Winds of Change

This is one of two blog posts that I have done today. So, be sure and check out the one below about Daddy and the boys too!

It is time! It is past time. It is time to have a baby who sleeps though the night! Enter week one of sleep training. If you are interested, I have additional commentaries below about how we did it with Canaan, why we even opt to do sleep training, etc. If you are interested in reading my opinionated mini-novel, it is at the end!

Day One

I fed Max when he woke up this morning. We played with brother a while, and when Max got tired I took him to our room (where his crib is), sang Jesus Loves Me to him and laid him in bed. Do you know- he looked up at me, then rolled over and fell right to sleep without making a peep?! I was a bit frustrated because I had prepared myself for much crying and it didn’t happen! I mean, Canaan cried for 90 minutes the first day he put himself to sleep and he was only 2 months old! However, not only did Max put himself to sleep, but my baby who has only slept for basically 45 minutes when we lay him down on his own, slept an hour and a half. And he did that 3 other times today! Only tonight when we laid him down did he cry, and that for just 7 minutes. Dougle said he had prayed it would be easy, and it was! Yeah! My husband musts be a righteous man. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good!

Day Two

So, Max didn’t sleep all night; instead, he woke up every 4 hours. Hmmm. Canaan did the first night, but he also cried a lot that first day too. And then today, life was a little more rough. He didn’t eat at the right times and didn’t sleep long in bed. In fact, he kept Canaan up because he fussed a lot during his nap and so neither boy was well rested. Maybe tomorrow will be better!

Day Three

So, here we are at day 3 and I am not exactly sure how this is going to turn out. But, onward we press. Last night was promising. Max skipped his 2am feeding and slept until 5am. I can deal with that for now. Today he has cried himself to sleep once, but it only took him about 5 minutes. And I am thinking that I am going to have to let him cry it out through a night feeding too. It’s not like he is starving or anything...just look at his pictures!...and he is plenty old enough to go 6-8 hours at night.

Day Four

We moved his bed into the livingroom last night. He only woke up once to eat. Again, we were out and about today, so he ended up sleeping in the stroller, car and my arms. Hard to do this when life is busy, but we continue on!

Day Five

Success is coming!! Last night, we put him to bed at 10pm and he cried about 45 minutes. Ugg. Then Max woke up after just 4 hours in the middle of the night and I decided he needed to skip that feeding. He cried for about 10 minutes until I felt sorry for all our neighbors (the walls aren't that soundproof) and I went in and rubbed his head for about one minute and he fell back asleep. Yeah!! Then he slept all the way until 8am without making another peep!! He slept a bit in my arms during our time with the church and then I put him down for a nap after lunch. He was fussy and tired and got to the point where I could do nothing to console him. He cried about 10 minutes, I went in a rubbed his head and tried to sing a bit, and he fussed louder. Then I left him alone and he cried about 15 more minutes before he dozed off on his own for a nice, long, 2 hour nap. He was then awake a bit over an hour when he fell asleep on his own for a cat nap (about 45 minutes). He is now cooing happily in bed, so I better go get him!

Day Six

Triumphant feelings today! Max slept all night without waking up once! That is 10 hours of continuous sleep for our 5 months old. I feel great myself, having enjoyed a good night's rest. And Max has been pretty happy and content all day. I have laid him down twice so far for naps and he has fussed for a minute or two and fallen right to sleep. I am ecstatic!

Additional Commentaries, by Mommy Lucy

With Canaan, we started using a loose version of the Babywise method to help him sleep though the night. We started this sleep training when he was 2 months old. I really liked the first chapter of the book where it talked about how a child feels most secure when their parents have a solid relationship. It gives examples of how you can be child centered (and how marriages and your life can suffer when kids are placed as priority in the family) or you can raise them to love and respect their place in the home and family. This is what we try to do with Canaan, though we do make many mistakes. Obviously in our home, we try to make God the center of everything (not just first- but the center of everything). Dougle and I’s relationship comes first, and then our relationship with Canaan and now Max.

Ok, I am straying off topic. But the first chapter hooked me and I decided to try what they suggested for getting my baby to sleep through the night. Anyway... for infants, Babywise suggests a routine of feeding, playtime, nap-time and then feeding. With Canaan, we started this at two months of age. He wasn’t sleeping through the night and we had to rock him to sleep and hold him a lot to keep him asleep. As soon as we started letting him put himself to sleep for naps (which involved much crying at first), he started immediately sleeping 6 hours through the night. Two weeks later (he was almost 3 months old), he was sleeping 10 hours a night. Except for having to listen to him cry so much at first, it was relatively easy.

My "Why did you wait so long?" excuses! With Max, we have waited to being this. Several factors played into our wait, including the fact that I wanted to hold him and baby him a bit longer (since he is my second, and last baby). And, he slept fine at night, up to 6 hours at times, and would drop right back to sleep after eating. So we weren’t too sleep deprived. Finally, we also had our month long furlough when we was 4 months old, and I knew that doing anything too close to that date would just get messed up when we were traveling. Then, after we got back, we were sick and then traveling again.

Why Even Do Sleep Training?: Some parent know exactly why I want to do train Max to sleep through the night. Some don't, and that is okay. We are all different. For us, there are several reasons. First, Dougle and I need more sleep than the average individual. I especially need 8 hours a night to be a happy, healthy mom and wife. Secondly, I think if I need long periods of sleep to stay healthy, so does my baby. It just makes sense. And, Max is normally a very happy and content baby, but has been very grumpy and temperamental recently, I think because he doesn't sleep long during the day and then he wakes up twice a night. Lastly, it just seems that if I can teach him a few things at a younger age, then it will make it easier for when he is older. Though he is young, it is amazing how much he understands already and how much he can respond to that understanding. it just needs to be directed understand, instead of letting him slip under the radar because he seems "to little" to understand.