Sleep Saga

I have been meaning to check in and update about the sleep struggles and triumphs we have had lately, but I've waited so long at this point that it feels too long to detail... here's the summary:

Stage One: Mini-Me gradually gets less and less reliable at napping, and finally has a week with no naps at all. We are all exhausted and cranky. This kicks in around 4.5 months. A good friend lends us Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child and we dig in eagerly.

Stage Two: We enact a rigid sleep schedule, making the following changes: sleeping and napping swaddled in the crib (no more swing), bedtime at 8, first nap within 90 minutes of waking up in the morning. We aim for naps at 9 AM, 1 PM, and 5 PM (just for an hour) if the first two naps go poorly.

Stage Three: Visiting friends in a tiny apartment with no crib. Mini-Me gradually starts waking up more frequently, and I nurse on demand so she won't wake everybody up. Growth spurt kicks in on last day and I am waking up every hour with her. Five days after we return home I end up severely sleep deprived and dysfunctional. Fall asleep standing up against a doorframe. Have abandonment dreams about the pediatrician. End up in her office in tears. She tells me it is time for Mini-Me to learn to sleep through the night. Dr. S. is my hero.

Stage Four: Sleep training start. New rules: bedtime at 8, dream feed at 11, no feeding after that. Do not reward baby for fussing with feeding. Let the baby cry for up to an hour, try to comfort her without picking her up if possible. Mini-Me is not happy but we stick with it. Pediatrician has promised progress after 3-4 days.

Stage Five: On fifth night of being kept up by baby crying all night, feel worse than before. Swear in the night about pediatrician being full of shit. Stick with it for five more days, but cheat and feed baby a few times in order to finally get back to sleep. Staying up late enough to do dream feed is getting harder and seems counterintuitive, denying myself sleep in order to get a good night's sleep later.

Stage Six: Decide to feed Mini-Me the first time she cries in the night, but not after. Mini-Me moves back to very reasonable pattern of feeding once in the night, usually sandwiched between two five-hour sleep shifts.

So, the even shorter version of this is that we tweaked the napping schedule, fixed it, and the nighttime schedule broke down. It took seven weeks for the whole cycle to right itself.