For Crying Out Loud

The time has come to teach our little peanut how to sleep a little better.

We're operating under the loose guidance of Dr. Weissbluth, some good friends, and a wing and a prayer. The object of the game is to increase the length of naps from 30 minutest to...well, longer than 30 minutes; and to reduce the night-waking episodes. Also, it's recommended to put the baby down while he's drowsy, but still awake, so he can actually put himself to sleep.

(BTW, don't feel obligated to pour over the following "diary." It's more for my use and documentation than yours. )

Day One (Monday):
- 30 min nap in morning, no crying
- 30 minutes of crying before another 30 min nap in afternoon, followed by another 20 minutes of hard crying
- 1.5 hr nap in Mom's bed late afternoon (oh the guilt)
- 25 minutes of fussing/talking before falling asleep for the night
-woke at 2:00 AM to eat, woke again at 5:30 and cried until 6:00.
- got up for the day at 8:00.

How I feel: That second nap was rough on me, being home alone and the only adult to listen to the sobbing on the monitor. Why didn't I just turn it off? Well, I guess my mommy guilt wouldn't let me. Something along the lines of "if he's going to go through the trouble to cry for half and hour, I should go through the trouble to listen to it." The bedtime was a victory, however. Until tonight, we've never put him down for bed awake and forced him to soothe himself to sleep. Good baby.

Day Two:
- woke at 8:00 AM
- short nap with 15 minutes of crying at 10:00 AM
- short nap with 10 minutes of crying at 1:30
- short nap at 4:30 with no crying
- down for the night at 7:45 with no crying
- slept until feeding time at 2:00 AM, and again until 8:00. HURRAY!

How I feel:
Thrilled that the nights are going well, so far, especially that he went down without crying last night. And it was the first time...ever...that he has slept for so many hours without any additional night-waking. Now, to solve the short nap problem...

Day Three:
- woke at 8:00 AM
- short nap with 10 minutes of crying at 9:45 (but there was other activity in the house at the time, and I had to move him midway through the nap, which woke him up--darn)
- long nap in afternoon
- to bed with no crying, fed at 1:30 AM...woke for the day at 6:30 AM--a little early for this lazy bones.

Day Four:
This day doesn't count, I decided. He woke up early which threw off the day. Plus we went to school, so he napped in the car on the way there. He did sleep for two hours when we got home.
- went down at 7PM after crying for 15 minutes, woke twice and soothed himself back to sleep, woke for 2AM feeding, slept until 7:30AM

Day Five:
- two hour nap in morning
- Sigh. Went down at 1:00PM, cried for 20 minutes, slept for 20 minutes, cried for 20 minutes. Got him up.
- Tried again at 3:00. No dice.
- He finally fell asleep at 5:30PM, which is not good as it will probably screw up bedtime.
- ...and it did. It was a rough one tonight. He cried several times and was unable to settle down on his own.

How I feel today:

I talked to a fellow mommy friend today whose son is 3 months older than Munchkin and who followed the same advice given by Dr. Weissbluth. She talked me off the ledge today after the afternoon nap fiasco and reminded me that babies organize their night sleep sooner than they organize their day sleep, which explains why the nights have been pretty easy to master, but the days are difficult.

We'll keep working on it!