I Won the Battle

Long story, here goes: A few days ago I actually took a moment to think about Weston's sleeping patterns and I was not happy. He doesn't take good naps during the day, about 2 one hour naps and at night I can only get him to sleep in his crib for about 4-6 hours, then I end up dragging him in bed with me cause I'm so dead tired I don't know what I'm doing. I will literally wake up in the morning and be surprised that the baby is in bed with me and wonder when I went to get the baby (awful--I'm like a zombie at night). When Wes was born, I wanted so bad to help him learn how to be a good sleeper (I even blogged about it) and I was so diligent about having him fall asleep on his own....but then I got busy and fell back into old habits. Knowing that I had to be at school in the morning, I just didn't have it in me to stay awake during the night and get the baby back to sleep in his own bed (it just took so long for him to nurse then fall back asleep, I would start falling asleep in the chair with my head bobbing around--not good).

Derek has not been happy with our sleeping routine, but I had just never had enough time/patience to do anything about it. But after reading a friends blog about her 7 month old sleeping 10-11 hours in the night, I reflected on Weston's sleeping decided that was it!

I had always shied away from the "cry it out" method (in my mind he would be crying for hours and I knew I couldn't take that). But then I researched it a bit and talked about it when visiting with my Visiting Teaching Companion and a teachee. Then I realized that learning how to sleep on his own may take a some crying. Once he gets that he can go to sleep on his own, without assistance from mom or dad, then he will give in and sleep. I was being a total pushover, according to my companion. After leaving from visiting with these two sisters, I decided Weston was going to take a good, long nap. On the drive home he zonked out. When I carried him into the house he woke up. I put him in his bed and he cried for about 3 minutes, then fell asleep. I thought to myself, that wasn't so bad. Later, I put him down for another nap and the same thing...he cried for about 5 min then fell asleep. It was totally awesome! That night he went to bed, cried for only a couple minutes and slept--for 8 hours. Then I nursed him and laid him back down and he slept another 3 hours. It was like a miracle. I feel triumphant; I won! This was only the first night, so we will see how it goes from now on, but I feel stronger now-empowered. No more letting my child win the sleeping battle--only took 9 months to figure this out....I guess better late than never!

I only have infant pics of Wes sleeping.