Organically Growing

I hope I’m not jinxing us – but Ryder has slept through the night for almost two full weeks! Put him down at 7p and don’t hear from him until 5am, when I bring him to bed and he chills out (nursing) until usually 6:30 or so.

Marc reports that Ryder slept until 8am last Saturday! Figures, it was the day I was up at 4am to run a half marathon.

Last night I hear him peeping and crying a bit, but it wasn’t more than a minute and he was back to sleep on his own.

Next project: Get him to start going to sleep on his own, without the aide of a boob or bottle.

My little man is snoring!

It’s 6:46am and Ryder is still sleeping … in his own crib! Morning 3 of sleep training (on who knows how many attempts) and I think we are in good shape! Ryder slept the whole night in his crib for 3 nights in a row now. Still waking up betweent 10-12 and I nurse him, but I’m happy with that and I know he will start to wean from that eventually anyway. If he wanted to wake up and 5am and come to bed with us, I’d be happy with that, too.

Progress!

Last night was rough/easy.

I decided to shut our bedroom door, for the first time in 13 months. Marc runs a fan in our room and which, it turns out, makes our room pretty sound proof. I woke up at 3:48 and heard Ryder crying. I waited 10 minutes and he calmed down. I didn’t know how long he had been crying, which really bummed me out and I laid awake toiling over it for several minutes.

This morning, Ryder was up at 6am and I ran right to him. Poor bugger has a scratchy sounding throat which leads me to believe he was crying for quite awhile and I didn’t hear him! I have been kicking myself all day … I feel so horrible about it.

Tonight, the door will stay open so I can go to him in our “modified Ferber” plan of attack.

The last several nights have been miserable. Ryder is super restless and has spent hours every night (in our bed) tossing and turning, pulling on hair (now BOTH of us get this special treatment) and fussing. The time has come to take drastic measures.

Tonight, I start my modified Ferber again … but I’m going to stick with it. It’s serious this time.

Every night, I think, maybe this will be the day Ryder sleeps through the night.

It hasn’t been. But I hold out hope.

After a consultation with The Baby Whisperer book , Marc and I have decided it’s time to try sleep training with Ryder again. As much as I love cuddling with him at night and first thing in the morning – it’s going to be best for everyone if we can get him sleeping in his crib. Then, on “special” occasions, he can join us in the big bed.

The Baby Whisperer outlines a particular family whose little guy was standing up in the crib all night long. Bingo! The solution is to just keep laying him back down, no matter how many times he stands up – soothing and comforting him the whole time.

At 9:30p, we put it to the test. Ryder woke up crying. I nursed him (per usual) and put him back in the crib. The standing/laying/crying scenario lasted for a full 90 minutes. He stood up 56 times. Mixed in was a diaper change and two extended cuddling/rocking sessions to calm him down. Eventually he got really tired and stayed laying down on his own. I gave him the paci and Mr. Cozy. He laid awake for several minutes – but was calm. I stayed with him until he fell asleep.

At 1:30 he woke again. Only took 6 times of standing/laying for him to fall back asleep. At 3:30 it was 4 times.

When he woke at 6am, I proclaimed, “we made it!” and gave him a cuddle. He was obviously still tired, so I brought him to bed and we slept until 7:30am.

I call that a successful night! I admit, I “cheated” a little by nursing him a bit at both the 1:30 and 3:30a wake ups. I wanted to see if he would go back to sleep without fighting and standing up. He didn’t. So tonight, I will omit the nighttime feeding and see how that goes.

Tonight, Marc is on deck for an assist and we will do the same thing. This time, hopefully with less wake ups. Though, the Baby Whisperer says it typically takes 3 days to see results … maybe by Sunday night??

Feeling good about this …

A friend asked me yesterday, “how’s the sleeping thing going?” and it occurred to me that I hadn’t posted an update on the topic in quite awhile.

Truth is – the sleeping is going great! He sleeps from 7-11p (with the time change) then he wakes up and he sleeps the rest of the night until 7am … in bed with us.

I don’t know what to think about this “decision.” Seems like I kept meaning to do the sleep training and get him back to sleeping in his own crib, but there was also something to hinder it: new house, standing up, needing to learn to sit down, then two big teeth coming through and now a cold. It’s just so much easier on everyone if he sleeps with us. Everyone is getting a good night’s rest … and it’s really cute to wake up with him in the morning. He’s the best little alarm clock – climbing up to the window promptly at 7am every morning to watch the sunrise. And in the middle of the night, I hear him laugh in his sleep and sometimes  he crawls up on top of me to nurse or cuddle … sweet moments I would miss otherwise.

I’m not sure what we are going to do from here on out. I think as long as it’s  working right now, we’ll keep him in bed. Eventually he’ll want to sleep on his own, right?

Twice tonight, Marc relieved me from a fitful Ryder and got him resting again.  My hero!!

On  related note – found some great articles on Dr. Greene’s website. I found  these particularly comforting, given our current situation:
http://www.drgreene.com/qa/change-sleep-patterns?tid=207
http://www.drgreene.com/qa/sleep-patterns?tid=207

Great advice for teaching baby to sit down in the crib and go back to sleep. I have no doubt I will be called on to try it out tonight.