Success!

Chris and I implemented a sleep schedule for Carson this last week. We used the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child as a guide and went to work. Our goal: for Carson to take a morning and afternoon nap, go to bed around 8pm and sleep until 7am with no more than two night wakings for food. The nap times and bedtime were not all that hard to implement. He went down after being given a bottle with minimal fussiness. However, he still woke up 4 times the first night - basically every 2 hours. But we stuck to our guns. We fed him when he woke up at midnight and 4am, but not when he woke up at 2am and 5am. We basically let him cry until he went back to sleep. The first few nights that took over an hour! It was incredibly hard to let him cry for so long, but we knew it was important that he learn to fall back asleep without being fed and comforted by one of us. One of the other problems has been that he rolls over on to his stomach and is unhappy, but seemingly forgets how to roll back onto his back. After letting him cry, he has figured out both how to flip back over and at the point of exhaustion, fall asleep on his stomach. It was a hard lesson to learn, but hopefully he has it down now.

It took a few nights, but Carson finally did learned how to soothe himself back to sleep! Monday night he only woke up twice - at about midnight and 3:30am - I fed him and he went right back to sleep. And last night he only woke up once in the middle of the night! Again, I fed him and he went right back to sleep. He did wake up really early - 5:45am - but he just played quietly in his crib for about 30 minutes and fell back asleep until 7am, Chris gave him a bottle before leaving for work and he slept another hour. YAY for Carson! I feel like a new person. Two nights in a row of decent sleep. Now let's just hope this new routine keeps up!