Matthias' Sleep Routine

I have been hearing a lot of good comments on the Gina Ford's contented little baby's book. A number of mummies I know try this and have an easy time with their babies, as they put their babies to a strict routine and bed time from 7PM to 7AM. However, I have never been able to try this on Matt as family members around us do not believe in leaving the baby to cry it out.

As Matt was born in the evening, I figured from some studies done that they probably get confused with day and night. So for the few weeks after birth, he sleeps in the day and wakes up at night. Although his routine got better, he still sleeps around midnight after his last feed. On top of that, he has to be carried to sleep and it takes 1-2 hours every night and 2-3 tries to put him down to bed to sleep. 2 weeks ago, I tried to cultivate him to sleep after his feed at 10PM and it was good for almost a week. These few days during CNY, he's probably got very tired from all the visiting and demands to sleep at 7PM. It seems that he is so tired that he even chooses to forgo his feed at 7PM. For a good 3 days in a row already, he has gone to sleep at 7PM and until 7AM, only waking up once in the middle of the night for feeding. He also just taken some jabs yesterday, so I am not sure if that is also another factor contributing to his change in sleep routine.

Being a 1st time mummy, this seems pretty worrying. I guess the only thing I can do now is to continue to monitor him for 1-2 more days. Hopefully, it's just a normal change and nothing serious, cos we are leaving back to Shanghai next Monday.

Update @ 15 Feb 2008:
Now come to think of it, for a very long time, when Matt was sleeping the entire afternoon of 4 hours, I refuse to do away with it cos it gave me some time alone for myself. But then, it took me a long time to realise that it took more time away from me at night cos it meant more time is required to put him to sleep. So when I started breaking his nap into 2, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, things got better. Now with that and bedtime at 8PM, things are manageable and it prepares me to get back to work next week.