You mean all I had to do was ask?

We've been going through a rough patch with Ella's sleeping again.  She's been great with her daytime sleeps but come night time we put her down at 7pm and she drifts off with no problems, but wakes at 9pm screaming for her 'dream feed', then again at 11pm, 4am and is awake again at 5.30am.   It wasn't the kind of waking where you can just go in and shoosh her either, in a matter of seconds she would be inconsolable, screaming as if someone was trying to murder her and it would take anywhere up to an hour or so before she properly settled down again.  Needless to say, this sleep pattern (or lack thereof) was probably a major contributing factor to my mood lately...

I started reading a book a couple of weeks ago called 'French Children Don't Throw Food'.  A friend had recommended it to me as it outlined some of the things that French people do differently when raising little ones and I am always interested in reading things like that.  Unfortunately I haven't had the time to read very much, only the first few chapters in fact, but what I read was that the French (generally speaking) believe that children are born with an understanding of language.  Even though they cannot communicate themselves, they believe that children understand language and should be spoken to like adults, not babies.

After much frustration from lack of sleep, the other night while I was snuggling with Ella and giving her her night time bottle before bed, I decided to have a little chat with her.   I spoke to her very calmly and basically just said that it was very important for her to get a good nights sleep so that she would have lots of energy to play the following day, and that if she woke up and was frightened during the night that mama and dada were either just down stairs or sleeping next door so there was nothing to be scared of.  I said that if she cried during the night I would come in and make sure everything was ok, but then after a while I was going to walk out of the bedroom and not come back in if I was certain that there was nothing wrong with her.  I ended the conversation by saying that I would come in and get her at 6am the next morning.

Tim sat next to me thinking that I was a bit of a fruit loop I'm sure.  We had been discussing weaning her off her dream feed at the same time too so we decided that that night we wouldn't give her a bottle at around 9pm if she woke.  This was going to be interesting.  I really wasn't looking forward to it.

After putting her to bed and again reassuring her that there was nothing to be scared about if she woke up during the night and that we would see her in the morning, she went straight to sleep.  Brilliant!  I went to bed early that night thinking that I was going to be in for an inevitable rough night again.  Tim also came to bed early since he didn't have to stay up for the dream feed.

I drifted off to sleep easily that night.  I woke to Ella crying just a tiny bit and looked at the clock and it was 11pm.  She hadn't woken at her usual 9pm screaming for a bottle.  I let her cry for a minute or two and then she went back to sleep.  Excellent!

I went back to sleep again and the next time I woke up I could hear her squeaking cot as she stirred at 5am!  I was sure that she would start to cry but again she drifted back off to sleep.  I didn't sleep after that because I was so excited that she had slept for so long without me needing to get up.  I was also surprised that she didn't kick up a fuss for not having her night time feed.  I had been dreading the weaning process of that feed thinking it would be really difficult, but it was simple!

I kid you not that at 6am on the dot she started talking to herself in the cot.  I raced in and told her how proud I was that she had slept for so long.  I excitedly brought her into our bed, still praising her and beaming to Tim about what she'd done.  His comment was "why didn't you tell her we'd get her at 7am".  I couldn't help but laugh.

That was the first night that she had slept through without me needing to get up ONCE.  The first time!  I was beyond excited.

Last night we had another little chat before bedtime.  I thought the night before was too good to be true and was really interested to see how things would go again this time.

Same thing happened.  She didn't wake for her dream feed and I literally didn't hear a single peep out of her all night until just before 6am.  I praised her again for her great effort and she seemed so proud of herself.

It's probably just a major fluke that this has happened two nights in a row, but maybe there is some truth to the fact that babies may understand more than we realise.  After all these months of trying different techniques and going through rough nights (not all the time) was it possible that all I had to do was ask her to sleep through the night?  Does she really understand me?  If so, I really need to start watching what I say around her!