Sleep training for us all.

For the first few months Charlie was a good sleeper. Meaning that he would sleep about 4-6 hours at a time. The past few months were not so good. He had been getting up every 1½ hours and I had been nursing him back to sleep. This routine really had me in a haze of exhaustion.

Crying it out was not high on my list of things I wanted to do. I had been saying we should try it for probably 2 months but then didn’t because I just didn’t feel ready. I really enjoy cuddling and nursing him to sleep but it finally got to a point that I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was crying a lot because I was so tired.

I connected with many friends that had done the cry it out deal for their words of wisdom and support in preparation.  We really want to have the sleep in a better place before my brother and sister in-law arrive so we started this past Tuesday.

Many of our friends suggested that Brandon do the work and I leave the house because I would most likely cave and go pick up the crying child.  I agreed that the crying would be too much for me but didn’t know where to go so I decided that instead of leaving the house I would put on Brandon’s headphones that I got him and turn on the TV (our computer) as loud as it would play. That’s what I did. I shut myself in our room and escaped into the lives of The Real Housewives of New York.

Night one Charlie cried for 25 minutes before putting himself to sleep. He slept for 8 hours before I fed him and he went back to sleep for 3 more hours! The second night he cried for 3 minutes and followed the same routine as the night before. Night 3 there was NO crying. Last night was night 5 and he has gone down with no tears since night 3. We are a work in progress because we still need to work on removing the 2:30am feeding but for right now this is working perfect. We will tackle that feeding down the road.

 This sleep training really brought to my attention the fact that Charlie’s room really needing some decorating. We didn’t prepare a nursery before his arrival in the way that I most likely would have done if we had been living in Minnesota. You know what I mean: paint the walls, put up new curtains, pick out a comfy chair and a crib ect.  Instead we looked around the house at the furniture that was provided and moved items in the 90 square foot room that would work for what we needed. He has a small dining room table as his changing table, (his first changing table was the top of Kirby’s dog kennel) a side table that wasn’t being used as his bookshelf/toy spot, a small chair for me to sit in and feed him (NOT COMFY at ALL!), and a travel crib that my mom bought for him (first sleep space was a suitcase).

So I rearranged the furniture as best I could to create some wall space so that I could put some things on the walls. These are things that we already had of course. I do think that I am going to find a few colorful items to finish off the space. I also am planning to make a rag rug for the floor if and when I find enough sheets. Sheets are not an easy item to find here. I’ll show that rug if I ever get to it!

Tummy sleeping is a new thing.

XOXO,

Katie, Brandon, and Charlie