The Sleeping Dilemma

The first question that we are often asked by both strangers and acquaintances alike is "How does she sleep?". My theory about why everyone is interested in Lily's sleep habits is two-fold. First, newborns basically do three things: sleep, eat, and poop. The latter two aren't really suitable topics of conversation because if she's not eating or pooping, you have really big problems that go beyond the casual conversation. So, we are left with sleeping. I think that the second reason for asking about the baby's sleeping habits is to ascertain the parents' mental states (just how "out-of-it" the parents are).

When it comes to sleeping, Lily has been very kind to her new parents. During the first week, she was up every hour. But after we got past the first week, she began waking up every 3-4 hours during the night for changing and a feeding. After she eats, she typically falls asleep within 10 minutes with a little rocking. Since her bassinet (with changing table), glider, and food supply are all in our room, the nighttime routine has not really been all that disruptive and has worked well for everyone involved.

Recently, Lily has been sleeping even longer during the night, waking up every 4-5 hours. This still seems within the realm of normal, and so I was not concerned. But Friday night, she slept for 7 hours straight. This is a little beyond what I am comfortable with for such a young baby. We have not been setting our clock to wake her up because she has been on such a good rhythm by herself. I'm also not really comfortable with imposing any schedules on her right now. I have been following her schedule all along and feeding her on demand which seems (to me) to be the only way to go with a 3-week old. So, it seems that with the sleeping issue, there is a very delicate balance of sleeping enough but not too much. As for us, I'm going to continue to follow Lily's lead. As long as she's gaining weight (and she certainly is!), I think we'll be fine. As for being "out-of-it", I can't really blame that on sleep deprivation...maybe I can still get away with using unstable hormones for my excuse.