Adventures in Sleep Training: Part 1

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ........

That's pretty much what my body wants to do all day and all night. In the past few weeks, it has happened VERY little.

Reed was such a good little sleeper. He would get about 6-7 hours straight before he would wake up hungry. We were doing so good! Then, it went downhill.

It decreased to 4-5 hours, then 3-4. One week he was up every 2.5 hours. All the while we were trying to get him to sleep without the swaddle (since he can now roll over). That was probably part of it, but safety over sleep! Then it started to get harder to put him down to sleep.

Reed is a people person. He loves people and loves being held, especially to sleep. So he'll fall asleep in one of our arms, or laying next to us. Once he is out, we will transfer him to his bed, only to find him awake within 20 minutes, or immediately. I can't fault him for loving people and being more comfortable sleeping near us, but mommy needs her sleep very badly.

After a long conversation with Reed's nurse about this behavior, my worst fears were coming true. We needed to sleep-train.

Over the past few months, just the thought of sleep-training would reduce me to tears. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle this, but exhaustion makes a person do crazy things.

Try #1: Reed had been awake for an amazing 4 hours (2x his normal limit). I thought, after feeding him, he'd crash for a few hours. He ate, then fell asleep. I put him in his bed and immediately, he was awake. Not cool. I figured I'd let him hang out for a while. He started to cry, of course. I made my call to the nurse, with Reed crying in the background. She confirmed that we should start getting him used to his bed and sleeping on his own. Reed's pediatrician seconded the advice and added that healthy babies can cry up to 8 hours and be fine. He'd already been crying for about 20 minutes off-and-on, so I figured I would see how it went. Thanks to our trusty DVR, I had some fun shows to watch to partially drown out the screaming. Burn Notice, Burn Notice, Burn Notice, Burn Notice......10 minutes later, I heard nothing. I rushed in to check, and he was ASLEEP! My goodness, that wasn't bad. But then......the screaming started again. I guess he woke up.Castle, Castle, Castle....I waited again, and he was asleep 5 minutes later. I didn't hold my breath this time because he was up in 5 more minutes crying. Dancing with the Stars, Dancing with the Stars, asleep. This time, he was truly out. 2 hours later, I had a very happy baby smiling at me from his crib. Praise the Lord!!

So proud of him for sleeping on his own and proud of me for sticking with it. I know this is only the beginning, but at least I had the courage to try.

To be continued...