Establishing a Sleep Schedule

The thing that keeps slipping my mind is that Ben's sleep behaviors continue to evolve, just like the rest of him. And while establishing a schedule and being consistent is really important, there should be flexibility based too.

For example, I've been putting him to bed between 8-9pm the last couple weeks with great success. Prior to that he had been going down much later, after his 11pm feeding. He took to it immediately. He is a good night sleeper, God Bless. He doesn't fuss, just lays down and falls asleep. The last few days he has been fussing earlier and showing signs of sleepiness but I've resisted sending him to bed earlier. Not really sure why, perhaps to protect the schedule.

Last night though he just conked out at 8pm, I tried to keep him up to no avail. I was tired too so I just gave in. And what happened? He slept his longest stretch yet - till 3am. And then after his morning feeding, slept another 2 hours.

All the books say it, but it is so counterintuitive - sleep begets more sleep. I'm trying really hard to establish consistent daytime napping and I'm hoping with a few tweaks to our night time routine, this too will slip into a nice routine. He is down in the cave now, squeaking but attempting a nap.

Sweet dreams...