Cold turkey

Most of you probably already know the sleep issues we are having with Sean. I have just about had it with the frequent night wakings (and nursings) that occur each night. Sometimes as many as 7 or 8 times a night!!! In desperation, I started searching the internet for some sort of guidance. I came across a website with a questionairre about your child's sleep, so I just thought I'd fill it out and see what they would email me back. I don't know if it was the fact that they personalized the email by including Sean's name in the form letter, or the fact that it sounded like they were speaking to me, but something in that email nudged me to just let him tough it out.

So last night, I changed up his bedtime routine a bit. I nursed him about 20 min before bedtime and made sure he stayed awake, instead of the usually nursing him to almost asleep. We read books after the nursing, instead of before, then it was into bed he went. He cried for all of 1 minute, and then silence. It could not be this easy!

Well, after Caityn went to bed, she cried out for Daddy, and that woke Sean up. Such a light sleeper he is. I picked him up out of the crib, reassured him that all was okay, waited until he was calmed down, and back in the crib he went. No nursing. He cried for a total of 2 minutes. Are you kidding me? Who is this baby? Not mine!

I was feeling quite hopeful for the night to come, but of course he woke again around 11pm. I tried the same thing, but after putting him back in bed, he screamed like he's never screamed before. I was worried that all his screaming would disturb Caityn, so after 5 minutes of screaming we went in and took Caityn out of the room to sleep in our bed. Sean cried (well, screamed) then for about 10 more minutes. Okay...not too bad.

I tried to go to sleep myself, but then he kept waking up every few minutes, would cry and then fall back asleep. This happened several more times before he started up the bloody murder screams again. I could see this was going to continue for quite some time. He really is persistant. So I went in to take him out of the crib, and he fell asleep on my chest while I was holding him. Not wanting to have him scream again, I decided to sleep with him in Caityn's bed. He woke a few more times during the night, cried a little each time, but after comforting him, adjusting his bed covers, rolling him over, etc. , he would go back to sleep. No nursing...all night long...cold turkey!

The saga continues tonight...