Sleep Training

As you may have read from previous posts Pierce has not been the most consistent sleeper in the last few (like 4 or 5) months. It has been so weird because he will have a few days of sleeping through the night followed by weeks of waking up at various times throughout the night. I kept hoping that I would figure out the common thread that led to the good sleeps...but I have finally come to grips with reality. Those were flukes.

I feel like this is such a hard place to be at as a parent. Or at least it is to me. I have loved rocking him to sleep at night. I have loved nursing him whenever he wanted. Those moments are so precious and few. It was our time. It was something that no one else could or did do with him. It is just our thing. I know that as he grows up we will have other special moments...of course I know that. But still it is so hard for me to say goodbye to these sweet and tender baby moments.

BUT I am really tired. I am also realizing that it is not just going to get better on its own. I know how hard this is going to be on both of us...and I think it will only get harder the longer I wait. So with a sad and heavy heart I am starting the sleep training process.

With Saffryn we did the cry it out method. I have no regrets about it because she responded so well to it. The first week we tried it I think the longest I had to let her cry was 15-20 minutes and she started sleeping through the night fairly quickly after that.  so before Thanksgiving I decided I had had enough waking up and I was going to get tough. I was prepared to let Pierce cry it out for 20-30 minutes like I did before. So when 2am rolled around I was tired enough to be stubborn I let him cry for an hour. Yes ONE HOUR! He still wasn't asleep. He was actually so upset it took me another hour just to calm him down and put him to sleep. It was torture. Dan and I tried a few other times with the same result. It was not going to work for him...and let's be honest...it wasn't going to work for me either!

So I just decided to keep rocking him and nursing him. I wasn't ready to let him cry any longer than that just for the sake of being stubborn. And there were times when he would sleep through the night so I thought...hey this is working. Except all the other times when it didn't.

So while talking to my mother about this, she sent me this CD. On the inside cover of this cd is a sleep method to try...I hope saying their secrets wont get me in trouble...LOL. But basically they suggest rocking the baby until they are drowsy then putting them in the crib awake but drowsy (while the cd is playing softly in the background). They will learn to put themselves to sleep in the crib instead of your arms. If the baby cries you pat them to soothe them letting them cry for only 2 min. If they are still crying pick them up and repeat until they fall asleep in the crib. Follow the same guidelines when they wake up in the night.

I thought this may work better for Pierce than just letting him cry. It teaches him how to self-soothe instead of forcing him to get tired and give up. For some babies like Saffryn crying for a bit forced her to learn how to soothe. But for babies like Pierce who is a snuggler by nature and apparently super stubborn this method doesn't work.

So anyway I am going to give this a try for a few weeks and really see if it helps him sleep more consistently at night. What do I have to lose at this point..hehe! So wish us luck and wait to hear back from me.