I’ve been reading Dr. Marc Weissblug’s book “Health Sleep Habits, Happy Child.” Understanding Allie’s sleep and nap needs better, I’m now following his advice, which is basically to respect the baby’s own natural sleep rhythms and to go with it. The result is a more even-tempered child as she isn’t cranky from fatigue. (She’s definitely in better spirits, as long as she doesn’t have gas issues. This morning, she didn’t even cry when she woke up at around 8:15a; I happened to look at the monitor and saw her cheerily playing by herself, looking around, smiling, kicking, so I went and picked her up for breakfast.) She’s now taking her 3rd nap today in her crib, which is what allows me to post this, and also what allowed me to write and send the below email (on my cellphone) with photo to my mom and Mr. W during her 2nd nap earlier today:


“Allie is practicing disco-dancing positions in her sleep. My research has found that babies 3-4 months begin to need earlier bedtimes (which we’ve seen because her fussy times get earlier at night) & begin to develop a naptime between 9-10am. 4-6 month old babies begin showing a regular naptime in the afternoon also, between 12-2p. The last couple days, I’ve noticed Allie yawning around 10a & I’ve put her to nap in her crib. She wakes from that nap in less than an hour, but with the pacifier, she can be convinced to sleep until about noon, which of when I feed her again. She starts getting fussy & yawning again around 2p, so I put her down for her nap again, also in her crib. Right now is the 2pm nap. She goes down pretty easily, but is still noise-sensitive. Pacifier helps. There may be another short nap later in the evening, according to the book about child sleep I’m reading, but it’s more unpredictable. I’m going to try putting allie to sleep earlier at night to see if her night fussing is due to being over-tired, even though the book says to expect up to 2 night feedings with the earlier bedtime, the first 4-6 hrs after feeding (betw midnight & 2a, which had happened brogue when I put her down early) & the 2nd about 4a-6a (her usual middle-of-the-night feeding time). I’m hoping she will still continue to skip the first of these 2 feedings. The payoff is that at around 6 months, she should be sleeping 12 hrs thru the night, from 6p-6a.”

Thank you to our neighbor who recommended the book, saying our entire block used it on their kids and it was life-changing for all of them.