sleep training

Sleep Saga part 3

~ ceeceesparkles ~ Leave a comment

I’ve had a surprising amount of people asking me to follow up on how sleep training with E has been going, so rather than a bunch of individual answers I’ll try to answer the couple questions I’ve been asked here.

Does E still sleep through the night? He is!! Its been a few weeks now so I feel pretty confident in saying he’s a good sleeper now. I finally have two kids that sleep all night! Every few days (maybe 1-2x a week) E will wake up in the middle of the night, but its never for long. Sometimes I don’t even get up to go into his room because he puts himself back to sleep so quickly. If he does cry for a while I’ll go in his room and either lay him back down and pat his back for a little bit, or… (see next question)

Do you still breastfeed at night? Sometimes I nurse. It depends on how long he’s cried in the middle of the night and how much pain I’m in (you nursing mamas get me). I probably only nurse in the night like once a week. But I’m seeing that night feeding being completely done with here very, very soon.

Have you changed anything? Nope! Our routine is the same as it was when we started, except sometimes we skip the nighttime bath.

Is he dependent on the sound machine now? I don’t think he is. A few nights ago I forgot to turn it on and he fell asleep and stayed asleep just fine. However, I do think its comforting and soothing to him so I don’t plan on stopping use of it any time soon. I love it.

Do you use any kind of baby monitor? We don’t use a video monitor or one of the monitors that listens for him, but we do use an Owlet which I am 1000% in love with. You know I’m a chronic worrier – this eases so much worry and allows me to sleep better in my own bed, knowing his breathing and heart rate are being carefully monitored.

How are you sleeping now? Pretty good! It took me about two weeks to get used to all this new, wonderful sleep, but now I am sleeping really well and let me tell you, a full night of sleep is heaven! I had forgot how refreshing and beautiful good sleep is!! I’ve also been having the craziest, weird dreams since getting so much sleep which keeps me very entertained.

If you want to read part 1 and 2 of this saga, click here and here.

 

Sleep Saga part 2

~ ceeceesparkles ~ 3 Comments

*read part 1 here

THE FIRST NIGHT

You guys. I am beyond shocked. I set my expectations very, very low for our first night of sleep training. We decided to start even though we didn’t have the sound machine yet. I found a free (kind of lame) sound machine app that I used in his room, but it worked well enough. I was buckling up for hours of crying, from both me and him. I was prepared to feel heartbroken for him and I was prepared to quite possibly give up and go in and grab my sad baby, deciding we’d try again later.

But guess what? E did amazing. Its like he was as ready as we were.

WHAT WE DID 

  • At dinner, by sheer luck, E ate awesome. He always eats really good, but this time he also gobbled down an entire thing of baby food! That very, very rarely happens with this little man. He had a good start on a nice, full belly.
  • Around 8 we did bath time and I’m not ashamed to say I used the Johnsons sleepy time body wash and shampoo – I’m a desperate mom!
  • Then we put lotion on him, got him in his pajamas and we read some books together as a family in the boys bedroom.
  • Prayer time!
  • Then Wild Man and H left the room (we are having H sleep in our room while we get E comfortable in their shared room).
  • I turned on the sound and nursed E until he was almost asleep, but not entirely.
  • Then I laid him in his crib, turned off his lamp and shut the door.

He immediately burst into tears and he screamed. My heart broke. But guess what? He only cried for about 25 minutes. I was fully expecting hours. He cried for 25 minutes then fell asleep until 2, but only cried for 5-10 minutes. Then he did the same thing at 4 and woke up for good around 8!

NIGHT TWO

We did the exact same thing as far as nightly rituals go as we did for night one. E took about 20 minutes to fall asleep. Between the hours of 2 and 4, life was rough. I had to go in and nurse at one point because I was hurting so badly (i have woken up with watermelon-like boobs every morning since sleep training) but it was just the soothing he needed to fall back asleep. Then he slept until 8.

NIGHT THREE

The sound machine came today! No more lame sound app! Night three was Halloween night. I knew our schedule may be a little off, so I wasn’t sure how our night time routine would go. The boys have been sick for the past week and this was a particularly bad day for E. So around 8 I just quickly put him to bed because he was so, so done. No bath. No books. Just bed. I turned on his sound machine, nursed him until drowsy, laid him down and…no crying. None. He just laid down and SLEPT ALL NIGHT LONG! He slept from 8:30-8:30. This is the first time in his entire life that he has slept through the night. I am beyond amazed and proud.

NIGHT FOUR

Without going into a lot of detail – night four was exactly like night three! Another amazing night of sleeping all night long! 8:30-8:30. I could get used to this.

THE REST OF THE WEEK

Ok, so I really believed at some point E would decide he hated his crib. But we are now a week in and I really have nothing negative to report! He is sleeping like a champ! He is sick and also teething, so I thought sleep training would go out the window but it really hasn’t. He still sleeps basically through the night. The last two nights I’ve been going in to nurse him once and sometimes give him some medicine just because like I said, he’s sick. But overall, E gets five stars, two big thumbs up and lots and lots of praise. This boy was ready to sleep in his crib!!

ONE WEEK OF CRIB/SLEEP TRAINING IN…

Pleasantly surprised. Shocked. Very happy. Very well rested (well mostly, I keep on waking myself up without the help of E?) I’m glad we did this.

I swear by the sound machine. He is instantly soothed by it. I love our owlet monitor, it gives me peace of mind. I love my baby for being such an awesome sleeper.

Next step? Putting H back in there room and seeing how they both sleep in their room together!!

 

 

Sleep Saga part 1

~ ceeceesparkles ~ 4 Comments

I’m not gonna lie, I’m hoping that in the future this saga will have a happy ending. I don’t care how many ‘parts’ there have to be to this, but I am determined that sometime soon (oh i hope, i hope, i hope) I will no longer have to be worrying about this so much. What is this you ask?

SLEEP TRAINING MY (ALMOST) 1 YEAR OLD

I have been scouring the internet for success stories, amazing advice and tips and tricks and I’ve found quite a bit. I’m ready to start. I’m ready to share my story step by step in hopes that maybe somewhere along the day I sleep deprived mom can find my blog and learn something from my experience and feel motivated and pumped up to get her baby to sleep better at night.

CURRENTLY

So where are we right now on day one of this? We are in a very frustrating, overwhelming and sleepless spot, thats where. My dearest, darlingest little E is a wonderful tiny human, but a terrible, awful sleeper. Right now he wakes up 10-15 times a night – maybe more. Sometimes he falls back asleep quickly, but sometimes he doesn’t. 99.9% of the time he has to nurse to fall back asleep. Because of the frequent middle-of-the-night-wakes, he sleeps in between Wild Man and I in our bed (don’t shame co-sleeping here, parent-shaming is a no-no on this page) which has been just fine for months and months, but lately…its time for a change. He’ll be one in a couple of weeks. Its time he learns how to sleep in his own room, in his own crib and its time he learns that he doesn’t have to nurse all night long (seriously, thats what he wants – the second my boobs gone, he’s livid).

What I don’t need is any comments telling me that I’ve brought this upon myself and created this little non-sleeping monster. This is exactly what I did with H and he’s an amazing sleeper. But clearly, every child is different. With H, around 8/9 months old I got him totally comfortable and happy in his crib/bed. I’ve tried with E – its just not working. He’s stubborn and persistent. He will scream all night long until someone holds him. Until he’s nursing. Because I’m so tired at night, its easier not to fight it and just let him sleep in our bed all night – nursing what feels like every 30 minutes. But I just can’t do it anymore. I need my bed back. I need to not be nursing all night. I need to have my baby sleep in his own bed and sleep all through the night, which is something he has never ever done in his life, just so you know. I am ready. I’ve been patient for nearly a year but that hasn’t worked. Its time to buckle down. I’m going to be persistent. I’m motivated. I’m going to get E crib/sleep trained. Boo-ya!

THE PLAN

Last night I ordered a sound machine off Amazon. It should be here tomorrow or the next day. So much of what I’ve read has said that a sound machine is a must. I’m banking on this to help us greatly. I’m debating if I should start the sleep training tonight or if I should wait a day or two until the machine comes. Either way, I’m excited and hopeful for this.

I’ve read a lot of ideas and I’ve literally made pros and cons lists of all these different techniques I’ve found. Here is what I, as of now, have planned to do.

Bedtime is at 8:30/9. Before bed we’ll have a bath, then a snack/small meal to ensure his tummy is full, then we will read books, read scriptures and say a prayer (with an emphasis on E’s sleep schedule) and then I’ll sit in the chair in his room and nurse him until he’s either almost asleep or fully asleep. *I’m not sure if I should make him be all the way asleep when I lay him down – I’ve read that its good to put them in their crib awake, but drowsy so they learn to self-soothe, which totally makes sense. We’ll see what I end up doing. I’ll keep you posted. Then I will lay him in his crib, tell him that I love him and goodnight, make sure the nightlight is on and leave the room and shut the door.

I am 100% sure he’ll scream and cry. At 5 minutes I will go in and comfort him. I won’t pick him up, but I’ll lay him back down, pat his back, sing to him, whatever. Then I’ll leave again. I can go back in every 10 minutes as needed for the remainder of the night.

I’m anticipating not sleeping at all the first few nights because if I know my son (and I do), he’s not going to fall asleep without a feisty fight. But everyone who has tried this has said to stay strong and not cave and all the sudden it will click and your baby will figure it out. I’m banking on that.

MY PREDICTION

Full disclosure, I’m not sure how I’ll do the first night. I’m going to feel guilty and sad. I’m going to feel terrible for E while he cries alone in his room. But I’m also going to feel good, because I know its time. Its past time.

I think he’s going to fight it hard core. I’m not sure if he’ll really sleep at all those first nights. Its going to be a struggle. Its going to be hard. But I am wanting to put in the work.

However, if we start this and it just feels wrong and uncomfortable I am allowing myself the freedom to quit. Its possible this isn’t the right technique for us. If I feel that way, then we’ll start back at square one and find a different way to sleep and crib train. In the end, its whatever is best, safest and ok-est for E.

*****

Wish us luck as we start this journey! I’m nervous, sleepy and excited! I’ll keep you posted on how it all goes! Stay tuned for the Sleep Saga part 2!