Let me start by admitting this is only night two for us. I decided to start this “sleep training” method on a Friday. Starting it during the week would be setting us up to fail.
First, I will give a little background to our sleeping situation.
**Please, no judgement from anyone. What I have learned is to never judge another parent. Everyone has to do what works best for their family and situation.**
My little guy was a great sleeper at 4 months. I could lay him down in his crib groggy, and he would soothe himself to sleep. Then around 5 months, he got sick and started teething. He wasn’t sleeping well at all. He was getting up multiple times a night. He was so stuffed up and couldn’t breathe. I let him sleep in our bed. (I know some people frown upon co-sleeping, but it is quite normal in other countries.) He would start out in his crib every night, and by 2am he would end up in our bed. I did this at first because he wasn’t sleeping. Then, it became a routine. He would wake up and cry and I would bring him in our room. Around seven/eight months he started to protest going in his crib at night. If I would lay him down groggy, he would immediately stand up and scream. I made the mistake of letting him fall asleep in our bed, and then I would move him to his crib. People warned me that it was a bad idea, and I didn’t listen. I did what I wanted to do. I wanted to get him to sleep without him being upset. I loved the extra cuddle time. He then started to become more mobile. We would lay down and do our same routine when he appeared tired (always within a half hour either way of his “set” bedtime.) But now, he would just start moving around the bed. What used to be a nice 10-15 minutes of extra cuddles at night turned into 30-45 minutes of stress. He would crawl around and I would lay him back down. He would cry. And then we would repeat. He also started to wake up more at night. What used to be a long stretch to 2am was not turning into and hour or 2 and he would be awake before midnight. He would then wake up 2 more times each night. He was no longer sleeping well, and neither were we. We did this for weeks. The past two weeks were bad. This was the point that I realized that this was no longer working for our family.
I told myself I would put him in his crib. He is 11 months old, and he should be sleeping through the night. We tried it last weekend. I was weak, and I broke down. I brought him into our bed.
We had another bad week. I promised myself and my husband that I would be strong this weekend. I HAD to do this for all of us. We all needed to get more sleep. It was going to run us all down.
Last night, I started our bedtime routine. I bathed him and changed him into his PJs. Next, we had our bedtime “snack.” Then, we had his bedtime bottle as I read him our favorite bedtime books. He appeared to be getting sleepy, so I took him to his room. I turned on his sound machine and kissed him goodnight. I walked out of the room as he started to stand up and protest.
I let him yell for 3 minutes before I went in to soothe him. I did not take him out of his crib. This was so hard for me. He stood there with his arms up sobbing saying “Mama.” It hurt. I’m sure it was hurting more than it was hurting him. I kept laying him back down. Trying to soothe him and “hush” him. This went on for about 30-40 minutes. He finally laid down and went to sleep. This went a lot faster than I thought it would. I knew he would be waking up in the middle of the night. That would be the real challenge.
Fast forward to 12:30am. He woke up and started to cry. I waited and let him cry for about 5 minutes before going in and soothing him. He was ready to come into our bed. I did not lift him out of the crib. I gave him a hug as he was standing up, and then I laid him back down. I tried every soothing method I knew. His sobs were heartbreaking. I sat on his floor and cried as well. For a good 15 minutes I sat next to his crib holding his hand through the openings, and we both cried. After about an hour, he finally went back to sleep. He slept until 7:30am. This was the longest stretch he had slept in weeks.
Tonight, we followed the same bedtime routine. I laid him in his crib and kissed him goodnight. I walked out. He cried for MAYBE two minutes and he went to sleep.
We will have to see how the rest of the night goes, but at least we got him to sleep quickly tonight.
Busy Momma Bear 