Our Weekend (Feb 25/26) : Sleep Training!

The theme for this weekend was: SLEEP TRAINING.

I don't have any pictures from this weekend because it was all about serious sleep training! I am so proud of what I was able to accomplish with Macario!

The motivation for me to start sleep training Macario was the fact that I was completely exhausted. He had gone from a glorious 11+ hour a night sleeper to waking every 2 - 2.5 hours at night, for no particular reason and I realized that not only was I struggling with that fragmented sleep pattern, but so was Macario.

I said that this change happened for no particular reason, but I'm pretty sure the bad sleep habits started with him getting sick. Actually the three of us caught a nasty, I MEAN NASTY, stomach bug and it was easier to keep us all in the same bed at night, so that we could take care of each other without having to do much moving around (not to mention containing any messes).

Before the bug was even gone, teething began to really set in. Macario finally cut his first tooth, and the discomfort of that was impacting his sleep. This meant that I was up every couple of hours comforting Mr. Mac back to sleep.  Finally, Aaron convinced me bring Macario back into the bed with us. At this point I was exhausted, so I just gave in and let him sleep in our bed. Unfortunately, that didn't help things because he was still waking up every few hours and would squirm around and whine. This was keeping me up most of the night and made me realize he probably preferred the freedom of sleeping alone, so back to his crib he went.

All I felt I could do was get through this period (any way I could) and hope that things would get better once his teeth came in, but he got sick again, and then sick one more time. His sleep pattern had gotten so thrown off that his waking time changed from 7:30 a.m. to sometime between 5:45 and 6:30 a.m. It was as if he would give up even trying to sleep after that point.

It wasn't helping that we were not being consistent with him either! We were doing everything from letting him have slumber parties in the living room with Aaron (which meant I would find him crawling around unsupervised at 3am), to letting him sleep half the night in his crib and the other half in my bed, to us sleeping on the ground in his room so that I could just stick my hand in the crib and pat him back to sleep (which worked for him, but not me because I was up every few hours trying to get comfortable on the ground).

Finally, I realized he wasn't going to go back to normal after he was over his cold, or once his teeth came in or once whatever other thing happens after teeth come in because we were not being consistent. My biggest parenting rule is to maintain consistency, but I was in such sleep survival mode that I had allowed things to stray and become very inconsistent.

So, I decided I was going to use this weekend to sleep train! I picked up a sort of gentler Cry it Out method from a fellow blogger, Erin, (read her Baby Boot Camp post here). What she described was cycle of placing your baby in his crib, drowsy, but not asleep. Saying comforting words and offering a comforting touch and then leaving the room. Then if baby cries you wait 10-15 minutes before going back in to give comforting words and touch and repeating the 10-15 minute cry it out cycle.

This sounded like a good plan to me, so Friday night when I put him down to bed I gave him kisses, said I love you and laid him down. I patted his back a little and said "time for nigh-nights" and left the room. He immediately got up and cried while he stood bouncing in his crib.

It's hard for me to hear him cry, so I went into the kitchen and started to run the washer and dishwasher at the same time. That helped to drown out the cries. 10 minutes later I went in and found him completely distraught. It broke my heart, but I stood strong. I gave him a lingering hug, a kiss on the cheek then laid him down and with a pat I said "Nigh-night, I love you" and walked out.  Again, the cries were immediate.

To keep myself preoccupied for the next 10 minutes, I went into my bathroom, got under the sink and unclogged my drain! It took me just under 10 minutes to clear the clog from my pipes, so I had time to put everything back together, wash up and then run in to comfort my crying boy.

I offered him some comfort and left the room again. About 6 or 7 minutes into the last cycle I heard everything go quiet. No more bouncing, no more crying, nothing!

The 10 minutes were still not up, so I resisted the urge to rush in and see if I had been successful. When time was up I decided not to go in. I waited a little longer before going in to check on him just in case he was quiet, but not yet asleep.

After 20 minutes total, I went in to find my little guy asleep sitting propped up against his crib rails. The poor guy crashed. I scooted him down, whispered, "I love you" and left the room.

When I fed him his dream feed at midnight, he took 2 cycles to get back to sleep. And when he woke up at 2:45 a.m. it took one cycle to get back to sleep. I never even had to go in.

I felt rather ambitious and very accomplished, so on Saturday I decided to give this Cry it Out thing a go with naps. He fought that hard! I think things were too busy in the house and he knew he was going to miss something if he slept, so he didn't nap at all on Saturday until about 3:30 p.m. when he finally passed out while I was holding him. Poor guy.

That night however, he went down at bedtime in less than 2 cycles and after his dream feed he took just minutes to fall asleep.

Last night he was out after 4 minutes of crying at bedtime and in a minute and a half after his dream feed! Oh yeah, he slept until 7:15 a.m. this morning too! I cannot believe how successful this was!

I feel that as a parent it's my responsibility to teach Macario skills to be successful in life. Getting good sleep is one skill that I feel is very essential to being successful all the way into adulthood. This is coming from a woman who hasn't had much sleep the last couple of months!

I'm proud of myself not just because I have taught my son to sleep well, but because I remained consistent. This was hard for me, but I knew it was what we needed and I figured a little pain for the gain is never a bad thing!

Let's hope he'll continue to sleep well!