live blogging the sleep training

It worked?

After last nights’ crying session, he slept till 4:30 a.m. That’s better than it’s been most nights lately. But here’s the really wild part:

I got up, Scott brought him to bed, I nursed till 5:15 — the usual routine. The boy started getting active, wanting to crawl all over daddy. Time to get up! But daddy’s still sick and wouldn’t budge.

I was also pretty damn tired. Boy slept, but husband was up and down all night long. Took boy to nursery, held him on lap in vice-like hug grip, rocked and shushed in rocker. And the crazy thing? He fell back to sleep. I put him in the crib and he didn’t get up again until 6:45!!!!!!

O.M.G.

Also, the 4:30 wake-up was the angry yowling cry kind, but the post-6 wake-up was the tweedle-dee I’m just going to hang out in my crib and talk to myself until the others arrive kind. The well-rested baby kind. Hurray!

The ped had said to only tackle one issue at a time: bedtime first, then the night waking. Could it be that the 4:30 wake-up is a night-waking, that may one day fade?

In related news — the folks at Dr. Greene’s website got wind of our struggles and gave us a shout out. Woke up today to find yet more encouragement on the web. Thanks Ms. Greene!

For a lot of interesting comments from moms who’ve been there, check out this post at Her Bad Mother — which helped me during the melee last night.

5 comments for “live blogging the sleep training

  1. November 7, 2008 at 1:26 pm

    So good to know we’re not alone, eh?

    Hang in there!

    Her Bad Mother’s last blog post..Look At Me Not Sleeping

  2. November 7, 2008 at 3:20 pm

    You sound really calm, and I’m full of admiration for that. (I’m sitting here practically weeping on the keyboard because Flanny’s been screaming in his crib rather than napping for the past twenty minutes.) Was this easier for women of our parents’ generation? They never seem to talk about our baby sleep issues. What exactly did they do about sleep, I wonder? Did you ever ask your own mom?

    Laura H.’s last blog post..Baby, you can drive

  3. November 7, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    Laura:

    Calm, numb, or just plain worn out?

    I seem to cycle through the panic modes — the other night when he was up from about 1 to 4, I cried from “making” him cry. Bad mother, cue self-hatred.

    Then I have nights like last night where I tune into this certainty that he’s fine, despite the racket he’s making, and I’m doing the right thing. And then there’s nights where my nervous system overloads and I just shut down. Cue numbness.

    Today, Jonah has “napped” twice, meaning he stood in the crib for about an hour this morning and mostly chatted to himself with an occasional whine, but never slept, and stood in the crib for half-an-hour this afternoon yelling and crying until I gave up.

    At this moment, he’s in the jumper, and I’ve snuck away to check email. Will call you.

    By the way, my mom has said a lot of things — that she doesn’t remember it being this hard, that she remembers that if I fell asleep for 2 minutes in the car and she had to carry me into the house, I’d wake up and not nap any further, that in general I was an EXTREMELY willful creature, and as much as it drove her nuts sometimes, she figured it would serve me later.

    Mom — did I get that right?

  4. MCMAWR
    November 8, 2008 at 9:47 am

    Sleep issues occupy only a small part of my depleted memory of years gone by. When Scott was an infant and sleeping in his crib, which was next to my bed, he would wake up crying and, after caring for his needs, I would put him in the infant carrier on top of the mattress and he would fall asleep again. He’d sleep in that thing anywhere. I figured he liked having his head elevated. He slept well anywhere. If there were problems, CIO was usually applied and he learned quickly. He was, generally, not a stubborn kid.

    Wish I could offer more insight. It seems like we just expected sleep to happen and it usually did. Simple, heh?

  5. November 11, 2008 at 6:22 pm

    Sleep, oh the elusive sleep! We went through nap training when my daughter was about 7 months old. It was a little on the early side by some standards, but we just had the sense she was ready (for a variety of reasons). Our experience sounds similar to yours. The bedtime routine actually went incredibly well and “took” very quickly. The naps were another story. Days on end of no napping when previously she had been quite a good napper. Then all of a sudden, things snapped into place and ta-da. Everyone is happier with more sleep and she seems so content. My own mother was amazed that people have theories about “sleep training”. She said she had no guidance and at some point just couldn’t take it anymore – put me in the crib, shut the door and walked away figuring eventually I’d go to sleep. I’m alive and well and have a great relationship with my mom – no harm done! Hang in there :)

    coffeegrl’s last blog post..Personal space

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