Because of a dear friend/mentor, who encouraged Brian and I to go to a baby scheduling class before Austin was born, we have always benefited from wonderful sleep. Austin slept through the night at 8 weeks, Reece at 7 weeks and Lindsey at 6 weeks. Thank you Connie and Babywise! Yep....we were "those" parents that would only get their child from the crib if they woke up with a "Ga, Ga, Goo, Goo". If they cried, we KNEW they simply needed to go back to sleep. We always put our babies to bed when they were fully awake and aware of their environment. The second we had them in the hospital, my eye checked the clock and started them on a 2 1/2-3 hour feeding schedule. And when 4 other friend's babies were born, on the Akron worship team, we all did the scheduling. Worship team parties were fun in that we would put our babies in the pack-and plays, they wouldn't cry and when questioned we would all say: "Of course they go down happy. They are Babywise babies".
All this to say, even now, we enjoy those benefits as our children "put themselves to bed" (what our most recent babysitter said). The ONLY downside I have seen is we have kids that seem scared to actually get out of bed. I remember when Austin was 4 and we heard him crying in bed. We checked him out and he said that he didn't go potty before going to bed. We had to explain to him to PLEASE get out of bed if he needed to go potty or throw-up or if the house were on fire.
Reece, the other night, had to go potty at 5a.m. and he made sure to wake me up and ask if he could go potty. He must have said my name several times because Brian woke up too and heard me say: "Well......go then!" Unfortunately I never went back to sleep. Oh.....how to teach a 4 year old that he doesn't need permission at 5a.m. because I never fell back asleep and we all paid for that the next day! :)
