Makaylee

Kaiden

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Night 1 in the crib

When we had Makaylee I was very much against actual co-sleeping. Both Mike and I were terrified we would roll on her, or something bad would happen. So I got my arms reach co-sleeper. Lucky for us, Makaylee was a great sleeper, and she loved the co-sleeper. I rarely had to feed her, and she made a great transition from the swing and co-sleeper to the crib.

Kaiden, not so much. He hated to co-sleeper. He did sleep in it in the beginning on two wedges. The one that goes under the sheet, and a memory foam sleep positioner to keep him from rolling around. When he outgrew the memory foam wedge, he stopped sleeping in the co-sleeper so well. I got desperate for more than 2-3 hours of sleep a night, so I pulled out the happiest baby on the block book, and tried the swing as recommended. He started sleeping for 4 hours, followed by an additional 3 hours in the swing, and I was so happy with that. The problem is that if I tried to put him back in the swing he would wake up, and in the co-sleeper he would wake up. Kaiden is still pretty much a very restless sleeper from about 3 or 4am on. So one night out of exhaustion I fell asleep with him breastfeeding. After that it was all over. He started coming into our bed sooner and sleeping less and less in the swing. Somehow we made it back to not sleeping longer than 1-3 hour stretches again. Then Kaiden started fighting and screaming when it was time to sleep at all, so somehow I ended up laying with him on the bed until he fell asleep and sneaking out. Don't ask me how I accomplished this with Makaylee still running around, but I did. This new laying with him to go to sleep has been going on for a month, and I am sick of it. I am also tired of him waking up every 1-3 hours all night long. He is so restless that neither Mike nor I get very good sleep from around 3 or 4 on. Mike has been sleeping on the couch more and more, and I want my bed back! So I pulled out the handy dandy baby bible AKA Baby Whisperer and decided to try sleep training him with her pick up/put down method. It is not crying it out. I sit in with him and comfort him with my voice, or perhaps a song and if he completely freaks out, then I pick him up just long enough for him to stop crying and put him right back down. He successfully took three naps in the crib today. YAY! (Let me also mention that he is a 45 minute napper just like Makaylee use to be). I put him in the crib tonight. So everyone please keep your fingers crossed that we both survive the whole night through with him in the crib. We might not tonight because Mike has to get up at 4;30 am for a flight, so if he is screaming and keeping Mike up he will probably end up in our bed, but the goal is to have him sleep a whole night in the crib. Then from there I will need to start weaning out his nighttime feedings. Because at 6 months, he should be able to go longer than 3 hours without eating. Everyone wish us luck!

1 comment:

Not So Exciting Andi said...

Good luck, Sarah! I remember weaning Falco of nighttime feedings, and I think it was a bit of a long process. Like you, I decided at around six months that he should not need to eat every three hours anymore, but he still needed some convincing ;) Getting him to sleep in the crib will be a great start.