1 hour and 8 minutes. That's how long Breeson cried (actually - mainly screamed) last night when we laid him in his crib for bed. After about 45 minutes, I began to cry as well. Poor Jamie, he had two babies last night.
I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I prayed all day yesterday. I'm sure the next couple of nights will be tough, but hopefully (and prayerfully) we'll see results if we stick with it.
I believe we will stick to this routine: bath, bedtime feeding, hold him for 10 minutes, then lay him in his crib. My only fear in having a routine is, if an evening gets messed up and we can't do one of the things, will that mess him up?
I will say this, he slept really well for the rest of the night. I did have to get up to feed him a couple times (one at around 1:30 and the other at 4:30), but after eating he went right back down. Although that part is pretty normal, not long ago he had started doing this thing where we'd put him down thinking he was asleep, and then after a few minutes he'd want up again. This time though - when he went down, he stayed down!! Poor little guy wore himself out.
So...we'll stick with this for a while, if we don't see results, then we'll have to try a new method. I pray it works though. I hate changing things up on him. I know it's not easy for us, but I can't imagine how hard it is on him.
It's amazing that at such a young age (7 1/2 weeks) you can already see his strong-willed personality. Doing all of this is not just to get Breeson in the habit of going to sleep on his own (although that will be nice!). It's also to teach him that he cannot have everything he wants and get by with it. During our 2 week trip early on in Breeson's life, we got into a nasty habit of him always being held (mainly b/c so many people wanted to hold him). Well...he still insists on being held. So hopefully this will help teach him to be a little more independent.
3 comments:
Joy- do you know that on your "about us" info you say Breeson was born in MARCH not MAY?! I was so confused b/c you said he was just now 7.5 weeks and I was like how is that possible?! Anyway I hope this goes well for you! We are just now (at 5 months) trying to implement a more structured bedtime routine...it is working ok.
I just want to let you know colic babies are notoriously bad sleepers!!! Lo is STILL not sleeping through the night, no matter what I try! I don't say this to discourage you but rather encourage you to know it isn't always in our control to make them sleep better. Also, Lo likes to toy w/ me and make me THINK she is sleeping through the nite and then 4 days later WHAM! We are back up every few hours. Remember to just be patient, the CIO method isn't bad but it can be hard for it to be effective at such a young age.
I think you both are doing an amazing job raising your son, being parents is the TOUGHEST thing you will ever do in your life. I know it is harder than I even dreamed it would have ever been!
Keep up the great work!
Joy, I so understand where you are at. When we first let Mason cry himself to sleep the first 2 nights he cried for 3 hours--and I cried with him! Gradually it got to be less time and by 2 weeks it was down to 15 minutes. It took him a really long time to adjust and I was SOOO glad when he finally did! He was 6 months when we did this though so he was harder to "train".
Good job, even though it was hard, I know! I pray that it will only get better from here. I'll be honest, when we get out of routine, Noah gets out of routine. Ever since we started doing the bath, feeding and bedtime routine, we have not missed a night because we are TERRIFIED he won't sleep at all that night. ;) Hopefully just a few days of this, with less crying each night, will get him used to his new routine. We think about you guys often...
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