Thursday, August 30, 2012

Sleepless Nights/Crying it Out

This week has been a rough one. Little man is not sleeping through the night, not even close.  He is under a week away from 5 months, and all of my sources indicate that he should be sleeping 8-10 hours straight every night at this point.  No such luck.  I was up with him FOUR times last night.  He has always rolled around a ton during the night, but now that he is getting stronger, it is getting worse.  We have been having some issues with separation anxiety lately, the wonderful ladies at the YMCA have had to call me to come get him numerous times in the last couple weeks. So, I think the combination of his wild nocturnal movements which wake him up, coupled with his need for mommy to comfort and settle him down have turned into sleepless nights for me.  I feel that the best thing for everyone involved is to let him learn how to settle himself down at night. 

After I put him down the fourth time, he was still slightly awake. As soon as he hit the mattress, he woke himself back up and started crying.  I knew he was dry, fed, and unhurt, so I closed his door and went back to sleep. I think he fussed maybe 5 minutes or so and went back to sleep. Today, I have been determined to keep developing his self soothing skills. I have put him in his bed when he started to show signs of sleepiness, rocked him for a few minutes and then put him down.  The first time, he cried 2-3 minutes.  The second time was longer, maybe 10 minutes. It is painful for me to hear him be so upset but I strongly feel that learning these skills is going to be best for us all in the long run. 

Stay tuned...

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