Sleep Training

We did it. Jeff and I started "sleep training" last night. Saying it is the most difficult thing I have ever had to do in my whole entire life is an understatement. There is absolutely no way I could have done it if I hadn't felt that it was the right time and that it was the right thing. Maddox, from birth, has never ever slept well. Sure, he sleeps great at night time, but it is the naps (or the complete absence of them) that he struggles with. This makes him chronically tired and he has just been getting grumpier and grumpier and I spend all day trying to get him to sleep. Rocking, cuddling, snuggling, swaddling, singing, bouncies, swings, dryers, carseats, white noise, music. You name it, we have done it. I knew this had to happen at some point and after reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" (twice) and "Good Night, Sleep Tight" I was able to deduce the right way for us to help Maddox learn how to sleep. We miss our sweet little active and alert baby boy and want him back! We are so tired (literally too) of him rubbing his eyes all day and crying and fussing, and having red and swollen eyes and always being tired. I miss being able to get out of my pajamas during the day and actually putting on makeup and doing my hair and cooking and even cleaning the house. Which, by the way, I have still been doing, but I have to do things so quickly that I end up making an even bigger mess...like yesterday I vacuumed and ended up, for the second time in two weeks, running over something and busting the belt. First it was my cell phone charger and yesterday it was my skirt...I know skirts don't belong on the floor, but that is seriously how little time I have to do anything because Maddox is having such a hard time.

Anyway, yesterday was the final straw. We used to be able to get him to sleep if we held him the whole entire time he was sleeping. Yes, I was desperate enough for him to nap that I sat on the couch and held him for four hours some days. After doing this for a week though, even that tactic started to fail. Yesterday, even though I held him, he kept waking up and crying and screaming, even though I was right there to soothe him. He was so over tired that he kept flinching and startling himself awake after 10-15 seconds of his eyes being closed (I sat there and counted) and this happened over and over and over again!

Sooooo, after experiencing all this, Jeff and I decided we had better start it now, even though most books say not to start sleep training until babies are between 4-6 months old. I was hoping to hold out until then, but realized Maddox is suffering and we are all suffering. After talking and praying about it and talking to LOTS of people about their experiences with it (thanks to everyone for your advice), we put Maddox down last night at 7:53 p.m. after a feeding AND we put him down in his own crib in his own room. Prior to this he had been sleeping in a pack and play/bassinet right next to my bed. Jeff spend a few minutes cuddling Maddox and calming him down, then placed him in his crib and walked out, closing the door behind him. Maddox started crying immediately and we went and turned on the water in the kitchen and did the dishes for a loooong time and then I played guitar hero and turned it pretty loud. At 8:30 p.m. he stopped crying and I thought, "Wow! That wasn't so bad!" Within five minutes he was at it again though. Then he stopped again and then started again and then stopped again and started again and then stopped again finally at 9:38 p.m. He slept until 4:00 a.m., woke up to eat and went right back to bed until 7:30 a.m. Woke up and I tried to get him up for the day but he was still tired, so I put him back down at 7:53 a.m. and he went down with absolutely no crying! It is now 9:01 a.m. and I can hear him in his crib now talking and sucking his fingers.

I will keep you updated on how the rest of the day goes...Really it is the napping he hates and I am all by myself today. Jeff has his phone on so I can call when I need to though. I am so excited to have my baby boy back! Hopefully this continues to work and hopefully Maddox and I don't shed so many tears today.