Taking the Plunge

Yesterday, my brother said, "Raising a kid is not an experiment." Well, in my limited experience, it kind of is. Albert Einstein once said, "Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." That's kind of how I feel about our current nap/sleep method with Ethan. It's just not working, and I'm going crazy!

The problem lies in two conflicting viewpoints on the nap/sleep front. The first approach involves not letting a baby sleep "too much" during the day, in the hopes that they will sleep more at night. Let's call the second, the "don't wake a sleeping baby" approach. The name says it all.

We've been trying the first approach, making sure that Ethan is fed every 3-4 hours. Between the length of the feedings and his need to be awake a bit (since he's more alert now), he was only getting a 1-1.5 hour nap. I think he's so overtired at night, that he's not even getting 3-4 hour stretches then! Therefore, he is not getting an appropriate amount of sleep. Also, since I feed him when he wakes (or when I wake him, for that matter), I feel that he's not always hungry, and falls asleep mid-feeding. This causes him to need to eat smaller amounts more frequently. 

I think we are going to take the plunge and try approach #2. This is the recommended approach in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child which I am slowly reading. Dr. Weissbluth, the author, claims that if you don't let your baby/child sleep the appropriate amount necessary for that 24 hour period, they will be in "sleep debt". They will be so overtired, that their bodies will not let them fall asleep as they should. 

Now, I plan to not let him sleep more than three hours at a time during the day, since that has been the consensus among the people I've polled (read: my mom and friends). I know that I have to give this a try for about a week to see if it will work. The difficult part will be to continue on the first few days and nights, even when it seems like it might not be working. The truth is, it might not work, but raising a child is and experiment, after all.