We have finally made some progress with sleep. As I type this, I am very well aware that I am jinxing it and we will have a bad night tonight, but I wanted to brag on my baby. For almost two months now he's been taking (short) naps in his crib. He was still sleeping in the rock and play at night, but it was quickly getting too small and not so safe for him. He has to be swaddled to sleep so we couldn't buckle him in. On January 1 I removed the rock and play from his room so we wouldn't be tempted to use it out of desperation. It was amazing. You'd think we were laying him on hot coals. Even if we put him to sleep by rocking/bouncing (which we did for naps as well) he would immediately open his eyes when we approached the crib. So...we began "crying it out". It has been a loooooong (11 days now) process but so worth it. The first week he would scream for the 2 hours we committed ourselves to, and he still didn't sleep well at night. After the two hours he'd sleep for 10-30 minutes (which was typically before crying it out), we'd feed him and start the process all over. This week he cut it to an hour of screaming and then would actually sleep for 5-6 hours without waking up! That was a record. The past two nights have been great. Thursday night he cried for 12 minutes and then slept for 7 hours, and after eating put himself right back to sleep for another few hours. Then last night, I kicked Mimi out (Mimi and I both knew she couldn't handle the crying) and put him to bed. He fussed/complained for less than 5 minutes and then fell asleep. It was so quiet, you couldn't hear it on the monitor! He then slept for 8 hours, ate and put himself back to sleep right away and slept for another 2 hours. Wow. This may not seem like much to those of you lucky enough to have good sleepers (or reflux free babies) but for us this is HUGE.
Naps are a different story. He won't let us put him to sleep anymore so he's been crying it out for naps as well. He sometimes cries for longer than he actually sleeps, but today cried for 9 minutes and has now been asleep for almost 40. Another huge "wow" for us.
I guess all the crying (on my part and his part), consistency, persistence, and questioning ourselves has been worth it. Hopefully he'll continue to sleep well so I can have a chance to get some sleep too (pumping and getting up to give him a bottle doesn't allow me to have a lot of consecutive sleep). Yay Hayden! Keep it up buddy!
I should also mention that we changed formulas and reflux meds during this time, as well as added lots of veggies to his diet. Who knows what actually did the trick :).
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| enjoying his bouncer (Christmas present from Mimi and Papa) and letting Mommy get some stuff done in the kitchen |
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| First bite of butternut squash - he kept the smile the entire time and has continued to smile through the rest of the veggies he's tried so far... |
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| Oops, I think I put my hands in my mouth a few too many times! |
1 comment:
Yaaaaaayyyyy! I'm all about some sleep training. You guys did awesome following through with it...I'm sure it was mega difficult not to quit. But it sounds like it worked (at least for night-time) and I'm sure naps will get better.
I will never forget the first night we let Erin cry herself to sleep when she was 5 1/2 months old. I think we had 4 hours total of crying during the night. So terrible. But each night got better until she would cry briefly and then sleep till early morning. Very much worth the agony for all involved :)
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