Ashlie Hardway: The Sleep Schedule

by ABC-7 Anchor/Reporter Ashlie Hardway

I guess I jinxed myself. After telling everyone how proud I am of Olivia for sleeping through the night, she started not sleeping through the night. Awesome. From 1:00-5:30 every night (morning if we’re being technical), she wakes up and demands food every hour, on the hour. This is so strange because she doesn’t eat nearly that often during the day. This led me to two conclusions: she’s a snacker and she has her days and nights confused.

Snackers are basically babies who eat a little here and a little there but never really fill up. She’s really only a part-time snacker, though, because during the day she eats just fine.

So, now to tackle the day and night confusion. I am reading this book that my sister-in-law swears by. It’s called Baby Wise and it’s written by a doctor who’s also an evangelist. Needless to say, I don’t agree with everything he says, but he does have a pretty good method for getting babies to sleep through the night. Well, at least it’s worked for my niece and nephew. Basically, you wake the baby up at the same time every day religiously. Then you feed her for a full feeding, leave her awake for another 25 minutes or so and put her down for a nap for 90 to 120 minutes. Then, you wake her up and repeat.

My plan is to wake up with her everyday at 7:00 and start the process. Then, the cycle will repeat at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m., and 7 p.m. She’ll get a “midnight feeding” at 10 p.m. It’s also expected that she’ll wake up on her own twice through the night.

I’m a bit torn, though, because all of the books I’ve read say she should eateight times a day. I don’t know; there’s so much information out there, a new mom can go into information overload!

Today (Feb. 5th) is day one. As I type this, she is asleep in her crib for the very first night. I tried putting her in it shortly after we brought her home, but she screamed. Every night since, she’s been sleeping in her bouncy chair which is inside her playpen at the foot of our bed. I have to admit, as cute as her nursery is, I really dreaded putting her in her crib. Sure, the bedding is beautiful and the crib itself is perfect, but it breaks my heart to leave her in there alone. I feel like a bad parent.

Yes, I spent the extra money to get the top-of-the-line baby monitor with camera and video screen so I can watch and listen to her at all times on a secure connection, but I still hate it. I feel like I’m abandoning her, although I know if I didn’t get her into her own room now, it may never happen.

So, I’m sitting on my couch watching reruns wishing Olivia was sitting here next to me in her Boppy pillow. My husband came home from hockey and said “Where’s Olivia?” Through tears, I explained she was in her crib. Even he commented on how boring it is for us to just sit here without her.

I guess the reason it upsets me is because the past two weeks with her have flown by, and I know the rest of her life will only go by much more quickly. I hate missing even one second with her because that is precious time I’ll never get back. Before I know it she’ll be a teenager, even if I only see the newborn version of her when I look at her.

Anyway, enough with the melodrama. I’ll keep you posted on how our little “schedule” goes. I’m hoping for the best, as much as I hate telling her when she eats, sleeps and plays. I guess I’ll look back and say I did what I thought was best to get my little girl the food, stimulation and sleep she needs to start growing into a strong, intelligent, happy (gulp) young woman.