16 weeks

Last Wednesday, our sweet baby girls turned 16 weeks old. Caleb and I have been eagerly anticipating this day for, oh, about 16 weeks. Why you ask? Well, because this was the age we had been told was the minimum for Cry it Out sleep training, which we fully expected to implement as soon as possible. Not that nights have been overly difficult around here recently...in fact, since mid January, Harper and Riley have been going to bed relatively easily and only waking once in the night to feed (around 3-4am), and then going right back down. So we can't REALLY complain.

Anyway, despite their progress in both going to sleep (without any sleep props other than being swaddled) and getting down to only one feeding per night, Caleb and I have still been anxiously awaiting the day when we can once again get a full night of uninterrupted sleep. I can not count the number of times the phrase "only 10 (8...5...3!!) more weeks until we can do cry it out" has been uttered in our household, particularly during the wee hours of the morning and more often than not, by Caleb. (Understandable, since the girls have more recently been waking up between 4-5am, which is often just shortly before Caleb has to get up for work, which makes it difficult for him to go back to sleep.) ANYWAY, I digress...

During the past few weeks, I've become more and more nervous about the prospect about actually implementing Cry it Out, in large part due to Riley's weight. We haven't had a doctor's appointment in about a month, but last time we went she only weighed 9 lbs, 3 oz. I recently read somewhere that babies have to be at least 12 lbs to have the stomach capacity to handle sleeping through the night without that extra feeding, and although Riley has been eating better with her Prevacid prescription, I'm not sure she's quite there yet. And I definitely didn't want to expect her to learn how to soothe herself to sleep if she wakes up starving...especially if her little stomach isn't large enough to hold enough milk to get her through the night. So despite Caleb's protests, I convinced him that we would at MINIMUM need to wait until the next doctor's appointment on March 12th to see what Riley's weight is (and discuss concerns with the pediatrician) before doing Cry it Out.

Well, there is apparently no need, as Harper and Riley decided on their own to start sleeping through the night last Wednesday. At EXACTLY 16 weeks. At first I thought it had to be a fluke, but they have slept through the night for the past four nights now, so I'm hoping this is our new pattern. Is this coincidence? Or our babies' way of rebelling against the idea of having to Cry it Out? Either way, we'll take it! :)