Do fat babies sleep better?

A basic constant is that all parents get tons of advice, often with no way to verify authenticity. You're still in the hospital room five minutes from birth and a friend is congratulating you while simultaneously advising that you should circumcise to avoid infection.

Try explaining, as a first time parent, your unique approach and they are liable to form a crowd around you to heckle about your naivete like a new member of British parliament.

So of course you listen, and many of these sound like very good theories (especially your ideas, dear reader). And we try many of them. But most are frustratingly untestable for a quantitative mind like mine.

Case in point:

"Just fatten up the kid and he'll sleep just fine. Once he hits 11-13 lbs he'll sleep through the night."

I have heard this from at least a half dozen people. The idea being it's not about the kids age, it's about his weight. Sounds like a compelling claim with a logical base: babies were destined to be docile sleeping dreamboat but that stinking pea-sized stomach of theirs gets in the way of their (our) angelic sleep.

One thing I really love about this idea is that it transforms Start-Up Mom's boob from an often sore food dispenser into the primary weapon in the sleep war. More feedings = fatter child = sleeping child. But of course I come from a world where people make plenty of logical claims that turn out to be completely false. And since most kids grow at basically the same rate, weight is also a half decent proxy for age.

But in this one instance, we now have a little counter point thanks to my friend Ross and his daughter Katlyn:

"Last night we hit our first major milestone with Katlyn - her first full night of sleep - 7pm - 6am... it is true, it will actually happen at some point."

Not bad for a five month old. But, thanks to her being premature she's -exactly- the same weight (~12 lbs) as our ten week old Kaden. One myth debunked. Two babies, same weight, months apart, significantly different sleep cycles.

Unfortunately this also debunks my "must have drinks with friends for Kaden to sleep well" concept. As well as Start-Up Mom's "must have Volvo for Kaden to sleep well" theory that was previously espoused.