Wow! My kids are cute!

Do you have any idea how much more adorable children are after they let mom get a good night sleep? :)

We have been doing this "sleep training" with Eli and I'm seeing results! Eli no longer sleeps with us at all during the night! He can handle his crib now :) AND...he is sleeping longer stretches, and putting himself back to sleep. Since several people have asked what we are doing, who are also hesitant to do the CIO method with their babies...here's the gist of our plan. If you are totally uninterested in how we are getting Eli to sleep better...well just don't read this post :)

So far we aren't worrying about naps at all. This technique says we can either work on them now, or just work on nighttime sleep and often good napping will follow, so that is what we are doing. At bedtime, we do a more set routine (we always had a routine, but didn't follow it every night)...dinner, bath, books, jammies, then Noah goes to daddy for a little snuggle/play time, and mommy starts with Eli. I feed him, then change his diaper into his overnight diaper to wake him. We talk/snuggle and go see daddy for good night kisses. Nursing ALWAYS puts Eli to sleep, so the diaper/talking after his last feeding is more to wake him up than anything. Then Eli is hugged and kissed and laid in the crib, AWAKE. This has been successful for us for the past week...but overnights have just seen results the last couple nights.

Eli has a habit of waking every hour or two and needing to either nurse or come to bed with us to fall back asleep. He is unable to put himself to bed. So when he wakes up and I am certain he is not hungry he gets to come out of the crib for a quick hug and reassurance that we do still in fact exist then he is put back down. Since this is a NO CRY method, if he does cry I pick him up and rock or pat him until he has stopped, and is drowsy again, but not sleeping and I lay him back down. It is important that we not let him fall asleep rocking or being pat or we will just be creating another sleep crutch. It is also important that we not give into old sleep crutches, (nursing/bedsharing) which has been hard because I don't feel Eli is able to go without food overnight yet. So, I have to judge hunger vs. wanting comfort. Basically if it has only been an hour or two since he ate, I don't feed him...if it has been over 3 he gets nursed.

The past few nights Eli has gone to bed before 8, woken around 9 and we do our gentle pats/ect but allow him to fall back asleep without too much assistance. He wakes around midnight to eat (I'm not totally convinced he needs it, but based on how much he does actually take in, I am going to go ahead and assume he is hungry at this time). He has then, for the past couple nights, been sleeping a good long stretch (which for us means over 5 hours!), and waking up around 5-6 to eat again, and going back down to sleep until I am up and ready (around 8) This morning Eli even woke up and played alone in his crib until 9!!! And that is something he has never done before!

All in all I am really happy this is starting to work. No, he isn't sleeping through the night, but I am not even convinced that he can without eating yet. I know a lot of mommies expect them to be sleeping through the night earlier (And yes I was one of them before Eli let me know otherwise), but for now, I am going to be happy with this, and enjoy our late night cuddles. Let me also add (since a few people have come to me wondering about this) that I don't think anyone is harming their child with the cry it out method if it works for their child. I think most parents have a good idea of what their child can handle, and what they can handle. I think the cry it out method would have worked fine for Noah had we needed to do something with him...but I don't feel its a good fit for Eli who craves touch more than any baby I have come across. Also, as a mom, it's not something I could handle. I by no means feel someone is a "bad" mom if they can do it...it just isn't something I can handle. I'm a sucker...and I know I would cave in to the cries, which would only be making my situation worse. This gentle approach to sleeping better takes much more time as well. The CIO method is effective, and usually much faster to see results (often just after a night or two of crying, whereas this may take up to 3 weeks for good results), but so far we are so happy with how it is working! I got 9...yes 9 hours of sleep last night!