Sleep Training

So my parenting style would not ever be called AP. Some people might think it is. I cloth diaper, I babywear and I even slipped up and co-slept. But still if you consider AP to be on one side and Ba.bywise to be on the other I will admit that I'm closer to the Babyw.ise side of the scale.

To me cloth (and hybrid) diapers make sense. You're doing laundry anyways so why not diapers. Plus Kevin was on board with the whole thing from the beginning so it made it so much easier. That's not to say that GV hasn't ever been in disposables. He has. But only because of extenuating circumstance.

I have a Babyh.awk Mei Tai that I love using with GV. Well when he likes it. Again, it just made sense. Sometimes GV would not be put down and I had stuff that needed to get done (like his laundry) and it was so much easier when I could "wear" him. It was like being pregnant again. Everything was a little more awkward but I could get around and get stuff done.

I guess where I really differ from AP is sleeping. At one of the first ped appts for GV Dr. G (the ped not the RE) told us not to let GV go longer than 3 hours w/o feeding. If he was asleep then to wake him up and feed. Even at night. Then it was no longer than 4 hours at night, then 5, then 6. And so we kind of stumbled into sleep training. I read Babywi.se and this blog and the whole eat-play-sleep cycle made sense to me so we implemented it. Tried to do that whole dreamfeed thing (which didn't really work for us, I couldn't really ever wake him up enough for it and disrupted his night time sleep even more). At 10 weeks I stopped trying to do a dreamfeed and GV started sleeping from 8pm to 7am. We didn't because we'd become use to waking twice a night, but he was "sleeping like a baby". Sometimes he would wake but would settle himself back to sleep.

Then we went to England for Christmas. And stayed with the in-laws. In the same room as GV, across the hall from Mum & Dad and SIL and her boyfriend. Maybe we could tune-out GV fussing but we didn't think they could (they are seriously the lightest sleepers in the world!!) so anytime GV woke up I nursed him back to sleep. We even co-slept most nights because it was the quickest way to get him quiet again. I'm not a fan of co-sleeping because I am a deep sleeper. I was always worried that I would roll over him. Once after nursing he actually rolled forward into me (he was asleep and I had fallen asleep and then woke up with a start and then panic). So anyways our nights started with GV going to bed around 7pm, then being woken up by Kevin and I going to bed at 11 and being nursed back to sleep and then he'd wake up again around 3 or 4 to fuss (like he normally does) but I'd nurse him back to sleep.

And once we got back from England GV wanted to continue with the nursing twice a night again. Kevin and I tried everything I could think of. I'm not a fan of CIO but I was seriously at wits end (I should mention that me minus sleep is a horrible horrible version of me). So we tried once. We let him CIO for five minutes before we went in. And then it took us an hour to calm him down. Then I fed him and he went back to sleep within a couple of minutes. So that went out the window. Then GV got really good at rolling onto his tummy. Which he didn't want to sleep on. And he discovered sleeping on his side. Which he loves. But he hasn't mastered that perfect balance yet so the crying bouts were getting worse and more frequent. Then naps started to slip and finally bedtime became nonexistent. And then nursing was only lasting for a couple of minutes before he fell asleep. But he would wake up as soon as I put him in his bed. And I became desperate. Kevin and I would reach different breaking points. When he was ready to re-try CIO I would go in and feed GV and when I was ready for CIO he would go play with GV.

But then last night GV woke up at 9:30. And after reading a few sleep training blog entries I decided this was it. So I went and patted him on the chest and gave him a couple of kisses and then I walked back out. And sat in the kitchen for 7 minutes listening to him cry. When time was up I went back in and flipped him back onto his back and walked out again. I folded his clothes for 9 minutes listening to him cry. Then I went in and flipped him back onto his back, fixed his blanket and walked out. Eleven minutes later Kevin went into his room, flipped him back over and walked out. For the next 13 minutes we sat in the living room listening to his crying turn to fussing and sometimes 30-45 seconds of silence. Then we both went in and I fed him. Two minutes later he was asleep again. And he slept until 8:15 this morning. I woke up twice to go check on him and he was sleeping on his tummy (shocking!).

Tonight GV went to bed at 7 and then woke up at 9pm. Kevin and I went in right away and I was able to get him to quiet down rather quickly and so I tried putting him back in his crib (the normal point he starts to cry) and he fussed a bit but then once he had his blanket he went back to sleep. This is the first time in a long while he's gone back to sleep w/o nursing. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll be posting that he slept through the night again.