Secret to Sleeping Through The Night!

I didn't want to jinx it by writing this post earlier, but I think I've stumbled upon the secret to Em sleeping through the night! Ok, it's not completely through the night, she still wakes up for night feed(s), but the difference now is that she ONLY wakes up when she wants a feed and doesn't fuss in between.

For the third night in a row last night, Em has slept from 9-ish at night till 1/2am and then through till 6.30/7am after her feed. It's a breakthrough!!!

The secret? Sleeping on her tummy! I use the word "stumble upon" above because it was only by accident that this happened 3 nights ago. I was at my wits end, almost wanting to trial CIO and had even kicked hubby out of the room that night. I had enough of waking every single hour from 4am till 7am, it was getting ridiculous. It was like she could no longer self settle past 4am and nothing else apart from sticking a boob into her mouth would soothe her. No amount of patting or shushing or picking up with no bouncing (yeah, no bouncing because I was also trying to disassociate rocking with falling asleep) would get her back to sleep (apart from boob). At the same time, hubby was also getting disturbed (and I sense annoyed) by her incessant crying which to him seemed like an ongoing thing throughout the entire night as he drifted in and out of sleep.

I must add that there were a few things I changed:

1. Took away her headrest (initially I thought it seemed more comfy for her and she had been sleeping in it soundly till recently);

2. Put her in a dressing gown so I wouldn't have to worry about her getting cold while fusing about (because I was going to pretend to be invisible and not attend to her the minute she fussed, in the hope she learns to self settle);

3. I covered myself up and slept slightly further from her so my scent will not be so strong (like dangling hot pies in front of you but not allowing u to have any);

4. Left her to fuss to see if she would settle on her own without any patting or shushing. Both when she stirred and also when she was trying to fall asleep after a feed.

So with the above changes in place, I fed her the last bottle and put her to sleep. When she stirred after only 1 sleep cycle, I was thinking "here we go again..." But as she fussed, I realised she was on her side (as she had been doing recently in an attempt to roll over whenever she's antsy) so I gave her a little push and as soon as she flopped onto her belly, the crying stopped! It was a miracle! I was so surprised I had to sit up for a while and check on her to make sure she was really ok. And she was because then she slept till about 2am! And then after her night feed, she slept through again (on her belly) till almost 7am! I couldn't believe it and so wish we had discovered it sooner. I was just afraid of trying it because she doesn't know how to roll from tummy to back yet funnily enough.

Anyhow, I'm really glad that it was such an easy "problem" to solve. Or maybe it was a combination of factors too... With her maturing slightly with each passing day too. I guess we've made progress! Yippee!