Monday, March 02, 2009

Peace Train

I think what I am going to do is just start opening the "create a new post" window every day and see if it gets me to blog more. Then I pretty much have to put something down, right?!?

Well the sleep training is going as expected I guess. As I said, the first night; 30 minutes of crying then pretty much nothing for the rest of the night. He was not very pleased with me when I rescued him at 7:45 the next morning, but boy was I a happy, well rested momma! We debated on whether or not Port needs two naps and determined that it would probably be best to try to do just one - especially since the "morning" nap (if there was one) would fall right in the middle of the time we go to church each Sunday. Now, I suppose we could try to go to the early service, but if you know anything about me and my brood...well you would know we don't do early morning very well. So, we decided to put him down awake for the nap time, and he cried for about 10 minutes before going to sleep. He only slept about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and then was a happy guy. However, he was sleepy again at about 4:00 - really too late for another nap before bed time. We went out to dinner that night (early) and Port of course fell asleep as soon as we put him in the car seat. *sigh* His 20 minute power nap on the way to the restaurant made for a nice dinner, but I thought for sure it was going to wreck our night time routine.

That night, he started whimpering and fussing before I even got him in the crib. He knew what was coming. However, he only cried for about 10 minutes. I told Hubby that it was too easy; the other shoe was going to drop. Boy, did it ever.

Even though he was out at 8:30, he woke back up at about 11:30. And the screaming began. He screamed and screamed and screamed for about 10-20 minutes at a time just about every 30-45 minutes ALL. NIGHT. LONG.

It was brutal. Hubby and I both were concerned. I fretted, my stomach in knots. I stared at the ceiling and lay in the dark worried about my poor baby. Hubby even got up once to check on him just to make sure he was ok. When he went in the room he accidentally woke Port up and the screaming began again. The next morning I picked him up out of the crib; his eyes were puffy and red from all the crying. He didn't have a smile for me, but gave Daddy all kinds of grins and giggles. We played in the bed for a while before we got up.

He fell asleep on the way to church, and then again on the way home. When we got home I just transferred him from the car to our bed and he slept for almost 3 hours. I definitely think he needs two naps still. Especially after a night like that!

Last night (night #3) he fell asleep in my arms during our quiet time before bed. I put him in the crib and he curled up on his pillow, but then just a few seconds later realized that he was in the crib and quickly tried to stand up and reach for me. I told him I loved him, kissed the top of his head and said good night. As I walked out he screamed for me as loud as he could. It was heart wrenching. But, he only cried this time for about 5 minutes and then was out. I didn't hear another peep from him until almost 8 this morning. By 9:30 though, he was already showing signs of being tired, so I tried to feed him a bottle in our quiet spot and sure enough he was very sleepy. I tried to let him nap in our bed but he just wanted to play so I put him in the crib. He cried for about 10 minutes then took and hour and a half long nap. Later this afternoon he fell asleep in my arms at about 2:00 so I let him sleep in our bed. I know he naps better there.

I guess the "training" is working - at least we are getting some sleep where before we were not. I am going to have to retrain myself not to wake up every couple of hours though - my body is still going through the motions of having to be awake all through the night. And now of course I also have to get used to the idea of being home at 2 certain times a day for his naps - not that I go a lot of places, but I like to have some flexibility when I do.

Hopefully tonight will be even better.

Until,
D :)

2 comments:

Julia said...

The hardest part for me to swallow in the Weissbluth book is the whole concept of sleep begets sleep, but I am a firm believer of it. We had the luxury of arranging our entire lives around Chloe's biological rhythms, and she like clock-worked napped and slept exactly as Dr. Weissbluth described, give or take an hour. We still try to avoid all activity during Noah's natural sleepy times, and that really, really puts a crimp in what we do outside of the home. It's so worth it for us though because it makes sleep less of a battle. You'll probably find that the more consistent that you are with nap and sleep routines, Port will start to cue you, and most likely he'll fall into that Weissbluth pattern as well. Hope you have continued good luck with sleep training!

Victoria said...

I've gotta second Julia's 'sleep begets sleep' thoughts ... Miss O still does two naps a day, and while it cramps my style sometimes, it's just necessary at this point. She's still in the 2/3/4 routine: wake up in the a.m., first nap 2 hours later; next nap three hours after she wakes from the first one; bedtime four hours after she wakes from the last nap. It's not like I'm counting the minutes and hitting the 2/3/4 windows exactly, I just use that as a rough guide. She is MUCH better off with two good naps (meaning, days when Bean is out of the house and O can actually *get* two good naps) than she is with one or with napuus interuptus on Bean-@-home days.