Friday, August 21, 2009

Progress Report


Well, it has been one week since the sleep boot camp began. I think it has gone well, especially since we handled it all ourselves. There was a period a few months back where we considered hiring a baby sleep specialist. But I knew they would all operate off of some sort of variation on crying it out, so I put my own plan together. Dr. Tolcher instructed us to wean him from the night feedings rather than simply stop cold turkey. Now first, understand that he was wanting to eat every 3-4 hours through the night and not hardly eating at all during the day. To battle this, we decided to pick him up and comfort him back to sleep any way we could without feeding him the first couple nights, with the exception of one feeding until he became a better daytime eater. He ate well enough during the day on Sunday that we thought we could push through with no feedings at all Sunday night. I think that was our roughest night. He was still up every 3-4 hours, but we refused not only to feed him, we also would not pick him up to comfort him any longer. It was time to cry it out. He never cried longer than maybe 20 minutes per stretch, some less, but it was tough on mom and dad. We stuck to our guns, though. Tuesday through Thursday nights have been much better. He has continued to wake only once each night, but we go in and give him his paci and blankie and he either goes right back to sleep or cries himself back to sleep in about 10-15 minutes. Last night he only woke when I went to check on him before I went to bed (darn my need to cover him back up!), then not again until 6 am. Unfortunately for me, I was hoping to make it to 7 am, but the progress on his part is great! Dare I say I actually miss getting to cuddle my little one in the middle of the night??

Interestingly, just as we started really letting him fuss it out in the night, he has begun rolling himself onto his tummy during his fussing and now prefers to sleep that way. I have always known he sleeps best on his tummy, but would only put him down that way for naps when I could watch him, for all the obvious reasons. There is a very good chance that if we had slept him on his tummy at night, he would have slept through the night much sooner. But that is not what AAP wants you to do, and we were not comfortable doing so at night. Now that he puts himself on his tummy no matter how you put him down, I don't worry any more and he sleeps more soundly. Hooray!


Our other new update is that Luke is pretty much sitting up all by himself now. He was very close last week, he now can do it. You still have to watch him because he does timber over if he leans too far in one direction sideways or backwards. He can lean forward to pick up a toy and then sit back up by himself, though. Such a big boy!



Even though sleeping has been an issue for this child from day 1, we feel so blessed to have a completely healthy child in all other respects: no reflux, gaining weight appropriately, HAPPY and super smiley. Praise God for that!

2 comments:

Nanna said...

Yeah Luke!(and Mom & Dad)
What a big boy you are sitting up by yourself. Gran'Pa and I can not wait to see you do it in person when you come to visit us. We love and miss you!

Sarah Heinle said...

Sleeping thru the night is always a challenge. Every child is different. Mr. W was a tummy sleeper also so it took him a while to sleep though the night, for the same reasons you struggled with. Mr. T on the other hand has slept thru the night since 4 weeks. I'm very glad you guys did it on your own and there has been improvement. Hang in there and stick to your guns. :) You are a great mommy and daddy.