Sleep Training – Is it Over?
Welcome back! This is my third post on our sleep training experience. If you have missed my other posts, please feel free to check them out:
We left off after night three of sleep training. There was progress being made, but Wyatt had not slept through the night yet. At times I was hopeful and at others, I thought we were wasting our time and we would never get there!
Night 7
We are jumping to night 7 as nights 4-6 weren’t very different from the previous nights. Wyatt was up sometime between 1 and 4 and I let him cry for awhile (about 30 minutes, less if I was really tired) and if he didn’t fall asleep, I fed him.
But night 7, that was a win! Wyatt slept all night! I woke up at 4:30 and realized he was not up yet and had a silent party in my head before going back to sleep. Wyatt was up at 5:22 and he ate and went back to sleep. Yay for sleep!
Night 8
Another all night sleep! Yay! Wyatt woke at 5:30, nursed and went back to sleep. This was working!! (Picture me doing a happy dance in the morning.)
Night 9
I got cocky. I stayed up late watching a movie with Cody and all heck broke loose from there. Wyatt was up at 12:30, and not just awake, full on, inconsolable, screaming. I didn’t know how to get him to relax, so I fed him and put him back to bed. Then, he was up again at 4:30. I tried to let him cry it out, but I was very tired and wanted more sleep. I fed him again and we all went back to bed. I hoped I didn’t just set him back.
I blame this night on a couple of things. First, supper was not very structured. Wyatt did not have a full meal, so he probably was hungrier throughout the night. Then he also went to bed an hour later than normal. He was fussy in the early evening because he had another tooth coming in. If I really wanted to blame things, I could also say it was a full moon. The cards were stacked against us! Setbacks are to be expected right?
Night 10
Night ten. Well, it was better than night 9, but it wasn’t a complete night of sleep either. We had a wake up at 2:11 A.M. I let him fuss for about 20 minutes and I couldn’t take it anymore. I was exhausted too. I fed him and put him back to bed. I think we are working in the wrong direction now.
1 Month into Sleep Training
Well, it has been a whole month of “sleep training.” I put quotes around “sleep training” because I can’t say that we did that great of a job at it. We just aren’t consistent enough. Some nights Wyatt sleeps through the night. Sometimes he doesn’t. When he doesn’t, I sometimes let him cry and I sometimes feed him. It depends on how tired I am and how loud he is screaming.
I will say our sleeping habits are better. If he wakes up, it is typically only once a night now instead of 3. If he sleeps through the night, he gets up between 5 and 6 to eat which is totally okay with me. We have had a week here and there where he has slept through the night 3-4 nights in a row. We have also had nights where he’s been up twice and I’ve tried to let him cry it out but I just can’t take it and end up feeding him after 20 minutes.
I don’t think I am going to push sleep training much harder than I am now. I tried again last night to not feed him at all, but after 45 minutes of crying at 1:30 A.M. he wasn’t going back to sleep, so I did. We are trying to make sure he eats well throughout the day and some days that seems to help. He is also losing his morning nap here this week as when he changes rooms at daycare next week, so that may help him sleep better at night too. (I hope right?!)
Suggestions?
Do you have any tried and true methods you think have got your child to sleep through the night? I am always open to hearing them! I’d like to say whatever it takes, but I’m not the best at follow through here am I? 🙂 Oh well… we are getting more sleep than before! And mama likes sleep!
