Milestone: APL Sleeps Through The Night (the baby version of "through the night" )

Last night, APL surprised his parents by not waking up for his midnight feed. He went to sleep at 8:00 PM and woke up at 3:00 AM. That's what the experts call sleeping through the night. Whatever it is, it's a welcome change and we hope it continues.

This comes on the heals of our application of the "cry it out" method at bedtime. Prior to this week, we were essentially rocking him to sleep and then placing him in his crib. As of a few days ago, we began going through a short bedtime ritual (very short in my case) and then putting him in his crib awake. The first few times we did this he was apparently too close to sleep to even realize that he had a perfect opportunity to cry. But, two nights ago, he went to bed awake and soon began to complain. I restrained Karin with regulation cuffs and shackles. I checked on him a few times. He was unhappy but clearly tired. And, 17 minutes after the drama had begun, he was fast asleep.

Last night, Karin ventured to put him down awake. He complained for a few minutes and then drifted off into peaceful slumber... for 7 hours! That is hours longer than his next longest sleep. Long sleep make for happy parents. Elephant good for lucky (Vietnam reference).

I think the anticipation of "cry it out" was really hard on Karin... much harder than its actual application. Hopefully APL continues on his present course and we will soon be telling him at noon that he should get up and play with his friends and not waste his life away like the Lipschitz kid around the corner.