Sleep

Why is everybody so focused on getting babies to sleep through the night? Sleep doulas, books, DVDs...all designed at getting babies to sleep longer than is natural or healthy. It's practically a competition among some parents. Bottom line, although I love sleep as much as anybody, I believe that babies are designed to wake up when they are hungry, and should be fed. Why train them to sleep through a natural urge, something that is necessary for survival?

Two nights ago Duckling and Pin slept for 7 hours straight, something they have never done before. I woke up at 8 and was momentarily terrified that something horrible had happened, but no, they just slept longer than usual. Probably a reaction to their first vaccinations. I felt GREAT the next day! Of course I was excited to see if it happened the following night, but we were back on the 4 hour schedule of wake eat sleep. By four hour schedule, I mean Pin wakes up at midnight, feeds and cuddles and has a change and is soothed back to sleep (or not) and then Duckling wakes up at 1 (if I'm lucky, otherwise he hollers until I am finished with Pin by 12:45 or so), feeds and cuddles and has a change and is soothed back to sleep. I fall asleep about 2 am, then Pin wakes up about 4 or 5 and the whole process starts again.

I GET the idea behind sleep training, I really do. I just think that they need to eat when they need to eat. They have little tiny tummies, and are fed breast milk and formula, which digests in the blink of an eye and leaves them hungry a few hours later. That is how they are designed, that is how it is.