When Sylvan was about 20 months old, he went from waking up a zillion times in the middle of the night, every night, just because he wanted company, to waking up at 1:30 in the morning and absolutely not going back to sleep because he was starving. After a few nights of this, one of us figured out that we should take him downstairs and stuff him full of scrambled eggs, then put him back to bed. He slept well.
Then we got really smart. We started feeding him two scrambled eggs immediately before bedtime. And when I say immediately, I mean get your pajamas on, read some books, then go back downstairs, eat two eggs and straight to bed with you, mister boy.
It worked. He slept through the night, just like that. We fed him two eggs, immediately before bedtime, for months, according to my hazy memory. We went through a lot of eggs. We considered making sacrifices to the chicken gods to ensure plentiful, but what do you sacrifice to chicken gods?
Elena was different. She slept through the night — most nights — until a few months ago. We were spoiled. Then she started waking up once a night. Then twice, then three times. Sometimes she would go right back to sleep with a little help, but usually she needed some milk, or a walk around the house, or a walk around the block (ugh). We tried to feed her some eggs right before bedtime, but she has never been the voracious eater that her brother was, and she wasn’t all that interested.
Two nights ago, she woke up at 1:00 and absolutely refused to go back to sleep. We walked around. We talked about what we saw outside the window. We went downstairs. Finally, I offered her some food. She wanted cheese (she says “gee!”), so I sat her in her chair and fed her a piece of cheese. Ten pieces of cheese, half a peanut butter sandwich, and a cup of cow milk later, she was ready to go back to bed. She slept well.
Last night, we finally got smart. I got her ready for bed, then fed her two eggs (“ubb!”) right before putting her to sleep.
I awoke in the pre-dawn light, all by myself without an alarm, without hearing any yelling. I was completely bewildered and completely refreshed. What time is it? Heck, what day is it? Am I late for my race? Is it Saturday? Friday? I had just slept all night. All night! Straight through, without waking up. I can’t remember the last time that happened. Really, I have no idea. It’s been many months, for sure. Wait a minute, if I just slept all night, that means… that means Elena slept all night!
Oh, glorious eggs (ubb!). How I love you. How I cherish you.
Two Eggs (Ubb!)
Elena and Ubb, about fifteen minutes before bedtime
We’ve been trying to give Finn something to eat before bed (and of course, Anders has to have some, too.) It has been helping him sleep through the night. I was inspired by your post and gave them eggs last night. Finn slept right through until 6:30 (yeah!) but Anders woke in the middle of the night, got into our bed and proceeded to kick me for an hour. No more eggs for that kid, it just gave him extra energy.