Get Some Zzzz, Baby

All right...it's time to get tough.

In most families, the eldest child takes longer to get into good sleep habits than the ones that come after. According to our favorite sleep book, Sleeping Through the Night, this is because, by the time the second one comes along, the parents are not nearly as hypersensitive about picking the baby up every time they move or cry out. Baby 411 confirms this: Turn off the monitor, let them learn to self soothe and they will be better sleepers...and so will you.

Ironically, Oliver, not Logan, is our little problem sleeper. We were warned (or advised, whatever) that this is often the case with preemies. It's very hard for preemie parents to let a preemie (or as I like to call Oliver, a former preemie) cry. Oliver starts in his crib each night and does a good four-hour stretch. When he wakes at 2 a.m., though, we're inclined to feed him and take him to bed with us simply to avoid having him cry, wake Logan and keep us up. He then wakes up at 4 a.m., 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. and gets the royal treatment each time.

Thus, we have trained him perfectly as a night feeder who wakes up every two hours for a snuggle and a snack. This is not good for anyone.

This weekend we're going to try to fix it. Larry is off for President's Day on Monday, which gives us a three-day weekend to get tough with Oliver during the night without having to face the consequences of going to work the next day. For now, it basically means giving him a bit longer to soothe himself back to sleep, and making sure that he gets almost all of his nutrition during the day so he's not as hungry at night. (Baby 411, by the way, says despite every grandmother's heartfelt belief, rice cereal has nothing to do with sleeping through the night. I don't want to argue about it; take it up with them.)

Wish us luck. And some sleep.