So here we are with a 6 month old that doesn't sleep enough. If you don't believe me check out his average schedule below. I will also include his sometimes schedule...
Bedtime- 7:15 pm
Wake- 10:30 pm (feed)
Wake- 12:00 am (feed and join us in bed)
Wake- 2 or 3 times to feed before 6:00 am (so lets just say every 1 1/2-2 hrs)
Wake- 6am -diaper change & feed- (occasionally a little playtime if he slept well)
Wake-7 am
Wake- 8 am (feed) up for the day-unless he was up all night then he goes back to sleep
Nap- 9:30 am
Wake- 10:30 am
Nap- 12:30 pm
Wake- 1:30 pm
Nap- 4:00 pm
Wake- 5:00 pm
Bedtime-7:15 pm
So first thing...I am being very generous in my estimation of his naps here. They are usually closer to an hour each with an occasional 2 hr nap sometime during the day. Leo's napping has gotten much MUCH better since we moved and we have blackout curtains and the rocking chair in his room. Thank goodness! The 45 mins of bouncing (while breastfeeding) on a yoga ball to get just 20 mins of a nap out of him was exhausting and ridiculous and often fruitless.
Second, most nights I am able to only wake long enough to turn over so he can eat in the midnight-6am portion but then there are the OTHER nights (usually on weeknights when I am the only parent on duty) when Leo decides that he just isn't happy eating and going back to sleep he wants to be rocked/bounced/walked until he falls back asleep. I usually get an hour and a half of sleep to an hour of holding baby :-/ Those are the nights when I just want to cry. It is also those nights (and the incredible frequency of those nights) that have led me to my decision to teach Leo how to sleep...
I am currently using Sleepeasy Solutions for Exhausted Parents as a guideline but it basically sounds like a combination of other cry-it out methods. Yes...it is a cry-it-out method : / Not the direction I want to take with him but he needs to sleep better and so do I... if I am going to be the parent I want to be. I like the idea that Leo will be learning how to put himself to sleep and finding ways to self-soothe, I don't like listening to him cry and I don't like that I am not supposed to let him fall asleep while eating or while being held. Pretty soon my little boy is going to be moving all over the place and he isn't going to want to be held during the day and I will be giving up nights as well. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it. So I think I will be having the greatest difficulty with this process or at least I hope so.
I hope Leo surprises me and figures self-soothing out quickly, with minimal crying but I doubt it. This is going to be hard regardless. Our plan was to start this weekend but now will have to wait another week till Leo is better (he has a cold right now). Keep us in your prayers as we try to learn (as parents) how to step back and let our child struggle with one of his first great hurdles. I'm pretty sure it will break my heart...
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I wrote the above last week... we decided to start sleep training this week and set the date for Thursday Aug. 9, 2013, which was last night. We borrowed my sister Emily's awesome video monitor and prepared for the worst.
So here is our results for the first night and day (naps)
Bedtime 7:00
Cried when put down
1st check in- 7:05
2nd check in- 7:10
Asleep at 7:17 pm!
Wow... were we surprised and definitely hesitant to say anything about it for fear of jinxing it. Even now I hope that not saying it aloud (just writing it) will be okay. I am weaning him off of night feeds so I am doing something called a dream feed and cutting the time feeding him by 2 mins each night. Basically, it means I go in there before he wakes up for his usual feeding, and I feed him without him ever really waking up.
Dream feed- 9:00 pm (8 mins)
Dream feed- 11:00 pm (8 mins)
Wake- 1:57 am
1st check in- Didn't happen! He got quiet before the 5 min check in and was asleep at 7 mins.
Dream feed- 3:04 am
Wake- 5:45 am
1st check in- 5:50 am
2nd check in- 6:00 am
At which point he fell into a restless sleep so I watched him for a bit then fell back to sleep myself.
Wake- 7:07 am
Since it had been over 12 hours (had to be at least 11 hours) I went and got him and realized he had pooped and it had leaked all over his shirt. Poor thing had been laying in it for an hour : ( I felt horrible.
It took awhile to clean everything up (almost an hour) than I started playing with Leo so that we could make it to the 2 hour time span the book recommended between wake up and the first nap but while I was playing with him the poor little guy started falling asleep on the floor. I decided to "throw the book out the window" on this part and put him down to sleep early. He cried for 10 mins that was at 8:46.
Wake- 10:00 am
Nap- 12:30 pm
1st check in- 12:35 pm
2nd check in- 12:45 pm
3rd check in- 12:55 pm
(This was a very hard nap and broke my heart to see and hear him crying so much)
Asleep 1:10 pm
Wake 1:40 pm
Nap- 4:25 pm (fell asleep)
Wake- 5:00 pm
End of night and day 1! Whew!
Tonight Leo went down at 7:40 pm (He had two poopy diapers while I was trying to feed him so we were late.) and only cried for about 2 seconds! I hope (fingers crossed) that this will be the worst of it but I somehow can't fully believe that. Dream feeds are continuing tonight at 6 minutes a piece and hopefully tomorrow morning will go well. Naps (I am sure) will continue to be difficult but I have hope that they will get better.
So I am going basically "by the book" in our scheduling and methods except in two things 1) I am not always putting him down completely awake because 2) I am letting him fall asleep on the breast. The book wants you to rouse the baby every time you see them falling asleep while feeding well I am just not cool with that. I feel like that would be very annoying (from Leo's perspective) and I don't want him to associate being rudely awakened with feeding... another mother from my mom's group said she had been doing that and the sleep learning had still been going smoothly. SO glad I talked to her as it doesn't seem to be making Leo's time more difficult.
On another note...
The last weekend in July there was an air show at the Hillsboro Airport which is 5 mins from our apartment. We had some pretty good views of the happenings from our apartment and on Sunday we laid out a blanket in the patch of grass by our porch and played with Leo (who was ready to watch the planes) but we got out there after the show was over. : / Here are some pictures from our time outside...
Well, I'm off! Hope you learned something new and/or enjoyed the post and pictures : )
