What I am really questioning right now is if it's better for me to put him down, knowing he will only nap for an hour at the most, or just hold him, knowing he will sleep for 2 plus hours. When he has a longer nap he does a lot better at night. So do I spend hours holding him, or do I deal with not enough sleep, but teaching him to sleep on his own?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Sleep Training - Day 2
After yesterday's successes, I was excited for another day of success. Unfortunately, today we only had 1. The G-man fell asleep while I was holding him during the day. I decided to try putting him down again. I did and he stayed asleep for about 30 minutes. Not as good as the day before, but I will take it. The night didn't go as well. He fell asleep while I was feeding him. I rocked him for awhile and then laid him down. He only lasted about 10 minutes before waking up. I picked him up and he fell back asleep almost immediately. I rocked him for awhile and then tried putting him back down. He woke up briefly, but after giving him his pacifier he slowly fell back asleep. He woke up every 2 hours during the night, so it was a long night.
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4 comments:
Good luck with this sleep training! I have no advice to give, but it would seem to me that training him to sleep is more important in the long run than continuing to hold him for his longer naps. Even if it is painful in the short term. But of course I'm not the one waking up every 2 hours in the night!
Read up on the Ferber method. It takes 3 solid days of absolutely horrendous nights, but it works in the end. I'm just not sure how young you can do it, but it sounds like you've got to do something!
Put him down! Believe me, you'll have some rough nights at first, but he'll get the idea. It is not easy! Rather than pick him up, rub his back or his belly - that helps him get used to the idea of being in his crib. You just have to wean him from your arms! Good luck!
I agree, you have to think long term here. He needs to learn to sleep! Try to find something to substitute for your arms, something soothing, like white noise, swaddling, a swing, or even a shirt that smells like you ( or all of the above!). Try anything to you can to get him warm and cozy like he is in your arms, and he'll go to it more easily. I've never been a huge Ferber fan, aotough I am sure it work for a lot of kids, it's never really been something I wanted to do. You may try, like you said, laying by him instead of holding him, get him used to that, and then move to just having a hand on him while he's in his crib, and then slowly move farther away. You can do it!!!
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