How I Get the Baby to Sleep Through the Night
Sunday night was hard on us all. Henry, all wound up after a fun playdate with Talia, fell asleep easily at his usual 7:00 p.m. bedtime, but then woke up howling every two hours between 10:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. We’d calm him down and get him back to sleep, and each time he’d wake up again. And not groggy-middle-of-the-night awake. He was AWAKE. Hi-get-up-and-play-with-me awake. I don’t think either Raphe or I got much done at work yesterday. For my part, I kept staring out the window, snapping to attention when my phone rang, and then discovering I’d lost another 20 minutes.
So last night, feeling somewhat desperate, I decided to rely on a technique for getting Henry to sleep I have been perfecting over the past nine-plus months.
I asked him really nicely.
That’s right, I asked Henry to sleep through the night. Here’s how I did it: I sat in the rocking chair with Henry on my lap, just like we always do at bedtime. I sang to him (Rubber Ducky, of course), told him about my day, and kissed his little round head about 43 times. During a moment when I had his full attention, I looked into his eyes and said, “Henry, could you please try to sleep through the night tonight? Last night was very hard on Mommy and Daddy because we don’t have the luxury of multiple two-hour naps during the day. We are adults who have to go to work all day and usually get to sleep at night only, and when we don’t get enough sleep at night, we get a little cranky. It’s hard for us to be the best Mommy and Daddy we can be in that state. And you’re getting to be a big boy now, just about a toddler, and that means that you can start sleeping through the night. Do you think you could try that tonight? That would help Mommy and Daddy so much.”
And you know what? Last night Henry slept from 7:00 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. this morning with no wake-ups in between.
Now, to all the naysayers who would believe this feat of baby sleep is unrelated to our chat, let me point out the following: 1) yesterday’s naps were according to Henry’s usual routine, so he did not go to bed overtired or anything like that; 2) we did not drug him to sleep (no Tylenol, no Motrin, no Benadryl, no nothing); and 3) I have had this chat with Henry before with similar results.
Is it wishful thinking on my part that I believe having a serious talk with my son about sleep helps him to do just that? Maybe. But it works.
