Up until about a week or so ago, Little Bit was getting up every few hours to eat and get changed. Lately though, she's been sleeping more and more through the night. It's been a pretty crazy journey though.
First we had to convince her that the daytime was for playing while the nighttime was for sleeping. She had this confused for a while.
It took a few sleepless days/nights as I tried to keep her awake during the day by playing with her - which meant I wasn't taking naps either. I tried not to let her sleep longer than a couple of hours at a time during the day, then when she woke up, I would play with her to keep her awake as long as I could until she fell asleep again. Then we'd start over again. Eventually, she got the idea and is getting better with it although occasionally we do have a relapse where we have to re-train again :)
Along with the constant playing, we kept the lights on and curtains open all day long, then at night when we want her to go to sleep, the light go out and the TV gets turned off (or at least down low so even we can barely hear it). It makes since, huh? The problem before was that Hubby works nights so his nights off he was up and awake all night with the lights on, making noise and all, and she was thinking, "YAY! Play with Daddy time!" Now if he has her in the living room with him while he is up, the lights are down low and the TV volume is turned way down, then he puts her in the crib in her room when she falls asleep (when he's not home, she is in the bassinet in our room with me).
I've tried to get a routine set for her bedtime too. We give her a bath (she LOVES the water), put her in her jammies, turn off all the lights, cuddle on the couch and feed her a bottle. She seems to eat more, and thus sleeps better, when she has a bottle than when she is nursed so this is one time that we opt to bottle feed rather than nurse. This way Hubby can feed her sometimes too and it stays consistent...it is always a bottle before bed. We haven't started the self soothing stuff to much quite yet, so she still falls asleep in our arms after the bottle and we gently put her either in her crib or the bassinet.
Most nights I have been able to get her to fall asleep between 9:30 and 10. A few nights she has woken up again around 4 (sometimes she eats and goes right back to sleep and others she is awake and wants to play but still, from 10pm until 4am isn't bad for a 2 month old!). Last night, she didn't drift off until 10:30 but didn't wake me up for a feeding until 6:30...8 full hours!!! WOW!
Hopefully this trend will continue... I'm a much happier mom when I've had sleep!
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