Tuesday, July 13

Cry Perchance to Sleep Perchance to Dream

It's 11:25am.

I put Haydon down for a nap shortly after 9:00am.

He's still sleeping.

Not only has he been napping for almost 2.5 hours, he only got up once last night to eat, around 3:00am, and slept on to 7:00am.  I haven't got that much sleep in AGES.

Here's the confession...

We've started cry it out.

The confession that comes with this confession is that the judgmental side of me always thought "How can you POSSIBLY let your poor baby cry him/herself to sleep!?!  You must be somewhat less human than I am...We will NEVER do that!"

My apologies.  I get it now.

Haydon's sleep has been HORRIBLE for the past couple of weeks.  I'm talking, as bad as when he was first born horrible.  And it was ok when he was new, 'cause that's what new babies do, get up every 2ish hours.  Babies over 6 months...?  They do not need to do this.  And mamas need to sleep.  The only way Haydon was getting to sleep was by one of us walking him around his room, for a long time sometimes.  We tried putting him in his crib awake and patting him, we tried giving him comfort objects, we tried, we tried, we tried.

And so, at the beginning of this week, after 3-4 nights in a row of very little sleep, I said to James "I think I'm ready to try cry it out."  I also decided it was time to be more scheduled with naps.

We started yesterday.  It's already 10million times better.

At 9:00am yesterday morning, we went in, nursed, sang a little song, and put my (mostly) sleeping baby in his crib.  As usual, as soon as he touched the mattress, he popped his eyes open, craned his head up to looked at me, and giggled.  And I left.  And he cried, for about 45 minutes, and then slept 'till about 10:30.  Not great - as much crying as there was sleeping, but, I'd read that it can take awhile, and it wasn't as bad as some of the horror stories I'd heard.

At 1:00pm, we went in, nursed, he fell asleep, I set him down, he stayed asleep.  Hooray!  He slept until about 3:30PM.  Not too shabby.

At 6:45pm (a little earlier than I'd like, but I'm volunteering at church every evening this week, so that's when it's gotta be), we went in, nursed, he fell asleep, but woke a little as I got up to put him in his crib.  He was still stirring when I left.  James said he cried for about 45 minutes.  But he stayed asleep... most nights, he wakes up multiple times and needs to be resettled before we go to bed.  Didn't happen last night.  Most nights, he wakes up around 11:00pm, 1:00am, 3:00am, and 5:30am.  He slept 'till 3:00am, I fed him, and he slept on until 7:00am.

This morning, at 9:00am, we went in, nursed, he fell asleep...

...he's still sleeping.

HALLELUJAH!

2 comments:

  1. Yay for sleep!!! I'm glad your first day/night was successful. Hopefully he keeps it up!

    We'll find out what it's _really_ like soon enough, but I think that's the method we're going to use. Sleep is as essential for growth and development as nutrition is. You EBF'd him to give his little body the best start you could - making sure he gets the sleep he needs isn't of any less importance.

    I'm sure its painful to listen to him cry - but you know in your mama heart what's best for your boy. :)

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  2. So glad he's sleeping and so glad you're sleeping! It's SO hard though. It's always a lesson in humility as a parent when you realize that inside you've judged so many other parents for their decisions. You needed sleep and I'm glad you're getting it! Keep it up Haydon!

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