The last couple of weeks have been full of challenging nights. A few times Dex fooled me into thinking the sleepless nights of nursing every 2-3 hours was over with a couple nights of 4-5 hour stretches only to go back to the 2-3 hour schedule again. I've read that there is a growth spurt that happens around 3 months. Between the teething and the growth spurt, it was hard to tell what was the problem that kept him from sleeping through the night. I was afraid I was doing something wrong that was causing him to regress to the newborn schedule, but I wasn't. The growth spurt, while giving me a good dose of sleep deprivation again, also had Dex hitting milestone after milestone day after day. It wasn't so much of a growth in size as it was in mental development. Last Friday, he finally laughed heartily for the first time. The cherry on top was him smiling at Squee in pure joy of watching the dog play fetch without anyone smiling back at him.
Now we're back to 6-7 hour stretches before nursing again. Now he seems to be leaning towards a 10-12 hour night with just a few power naps of 30 minutes to 2 hours during the days. I hope this sleeping schedule sticks this time. Last time, when I thought the middle-of-the-night feeding frenzy was over and was thankful for sleep again, I think I jinxed it. It wasn't over yet.
