Sleep bliss!

So after writing about our sleeping woes, ZK slept from 8.25 pm to 4.21 am, and then from 5.37 am to 8 am!! (Yes, I'm precise to the minute! Another OCD..)

It was such a bliss to be able to sleep past 2 am with no disruption! But I woke at around 2.30 am anyway, surprised that he hadn't woken me yet. And the paranoid mum went over to check that he was still breathing :p

But I couldn't go back to sleep as my twin girls were very swollen. I eventually got up to pump in the middle of the night, hoping not to disturb the boys in the house..

You may have noticed that the night feed seemed to take a looong time.. Yes, he can take a long time to finish feeding.. Sunday night, he spent 18 min on the left, followed by diaper change, before another 10 min on the right before he dropped off drunk. But he woke when I set him down and no amount of patting helped so I nursed him in bed for another 20 min before he dropped off again!

Last night, I started leaking milk at 10 pm. Thankfully, he woke a bit earlier! He slept from 8.02 pm to 2.33 am, then 4 am to 6.40 am and finally 6.58 am to 8.11 am.

The night feed seemed long again but it was different this time.. He spent 32 min nursing and refused to sleep. My PJs were wet at my left shoulder from some spit-up so rather than continuing to nurse him until he slept and enduring the aircon, I decided to change tact - I kissed him goodnight and left!

He started whining when he realised he was getting any more boob. I went in to pat him after 5 min. He didn't stop whining. Well, since I had started, I wasn't giving up! I kissed him goodnight again and left him whining. that soon turned into a cry. I went in to pat him after 10 min - I set a timer for that. No help. Nvm, I left him crying, turned off the baby monitor, and went back to sleep with a 15 min timer. When the timer went off, I almost got up by instinct when I heard...SILENCE!

I went in to check on him anyway and covered him with his blanket which he had kicked off. Then I turned the baby monitor back on and slept until daybreak :) This morning, after two good nights, I'm feeling very refreshed and ready to face another week without Sito by my side :) (and only Skype calls with a crappy internet connection!)

Jo told me how to do this some weeks ago but I was still hoping for a no-cry solution. When I chanced upon aware parenting, I tried and failed a couple of weeks ago. I was successful on Sunday but it was hard on both of us. It could be because it's at night but since he cried less with this current method though, I'm sticking with it for now. Will try it in the day one day when we're home whole day.

Now, there are two sides to a coin right... Good sleep brings about a different problem.. His diaper held up the past two nights cos he didn't poop until daybreak. But if he decides to poop during the long stretch, it'll be a huge mess given his explosive poop! And I can't decide if I should let him cry in hunger while I change him, or nurse him while he wallows in his own poop (!) - possible by carrying him in his bassinet pad so I don't get soiled as well. The best scenario is no mess but he could make a mess even in a bigger diaper *.* So much for 12-hour leak protection - ok for pee but not for poop! Any suggestion from more experienced mummies reading this?