Adventures in Sleep Training: First Full Day

Well, we made it through night number one quite successfully and have now completed our first full day of sleep training. That means we had to conquer not just night sleep but also naps. According to the book, it can take up to a week to get babies to successfully fall asleep and stay asleep during naptime. The odds were not in our favor.

Nap #1 was pretty rough. Jacob fussed for about 10 minutes, slept for 20, and then cried off and on for the last 30 minutes. Naps are supposed to be at least an hour, so unfortunately I couldn't take him out of his crib before that hour was up. Since he had such a good night, it was rough hearing him cry so much.

Nap #2 also started with crying. This time it was only about 5 minutes, and then he slept for about 20 minutes again. He then woke up and cried for the remaining 35 minutes. Once again, this was not fun for me to hear.

Nap #3 was kind of a cheat. According to the book, if your baby does not get a full nap the first two times around, you are supposed to either use motion (driving in the car or moving in the stroller) or your old ways to get the baby a full length nap. This way the baby will not be overtired and have a harder time settling at bedtime. Since Jacob has never slept in his stroller and rarely sleeps in the car, I decided to feed him and then put him in his swing to sleep. This totally worked. In fact, he only ate for about 5 minutes and then passed out for 1 hour and 40 minutes!

Because he struggled so much with his naps, I began to get worried about putting him to bed that night. Luckily, it ended up being super easy. We went to church before he went to bed, and they gave him a bottle right before we left. They said he tried to go to sleep, but they kept him awake (because I asked them to). As soon as we got home I changed him, read a story, and then put him right into his crib with his sheep. He must have fallen asleep immediately, because he didn't make a peep. I even checked on him 10 minutes later, and he was passed out. It was amazing! I honestly could not believe how easy it was.

Jacob slept great the whole night. He had 3 or 4 times when he woke up crying for about a minute or two, but then he fell right back to sleep on his own. He even woke up 10 minutes before his wake up time, put himself back to sleep, and slept 6 minutes past the wake up time! So he ended up getting a full eleven hours with no difficulty. We still had to feed him, of course, but we started the weaning process and were able to put him back to bed with no problems after each feeding. I am so happy with this process already. I can't wait to see how the next few days go.

Adventures in Sleep Training: Night One

Well, last night I decided to start sleep training with Jacob to see if we could finally work towards getting him to sleep all night long. For those who don't know, sleep training is basically letting your baby "cry it out" until they learn to put themselves to sleep. This keeps them from constantly relying on their parents to get them to sleep night after night. The book I am using is called The Sleepeasy Solution, and it involves several methods to get your child to fall asleep and stay asleep, including slowly weaning them off of night feedings, setting up a predictable bedtime routine, and creating a good sleep environment. Originally I planned to wait another week, but for whatever reason I just decided to go ahead and start this weekend. I am just sick of being so tired and never knowing if he will fall asleep easily or how long he will sleep.

Anyways, last night began our adventure, and I was very nervous about starting the whole process. The book states that babies may cry for up to an hour the first night, and I was expecting the worst based on Jacob's struggle with sleep. I went through our sleep routine which involved a bath (this will only every other night), a diaper change and pajamas, reading a book with Mommy, and a feeding. The hardest part is that I wasn't supposed to let him fall asleep while feeding, because the book said it would make it harder for him to fall asleep on his own and possibly cry longer. The whole time I fed him I was moving his legs, rubbing his belly, and doing whatever I could to keep him awake. He was not very happy about this, because he wanted to fall asleep like usual. After he finished and fussed for about a minute he was calm while I burped him. Then came the time to lie him down and leave. I gave him lots of kisses, turned on his sleep sheep, and left the room. He was totally calm. I went in 5 minutes later to check on him, and he was just lying there sucking his thumb. I then had to wait 10 minutes to check on him again, so I washed some bottles to distract myself and when I went back in he was asleep! I could not believe it. He slept until about 10:05 and then woke up crying. Josh checked on him, since I was trying to go to sleep, and I guess he kept crying off and on for 30 minutes. That was the only crying he did all night. Josh and I fed him according to the book's directions, and he went straight back to sleep each time.

According to the book, since we laid him down at 8:00 his wake time should be 7:00 unless he sleeps later on his own. At about 6:40 I heard him wake up on the monitor and just make noises. He started crying about 5 minutes before wake up, but the book said not to get him up early. So I just waited the 5 minutes, went in and gave him hugs/kisses, and then gave him his morning feeding. I was so proud of my baby!

Now that the first night is over, we are supposed to start working on his naps today and then resume the same bedtime schedule tonight. The book said naps are much harder, usually, so I know that it could be a rough day. I'll keep you posted on how the first full day goes!