SLEEP: The Plan

As you all know, ever child is different, my child is no exception. We have struggled with him sleeping well, since he was born, and as a mom with a full time job, sleep was something that was needed. I was one of those moms that insisted that my child would not sleep in the bed with me, AT ALL!  I had heard to many horror stories and I didn't want to get attached to him in the bed, and the baby get attached to sleeping in the bed. Then it happened. After many nights of crying it out, NOT working, and me being sleep deprived, I broke and put him in the bed with me. Ahhh finally sleep. It was great, for a while, then it became a problem. Even though he was sleeping most of the night, there was something missing. Daddy was no longer in the bed. I missed him, I wanted him back in the same room with me.

After a few failed attempts to move Derek out of the bed, and a visit to the Dr. office, thinking there was a reason he was not sleeping though the night, I realized that I have to be fully committed to doing this, otherwise it would not work. I have struggled with this issue for a while, just dreading the long, sleepless nights, losing that snuggle time, and not wanting to admit I was wrong, so I came up with a plan.
Crappy sleep is better than no sleep. The good thing about all this, is that Derek goes to sleep in his crib, he has done that since he was 6 months old, it is the waking up that is the problem. So starting one Friday night I decided that once he woke up, instead of getting him and putting him in the bed with me, we would go to the recliner, go back to sleep, and I would place him back in the crib. I was dedicated to do this 5 times a night if I needed to. Then after 1 week of transition, I would move on to letting him put himself to sleep.  Yes I know I was very optimistic. The first night we went to the recliner, rocked for about 30 minutes to an hour, I placed him back in the crib, and silence... until about 4Am, back to the recliner we go, till it is time to get up for work. After doing this a few nights, once I would place him in the crib, he would wake up crying, and I didn't see a point to going back to the recliner, so I let him put himself back to sleep.

 

 Some nights it took 40 minutes, and it was very rough, other nights 5 minutes, right back to sleep. After doing this every night and most nights he would wake up as soon as I laid him down, I realized, I am wasting my time going to the recliner, so now once he wakes up, I let him cry, for how ever long that may be, and he will eventually lay down and go back to sleep. I am sure that sounds mean to some, and I used to think the same thing, that is why he slept in the bed with me for so long. Now that I know he is just crying because he isn't getting what he wants, and he will lay down and go to sleep, I let him cry. Keep in mind that the whole time he is crying, I am awake, hoping that he goes back to sleep soon. I am not ignoring him, and if something was to go wrong I would be by his side in .023 seconds.  On a side note, my child is a very light sleeper, so every time the dogs would make a move, or I moved in the bed, and he was not asleep, he would start crying all over again, and eventually he will go back to sleep.

And that is where we are at on the sleeping in his own bed. It is progress, and we are not at the finish line, just yet, but we have climbed a lot of hills.

Until next time......