Sleep Training

I never knew you had to teach a baby how to sleep. I suppose there are some babies out there who just instinctually know how to fall asleep and stay asleep for a decent amount of time. My babies do not fall into that category.

So when I began to notice that Lucas was developing the same habits as Ryan did at this age (wouldn't fall asleep unless nursed/rocked/bounced for hours on end and then would immediately wake up if moved, oh and barely napped during the day.....and used me as a human pacifier off and on all night) I know I needed to do some sleep training. In preparation I read "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Sleep Problems" and "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child".

I decided to use the Cry It Out method with Lucas. I considered doing the more gentle method of going in to soothe after 1 minute, then after being away 2 minutes, then 3, etc. But I had tried this once and it only seemed to make things worse.

So last week I went full speed ahead with Cry It Out, starting with his morning nap around 9am. To be honest, I expected it to go horribly. Lucas cried for 56 minutes. Another 4 minutes and I probably would have gone into his room. He then napped for 30 minutes. That afternoon I put him down and he cried for 14 minutes, followed by a 30 minute nap. This gave me hope!  The following night I tried it for bedtime. I nursed Lucas in the rocking chair and then put him down, walked away, and shut the door. He cried for 59 minutes. It was so hard to listen to! But I was shocked that he actually fell asleep, since that never really happened for Ryan. I expected the crying to last at least two hours. After crying for the 59 minutes, Lucas slept for 6 hours in his crib. I was absolutely in shock. The longest he has slept consecutively since birth was about 4 or 5 hours in bed with me. Could this really work?

On night number 2 Lucas cried for 40 minutes. When he woke up only 45 minutes later I anxiously watched him on the monitor to see what would happened. He fussed around for a minute and then fell back to sleep. I'm pretty sure I could hear angels rejoicing with me at this point. A child of mine was capable of putting himself to sleep? Lucas woke up a few more times that evening but slept in his crib for 6 hours before I went in and got him.

Sunday night was the best so far. 5 minutes of crying followed by a 7 hour stretch of sleep. Talk about huge improvement over such a short period of time!

And last night, when Ryan was up puking and I really really needed Lucas to stay in his crib, guess what he did for the first time? Spent the entire night in his crib! He slept from 8pm until 3am. I went in and nursed him and put him back in his crib. He then slept until 7:30am! Praise God.

I know there will be setbacks, but I am hopeful that Lucas is learning good sleep habits now and will be a better sleeper than his brother.

***This blog post was made possible by Lucas' 1 hour and 45 minute morning nap in his crib. Can I get an Amen?***