My little man did wonderfully last night! He slept through the night! Hr went to sleep at about 8:20 and woke up at 5am!
At 5am, I let him have a bottle. He would typically get up around 5-6 am on the weekdays. He went right back to sleep until 8am!
I am beyond proud of him 🙂
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.
My friend went to an Essential Oils party about 6 months ago. She told me all about the so-called benefits. The whole concept of using oils was new to me, and sounded crazy! I told her to keep me updated on how it worked out for her.
Fast forward a few months, and I see more and more hype about these oils. I begin to do some research. The benefits seem great, but it is a “pyramid” type business. (At least the few companies that I knew of.) Of course I’m still leary.
Still, the hype continues. I read and research more. A co-worker of mine mentions that she has been using a few of the oils. She has a very positive experience. I ask my friend who initially told me about oils. She is in love with them! Neither of these two are selling the products so it’s not like me buying them would benefit them in any way!
I did more reasearch, but this time on the companies. I narrowed it down to two. I contacted reps from each (neither of them I knew personally.) I had a very hard time getting answers from one company’s rep. I ordered through the company I felt most confident in.
I am not impatiently waiting for my first order of oils to come in. I can’t wait to try them out and give my feedback!
Does anyone else use oils everyday? I’m extremely excited about the health benefits!
Obviously one of the big draw backs of daycare is the germs! Let’s face it, every child is just one giant germ! (Just kidding…kind of!)
I honestly feel that my son has been sick more than not. He’s coming up on 11 months old, and I feel he’s been sick a total of 10 months! Okay, I’m exaggerating a little bit. But, I feel like he is sick for 10 days and then feel great for 2-3 and is sick again.
It’s heartbreaking and exhausting all at the same time. I hate to not see him feel well. He doesn’t sleep or eat normally. How can we maintain a schedule when there is always a reason why he is “off.”
Today he came home from daycare with possible pink eye for the second time in a month! The first time, they didn’t say it was pink eye but treated him for it just in case. I’m not convinced it is pink eye this time either, but he will stay home tomorrow just incase.
I know, this is strengthening his immune system. Well by how often he’s been sick, he should be immune to pretty much everything soon!!
Rant over! 🙂
My 10 month old has not slept through the night in weeks! Some nights are better than others. Most nights, our first wake up is around midnight, while other nights we make it until 2am! Yes, I consider sleeping until 2am a wi these days!!
It all started when his top teeth started to come in. You could see FOUR getting close at once! He was miserable. (I get it, I would be miserable too!) Three of them have made their way through, and we are currently working on the fourth.
Over the weekend, we had a small break and he slept well. He woke up but would quickly go back to sleep. Last night, however, was awful. I felt like I didn’t even sleep! Of course a Sunday night is the best night not to sleep. Starting my week off tired is my favorite!!
Here’s to hoping we get some sleep! Maybe I should be sleeping now. Sleep when the baby sleeps!!!
Emma has been home for about a week and a half now, so I figured I should give an update.
At pick up, we were trained on how to maintain her training. Honestly, I was amazed at the difference in her. She still has her spunky personality, but she listens when commands are given. We have been able to take her outside WITHOUT a leash. That’s is huge.
We had to reinterduce her and our 10 month old son. That has been our biggest challenge. We do not want to keep them separated because we believe that was part of Emma’s jealousy. It’s amzing, they both have the whole house and both still seem to end up in the same location. I actually feel they are practically on top of each other every second. Our son still needs to learn to touch nicely. We’re working on it, but we’re not there yet.
Surprisingly, Emma has been good with our son since she has gotten home. We have to keep a close eye on them both. We can tell when Emma has had about enough, and we call her and she comes. We “place” her out of the baby’s range and let her take a break.
It’s been a lot of work, and it will continue to be a great deal of work. I do believe that this will help us be a family!
We go to pick up Emma today. She’s been gone for 2 weeks at a board and train.
Both my husband and I go today to be trained on how to maintain her behavior. We’re both anxious and very nervous. We hope that she still has her personality, but listens to our commads!
I’ll give an update to report on all of the progress she made.
Our district went back to school this past Monday. Aside from there being more traffic in the morning, I figured this really wouldn’t effect on my family.
Boy was I ever wrong!!
I get to daycare Tuesday afternoon, and I get “that look” from the teacher. The look that means, we have something to tell you and you’re not going to like it. I’m past, it’s been simple things like him not wanting to eat all if his bottles. But Tuesday, that was not the case. They had noticed his eye was slightly red and watery.
Not wanting to wait until morning for it to get worse, I took him to a children’s after hours walk-in office. He had pink eye.
Wrestling with a 10 month old to get drops in his eyes us no picnic. Of course he doesn’t understand it’s going to make him feel better. He screamed so loud that I’m sure the neighbors heard.
Wednesday morning comes and he has a high fever and I also feel like I’ve been hit by a bus. His eye is looking better though!
He was sick the rest of the week. I would say by Friday afternoon he started to play and act himself more. Today he was on the go ago!
I, however, have not gotten better. And i woke up with pink eye, despite my best effotd to sanitize everything! He fid not understand to not touch his face. This is my first time being sick with a infa-tod that doesn’t stop!
Our first official school year has started off rocky, but I have learned one thing. Stock up on those viatimin C gummies!!
We dropped Emma off on Tuesday. We anxiously awaited our first update. Every day, we each check our emails about 100x a day (or at least it felt like it!)
Finally, we got our first update on Saturday! They said the first two days, she was very aggressive anytime someone would try and touch her. The trainer was able to work with her, and they feel they are past that. Since then, she has learned many of the basic commands. She now knows sit, down, come, place, extended sit, and extended down. They also sent a video of her doing the commands.
She seems to be doing well. There was only one time in the video she didn’t appear to be listening. But within a few seconds, she was focused again.
I’m still nervous that she will come home and be aggressive when we try and put her collar on her. Only time will tell. Hopefully she keeps making strides in the right direction!
I keep reminding myself that she can’t possibly be the worst dog that they have worked with.
Hopefully our next update will come soon!!
I know I have made reference in previous posts about my furbaby. She is a 22 month old Corgi.
A little background on her. We brought her home right after Thanksgiving in 2013. My husband and I had dogs growing up, but she was our first baby together. We would spend hours after work playing with her. She would do basic commands for treats. After awhile, she became very hyper. Typically puppy behavior. Everyone kept telling me, after she is “fixed” she will calm down.
March 2014, we had her surgery. We dropped her off in the morning, and we were allowed to bring her home after work. The next day, she was acting like her normal self again.
In April, she started to get slightly aggressive. She would growl and show her teeth. As the weeks went on, she started to get worse. She would corner me while showing her teeth. If I would move, she would lunge at me and she would bite me. *She is by no means vicious. She would go days, and show no signs of this aggression.*
With a baby on the way, we knew we need to do something to get her under control. In September 2014, we started basic obedience classes. We took her to 5 classes. We missed the last class because I went into labor early. This class taught her to listen on command, as long as she was receiving a treat as a reward.
My maternity leave I spent in my bedroom or the baby’s bedroom. When my husband wasn’t home, I was not able to control her. My husband and I had many conversations on the topic. It was hard for me to continue to want her around. I was afraid of her, and I was afraid of her hurting the baby.
She did well when the baby came home. We never let her very close, but she would lick his feet. Once he started to move around, we had to restrict her more. She no longer had free access to the whole house until he went to bed for the night. The baby loved to stand at the gate and just watch her. She would come over and give him kisses on the hands.
Fast forward to July 2015. The baby had been pulling up on the gate for a couple months at this point. For the most part, we could tell when the dog had had enough for the day and needed to be left alone. The baby and I were sitting on the floor next to the gate. He was not even touching the gate. He turned to put his hands on the floor so that he could crawl away. The dog reached through the gate and “bit” him. I’m not trying to make light of the situation because I do consider it a bite, but she does not actually bite hard. And again, that does not make it right. Obviously, it scared him.
I was fed up at this point. My husband was upset because I had already warned him that if she ever even attempted to hurt he baby, she would be gone. I waited to address the situation until the next day. I didn’t want to say anything rash. I HAD to calm down before I could talk to him.
We made her an appointment to rule out any medical issues (which we had already talked to our vet about her issues in the past.) She came back with a clean bill of health. I found this training online (thanks to a friend who loves watching dog videos!) It is a 2 week training.
We made an appointment to meet with the trainers. We went over our concerns, and her behavioral issues. They feel fully confident that they can help us with her. We don’t want to get rid of her, but she needs to listen to us. She needs to know how to act around us and other people.
Her journey starts today. We hope this training will bring our family a dog who can be apart of the family again.
Wish us luck!
Busy Momma Bear 