Conquering Sleep

The chubster at only a few weeks old.

Boy, we sure have struggled with the sleep thing. I complained about it at work one day and my co-worker, John, father of 3, said, "Look at it this way, it's just 5 years of your life." I responded, "FIVE YEARS?!" hahaha. A little over 3 more to go, I guess.

So, Stan Bear's best sleeping through the night stint happened about a year ago...it was May 2013. I don't remember how long...maybe a couple of months of him going to bed at 7pm and waking up at 5:30 or 6am. Then we traveled west for a couple of weeks and the time difference threw us off as well as the new sleeping accommodations. And when we got back home I was so tired myself that I got lazy and would nurse him back to sleep in the middle of the night and BOOM, our sleep training went out the door. 

14 weeks old

Almost one year later I was thinking that I am really used to getting up twice a night and I'm not that tired. HA! I was getting used to it...but that doesn't mean that it was easy or fun. We also took his pacifier away a little more than a month ago...that actually went well, it wasn't any sort of struggle. There was one time where he saw a stray paci and he cried a little but then once I moved it from view he was able to move on. Because he didn't use it much as a sleep aid taking it away didn't really affect his sleep. Anyways, I decided to try again and practice what I learned from Dr. Ferber's book but be more relaxed about it. These are the changes I made last week:

NIGHT LIGHT
I moved it to a different outlet that is behind a bookshelf. Because of this it doesn't project light up on the ceiling, the light just stays near the bottom of the bookshelf, so it is darker in the room.

NIGHT WAKINGS

If he woke up anytime before 1:30am (I have no idea why I chose that time) I wouldn't nurse him. Instead I would go in there lie him back down and say something like, "Time to go to sleep. I know you can figure out how to do it on your own. I'll be in the other room. Good night." Usually he'd fall back asleep in 5 minutes or less after that. The worst night was when I went back in 3 times within the hour. He eventually stopped waking up at that time and started waking up closer to 4/4:30am. I then started the same thing, any wakings before 5 am I wouldn't nurse him, I'd just lie him back down. That hour was more rough for some reason. 

BEDTIME ROUTINE

I changed his bedtime routine. Usually he would take a bath, read books, then we would go in his room with the lights out and I would nurse him in the rocking chair and sing him lullabies. I would put him in his crib and he'd usually be half asleep. Now, he bathes, I nurse him on the couch, in the living room with the lights on. I will still sing him lullabies. The difference is that when he is done nursing he will usually want to read books. So we read books. Then we say goodnight to Papa and then I take him in his room and he is still awake. I put him in his crib and some nights he will be talking away but eventually fall asleep and most nights he will roll onto his belly and quickly fall asleep.

With these three changes in the last week he has been going to bed between 7:30/8pm and waking up anywhere between 5/7:15am. It's amazing. Last Thursday morning I woke up before him for the first time ever. It was bizarre, but I think I can get used to this.

39 weeks