I missed yesterday. My bad. Sleep training is proving to be a challenge. R has spent the past two nights sleeping in the guest room until the end of week one.
Night 1 was pretty bad, crying for a long time before falling asleep the first time and then waking up every 10 minutes or so until 1:00 AM, finally coming into bed with us at that time. Last night he went down with about 10 minutes of fuss and then slept pretty well until 11:00 PM. He woke up for a nurse then went back into the pack n play and cried for a solid hour before I gave up and brought him into bed. At least we made it past midnight - 12:09 AM to be exact. (Please note that the hour of crying was with me constantly trying to soothe him but not picking him up to do so.)
It's not all terrible, though. We have found that having the pack n play pulled up next to my side of the bed so Little Buddy can see my face really helps him stay calm. A hand on his chest, rubbing his tummy, and a quiet sing-through of Take My Life and Let It Be calms him down nicely. He gets picked up for a nurse after 10:00 PM and gets picked up any time he sits up to cry (only once last night).
The goal for this week is to get Little Buddy to fall asleep in the pack n
play next to our bed from 9pm to after midnight with minimal crying. I'm hoping that, by the end of the week, we are at the point of Little Buddy crying for less than 10 minutes at bedtime, less than 5 minutes between wakings, and staying asleep for at least 1 hour at a time. It's not perfect but hopefully will be the first step in sleeping in his own bed.
What we are doing reminds me of the No Cry Sleep Solution that I tried for one night with Little K. However, having co-slept exclusively for 13 months plus partial co-sleeping to almost 3 years, I'm really not anxious to relive that experience. I swore that I would never do Cry-It-Out but I've gotten to the point that *some* crying is not a deal breaker for me.
Now, all of that being said, this is probably the worst possible time to start sleep training. Little Buddy started crawling, trying to stand, started solids, and is cutting his two top teeth. Lots of challenges and changes that probably leave him needing more down time (read: nursing/suckling time) each night. Unfortunately, our newly active baby has almost crawled off the bed a few times, making co-sleeping a bit of a safety hazard. He also managed to totally break up mommy-daddy time several times the past week, which is just not okay with me right now. Big ole bag of NOPE to that. Plus I've noticed that I'm a little short tempered with Little K which I believe is related to being totally touched-out by Little Buddy.
So, yeah.
All of that wrapped up together means we are sleep training. And it sucks. But it should be better by one week and then we can move forward with stage 2: going back in the pack n play after his 1:00 AM nursing. (That's going to suck, too. Ugh.)
Pray for us. Please. And send coffee.
Good luck!!
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