Good News!

So I have some fabulous news....Tyler has slept basically through the night for the past three nights in a row. Maybe more, I've lost track. :) This happened much sooner after stopping the 11pm feeding than I was expecting it to. Now when I say slept through the night I mean he hasn't needed a bottle during the night. That is awesome and I'm thrilled, but I'm still getting up, probably more often than before right now because he needs his paci several times during the night and sometimes he takes awhile to settle back down and go back to a sound sleep once he has woken up enough to realize he needs his paci. He didn't do that too much before because he was only going maybe five hours at the most without waking up to eat and apparently he can stay in a fairly deep sleep for that long and not need anything. Now he'll sleep for more like eight hours before he stirs and needs me to come and get his paci for him. And then as we get closer to morning, he has trouble getting into a deeper sleep so there have been a few mornings that I have gotten up at 5 to give him the paci and then not been able to go back to bed. I don't let him get out of his crib until 6 (unless he is just really crying and I don't want him to wake up anyone else) so on those mornings, I might have to just stand next to his crib and keep putting his paci back in his mouth every few minutes. I know that right now, he's still adjusting to not getting a middle of the night bottle and that's why he is having more restless nights. I remember the same thing happening with Jake when he first dropped that nighttime bottle. It might be like this for several weeks until he is trained enough to know that he's not going to be fed or even picked up till after 6 in the morning. Hopefully it won't take too long but just knowing that he probably isn't going to need to be fed during the night is enough for me right now. I am still taking the makings of a bottle up to his room every night just in case he wakes up and really needs to eat. I know that might happen when he gets around three months old and has a growth spurt. That's only about two or three more week from now depending on when the spurt hits so maybe after we pass that time, I'll stop messing with getting that bottle set up at night. And maybe after that time he'll settle more easily in to sleeping through the night without the paci. Eventually, if I don't see him improving in that area on his own, I'll have to start letting him cry a little more during the night so he can learn to comfort himself back to sleep. I will be glad for him to learn how to grab his own paci and put it back into his own mouth, though (something I will start teaching him as soon as he starts grabbing toys).

My big problem with him right now is the past several nights he has cried during most of his bedtime bottle. It's extremely frustrating and nerve wracking because I really want him to eat well at that feeding since it's his last one for the night and I'm still afraid he is going to want to be fed during the night if he doesn't get enough before bed. I'm starting to wonder, though, if the problem isn't that he just isn't that hungry yet after his last bottle. I think he's getting to the point where eating every three hours is almost too soon. He will always have a time every day where he'll go at least four hours between bottles when he has a long nap so I know he doesn't need it that often. I'm going to try at least spacing those last two bottles out to be at least 3 1/2 hours apart tomorrow and see if that makes him easier. It doesn't help that he is fussier at that time of day anyway because he is getting tired so I've usually spent at least the previous half hour standing or walking with him to keep him awake and quiet.