Longer stretches at night

Knock on wood but the last few nights have been going pretty well for us, nursing-wise. I nurse Sam before I go to bed - between 11 and 12 - and then he sleeps until 5am! He wakes up the same time as always (in the sevens). I am really enjoying this nice stretch of sleep. I haven't had a stretch longer than 4 hours in months!

How did this happen? Well, we were sleep training him like this: Sam would always wake up like 2-2.5 hours after I fed him before I went to sleep. He couldn't have been hungry then. So for a few nights, when he woke up at 2am or so and started crying, either me or my husband would go into his room, pat him down and give him the pacifier. He was not hungry because he'd settle down in a few minutes and go back to sleep, and not wake up to eat until an hour or two later, which was fine with me. So it took a few days but then he realized that waking up at that time does not equal nursing so it just doesn't pay to make the effort and cry at that hour!

Sam also recently went through a really bad virus that brought with it a cold, fever, and an ear infection. He was medicated for it. But that really threw his scheduling for a loop and all training went out the window. I couldn't let him cry for a minute because I felt bad for him. I held and rocked for many hours. But thankfully, he bounced back to normal after about a week of warped scheduling, and now is giving us all a treat by taking longer stretches of sleep at night.

And when he eats at 5am, boy does he eat. This morning for example, he at for 10 minutes and then I put him back to bed. A few minutes later I hear him crying. This is unusual so I decided it means he wants to eat more! I relatched him and he ate for another 10 minutes or so! Then he ate nicely in the morning at breakfast.