Full Night's Sleep

Hello all...

I hope you'll forgive me for stepping away from the blog for such a long period of time.  I won't even call this entry a return.  It's more of an update then an entry.

For the last month we've been sleep training the girls.  We successfully followed the famous, in multiples circle anyway, book, "12 Hours Sleep in 12 Weeks".  The book has been republished under a new title "The Baby Sleep Solution:  A Proven Program to Teach Your Baby to Sleep Twelve Hours a Night".  The title is almost longer than the book.  It only takes a few hours to read.  The writing will actually insult most people with a normal IQ, but as the title promises your babies will be sleeping 12 hours a night.  (or maybe it's written for parents experiencing a lowered IQ due to lack of sleep).  The program took us just under 11 weeks.  We've been giving the girls their last feeding at 8:30pm and getting them out of bed at 8:30am.

I'll summarize the book for you in just a few sentences, all you are missing, if you don't buy the book, is a couple of examples that belabor these points. 

1.  For the first 6 weeks, don't create any bad eating/sleeping habits.  Make sure your babies are sleeping in the crib rather than where ever they may drop.  Avoid the use of vibrating chairs, etc, to put your babies to sleep.  Don't allow your children to become dependent on some weird activity to be able to eat or sleep.

2.  Between weeks 6 and 8...this is a period of growth so expect your babies to be extra fussy.  Do whatever you need to do to get through this time with your sanity intact.  Try not to form any bad habits.

3.  Step three is actually the bulk of the program.  Up to this point, as you can see from above, you really haven't done anything.  The book should probably be entitled 12 hours in 4 weeks...There are several stages to this step:  4 hour daily feed schedule, eliminate night feeds, stretch crib time, 3 hours of nap time during the day.  The requirements to begin training is that your babies weigh 9 pounds and eat 720 mls in a 24 hour period.

A.  Move your babies to a 4 hour feed schedule during the day (12 hour period).  To be honest, I don't really understand the purpose of this stage, other than for the parents convenience and to allow better naps.  We had previously been on a 3 hour schedule.  The book suggested that feeds be increased by 15 minutes (up to 30 minutes) until the desired feed period is reached.  It actually gives several examples of what the a 3 hour schedule should be: 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and then gives several examples of what a 4 hour feed would look like:  7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm.  The author does, at one point, suggest that the start time could begin on the half or quarter hour, but that an example might just be to confusing to her readers.  She doesn't, however, other than to indicate that the feeds should be made 15 minutes longer suggest how a 3 hour and 15 minute feed divides evenly in 12 hours (the total day period).  Your guess is as good as mine.  You don't want to put your kids to bed for more than 12 hours, but if the day period is not divisible by the feed period, you are left with some additional time.  We increased the interval as suggested and then elected to "top up" the girls just before they retired.  The book suggests that the babies should be allowed to remain at the increased time for 3 days, meaning that for 3 days they have 3 hour and 15 minute feed period.  3 days, it is suggested, creates habit.  If you were to follow this advice exactly, it would take 12 days to move your children from a 3 hour schedule to a 4 hour schedule.

B.  Eliminate Night Feedings.  The order suggested for elimination is second to last feeding, last feeding, first feeding.  So, if your last day feeding was at 7pm, the first night feeding at 10pm, then 1am then 4am, and 7am is once again your first day feeding, eliminate 1am, then 4am, then 10pm.  Each feed is to be reduced by 15 mls for 3 days until it has been completely eliminated.  Our girls were eating a fair bit at night.  They actually only had 2 night feeds, one of which was 120 mls while the other was 60 mls.  To eliminate the 60 mls, in 15 ml increments should require 12 days.  To eliminate the 120 mls in 15 increments should require 21 days.  So 12 days from step A above and 33 days from this stage is a total of 45 days...4 weeks, the time that the author indicates this portion of the program should take, is 28 days...simple math suggests that her book is inappropriately named.  However, one of the rules in her program is that should the baby self-reduce a feeding amount, or self-increase the time until the next feeding, then don't step backwards.  This actually reduces the time required, because babies do seem to self-extend and self-reduce.  In fact, after we had eliminated the second night feeding, our girls practically slept through the first one.  There were a few nights, that they required a couple of mls, but the first feeding disappeared very quickly.

C.  Extend Crib Time.  Basically the book suggests that your babies should be in their cribs of 12 hours.  They are not necessarily sleeping, they maybe playing quietly or self soothing, but they are in the crib for that full amount of time.  Once again, the book is inappropriately titled, because the author suggests the babies may not actually be sleeping.  Stage B and C seemed to go hand in hand for us.  Our girls just stayed in the crib...maybe it's because they can't do much more than lay where we put them...but nonetheless they stay in their cribs.

D.  3 Hours of Scheduled Nap Time.  This section says to put your babies in their crib for 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon.  During this time they may not sleep, but they, once again may self-sooth or play quietly.  There's no real advice here, just put them to bed.  Again, for us, this step required no real work on our part.  Our girls sleep well during the day.

Now, after reading through the above, you might be asking yourself, "Hey, I took all that food away from my babies at night, aren't they going to be missing out on the appropriate nourishment?"  As you may have figured out already, the missing mls need to be added in during the day.  A 15 ml drop spread over 4 day feeds is trivial.  But our girls dropped over 100 mls in only a few days.  Adding 25 mls to each feeding, not to mention the fact that the girls are gaining weight and have different intake requirements from when they began the training, is just to much for their bellies to take in.  A baby requires 2.5 ounces (28-30 mls/ounce) per pound.  Our girls are about 11 pounds, so they need 27.5 ounces or 825 mls in a 24 hour period.  206 mls during each feeding, is a drastic increase from their previous day feedings.  Right now our girls take in about 170 mls comfortably, 185 is the top end.  I think if there had been a longer reduction period in the night feedings their little stomachs would have stretched to take in extra each day, but to suddenly increase each feeding by more than 30 mls, just didn't work.  We were putting the girls to bed at a deficit each night.  We honestly didn't even realize it until we did their weight based nutritional calculation.  The girls were sleeping fine, we were getting plenty of sleep, everyone seemed happy.  Sure, the girls weren't getting all they needed to grow healthy and strong, and their little brains weren't going to be growing at a rate that their super genius genes should allow, but everyone was well rested.  Our first idea was to simply increase, appropriately, the amount of food they were getting during the day.  The results were not spectacular.  We faced increased, LARGE volume, spit ups from one of the girls...and when I write LARGE, I mean scary big...maybe just first time parents scary, but scary just the same, and a refusal to eat from the other.  Their little bellies just couldn't handle the sudden increase in volume.  

There are those reading this that are going to think that my wife and I are crazy, but we decided to add back a night feeding.  We added a 5am feeding of 100 mls, that we will eliminate at a slow pace, while simultaneously increasing the daily feed amounts.  We've decided to reduce the 100 mls, by 20 mls every 5 days, and increase by 5 mls each of the four daily feeds. We are hoping that this will give the girls time to adjust to the increased volume.  It's no real hardship for me either.  The girls are down by 9:30 (after their 8:30 pm feeding) and I immediately follow.  We wake (to a phone alarm) at 5am, dream feed the girls (about 15 minutes) and then my wife heads back to bed.  I will be staying up and writing to you fine people,or working on one of the additional projects I have going on now.  I still get 7 hours sleep and then 3 hours of alone time while my girls sleep until 8:30am.

I'm sure there will be those who have had a different experience with the "The Baby Sleep Solution:  A Proven Program to Teach Your Baby to Sleep Twelve Hours a Night" book.  There are those that won't even think about the amount of food their children are getting, because there are no visible signs of distress from their babies when the night feeds are quickly eliminated.  It might even be that I'm uptight and overly nervous (I bought a scale so that we could weigh the girls after each breast feeding to properly calculate their daily intake), but all I want is for my girls to be the happiest and healthiest they can be.