Sleep Training

Neither of my kids were good sleepers as babies. Apparently, neither was I (which is the reason my Mom thinks it's pay back!). With J, I slogged through the sleeplessness until she was 11 months at which point I started a new job running a small nonprofit and just couldn't function anymore. We did the "Cry It Out" (CIO) method, which was my absolute last resort after reading all of Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution books as well as doing tons of online research. I absolutely hated every second of it, and probably cried just as much as my daughter did. I really REALLY don't want to do that again, and am hoping that by starting earlier with B I can get him to sleep better.

I've found the Baby Sleep Site to be helpful, and after a weekend of wakings every 30 - 60 minutes I finally decided to purchase a customized family sleep plan from them. I should mention that they have a free newsletter that I have found to be helpful, and lots of information on their website, so check it out!

I received my family sleep plan yesterday, and based on the recommendations, following are what we are starting out working on:

• work on B's first "going to bed" time (and treat his night wakings the same way I have been). I am to work on naps once night time sleep has improved
• nurse B before I actually put him to bed to try to break his nurse-to-sleep association
• swaddle him with one arm out to begin to train him to sleep unswaddled. This is supposed to allow him to use his hands/fingers to self soothe <hopefully!>
• try to wait 5 - 10 minutes before picking him up and putting him back to sleep for his night wakings.

Here's how it worked last night...

I fed B around 6:30, then went up to put him to bed around 6:45. According to the sleep plan, I am to try new tactics for at least 30 minutes before taking a break, so I told myself to expect getting him to sleep without nursing to take at least that long. I ended up bouncing him (on an exercise ball) for a little while but he got pretty upset with not nursing, and he was definitely tired. So I tried my white noise app on my iphone and set it to hairdryer (which both of my kids loved!) which seemed to calm him down a lot. I then rocked him for maybe 5 minutes and he fell asleep! I am supposed to be careful to not create new sleep associations that would be required every time he wakes up, but I thought that if I have to leave the white noise on all night it would be an improvement and then we can work on weaning him off of it. I turned off the white noise slowly, and put him to bed (holding down his arm that was unswaddled since he still has that "startle reflex." He moved around a tiny bit, but fell asleep!!

He slept until 9:30 (2 1/2 hours, which isn't great, but isn't horrible either - for him - ) I told myself I would wait the 5 minutes, but he started fully crying right away so I went in after about 90 seconds. I just find it SO HARD to not comfort him when he cries. Maybe it's because I worked so hard in the beginning to get him to stop crying because he had colic, that now if he cries and I know what I can do to make him stop, I want to do that thing!

I picked B up and nursed him to sleep as usual (treating night time awakenings as I usually do) and bounced him for 2 minutes to help him burp, put him down and he did ok! He woke up again at around 11 (I think... it's all a blur) and I was able to wait the 5 minutes! I did the same thing with nursing/bouncing and put him down.

B woke up about 30 minutes later (around 11:45) and I did the same, then he was up again at 1 and then again at 5 (a 4 hour stretch!!!). I was thrilled!!! Usually his longest sleep is his first, with each subsequent waking coming closer and closer together, so the fact that he had such a long stretch that late in the night (morning) was fantastic! I put him down after nursing again and he woke up for the day at 6:30. All in all, not a bad night considering how he usually does!

I'm hoping that by tracking how the sleep training is going I will eventually be able to see progress. I know that by not using the CIO method it will take longer, but at this point, I'm ok with that.