Sleep
This week has been one of incredible change in the Benoit household. Hazel suddenly went from sleeping 3-4 hours in a stretch at night to sleeping 4-7 hours in a stretch at night. This all started around Tuesday of last week- Hazel started sleeping slightly longer during her first stretch of the night, from around 10 until 2:30 in the morning. This was a huge change compared to where she was a few weeks ago when she was consistently sleeping in three hour spurts throughout the night, and in 1-2 hour stretches during the day. I thought this was enough of an improvement, but Friday night we were in for a real treat. Seven hours of sleep. No joke. We put Hazel to bed after much rocking and feeding and soothing- at 10:45 pm Friday night. The next morning I woke to find the sun was coming up, and it was the first time I’d been up all night- 5:45 am. I cannot describe how absolutely decadent it was to sleep for longer than 4 hours at a time.
We thought it was just a fluke, but last night, despite having our evening routine slightly upended by a date night that lasted longer than we had planned, Hazel did a repeat performance of her great sleep feat- it wasn’t 7 hours, but she slept a solid 5 hours, from 10:15-3:15 and then another stretch from 3:30 until nearly 8. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high about getting this kind of sleep consistently, but I can’t deny that I’m excited that this kind of sleep is at least a possibility now. We learned from our pediatrician that sleeping for long periods of time is related to the baby’s weight- once a baby reaches 11-12 pounds they are able to sleep for 6-8 hours at a time. Before reaching that magic weight they wake up more frequently, most likely an evolutionary mechanism that ensures that babies get nice and big and chubby before they start sleeping the night away! I whole-heartedly believe that size has something to do with Hazel’s latest sleeping habits. We plan to take some pictures today that we hope to post this week to show just how big she’s gotten. I’m sure she’s already 10 pounds, if not close to 11. Here is a video shot recently that shows how much she has changed in just a few short weeks.
Growing from esther benoit on Vimeo.
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