Sleeping Baby

I said that I would let you know if Gavin sleeping with us would change...

Well it has.

Sort of.

I bought this book over a month ago. It's called, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child."

It was only like 3 bucks on amazon, so I thought, "why the heck not?".

It took FOREVER to get here, meanwhile getting the little one to sleep in his own crib, and sleep well, was quite the battle. He would fight the need to sleep every.single.time. he got tired. It was wearing on him, and my patience.

I was getting so impatient for that stupid book to arrive. I knew it wasn't going to be a cure-all, but I was hoping for some helpful answers nonetheless.

I read several reviews about the book, and most claimed it was their heaven-sent answer, but nobody would say what it was about the book that made it so awesome!

That annoyed me for some reason.

The book FINALLY came, and I jumped right into reading it.

It talked about two kinds of methods to get your baby to sleep.

Method A-You let your baby cry it out, but not more than 1 hour. So that the baby will learn to self-soothe.

Method B-You rock/help your baby fall into a deep sleep, and then place your baby in the crib.

It also talked about how important sleep is for a baby, and how much sleep a baby should be getting.

Then it went on about how important a consistent bedtime routine is so that baby will know that bedtime and sleep are coming soon.

Okay.

So, I tried Method B first, because I just wasn't feeling right about Gavin just screaming his brains out. He would fall asleep, and I'd lay him in his crib, and IMMEDIATELY he'd wake up and start screaming. So, this first night, I would rock him to sleep, lay him down, and he'd wake up. It happened probably 5 or 6 times. Finally, because I am human, I had to just leave the room and let him cry. I let him cry for 20 minutes, and went in to soothe him a few times. Ugh! I hated it. It just was so awful! I felt so hopless. I didn't want to do the crying it out method. I know it works for some parents, but I just didn't want to do it. Method B wasn't working, because he would wake up every time I put him in his crib.

Oh it was frustrating.

Now let me give a little background of Gavin's sleeping habits. For probably the first 3 months, he did really well at just going to sleep when I put him in his crib at night, and then about halfway through the night, after one of his feedings I was just dead tired I would just bring him in bed with us in case he didn't fall asleep so easily.

Then it got to the point where it was taking a lot longer for him to calm down, and fall asleep in his crib. So then I got in the habit of just bringing him in bed with us right off, and he would sleep there all night.

Well, I did mention in a previous post how Spencer didn't have much of a say, because I was the one getting up in the middle of the night. Truth be told, I was/am ready for Spencer and I to have our bed back.

Then that's when the worst night of getting Gavin to sleep happened. The night I already explained above about how he was fighting it so bad.

After all of that happened, I kind of broke down to Spencer, and said I can't just let him cry, and he won't just stay asleep after I rock him to sleep.

The next night, I decided I was going to establish a routine with Gavin, no crying it out involved.

Routine: change diaper, put lotion on and play/sing a silly song while I'm putting on the lotion, put jammies on, wrap him up in a blanket, head to his already dark room, and hum one lullaby to him. Then I put him in his crib, kiss him on the forehead, and walk out without a word said.

Guess what! It works.

He falls asleep without a single fuss most nights, or when I put him down for a nap. It's wonderful!

Before, I would hold him while he took a nap, and with him sleeping with us at night, I would hold him then too. I don't regret it totally, because I wasn't able to breastfeed for very long, so I feel like it has given Gavin and I the bond we both need.

He takes better naps {I don't know if they are considered great naps, because he doesn't always nap for even an hour at a time, though his morning nap is usually two hours.}, and we have a schedule down! We sort of did before, but now he and I both know what is going to happen when it's going to happen. It's so nice.

Before, when I would hold him most of the day, I just felt like it was what he wanted, and I loved it, so why not! I think now that he has gotten older, he is wanting/needing a little bit more independence {as much as a 4 1/2 month old can have haha}, and we are meeting his needs as best we can. He was always a happy baby, but now he is happy to take a nap or go to sleep, and that is all I could ask for.

So if you are a mother of a child at any age who is thinking they need to buy a book, feel free. It helped me somewhat, but a lot of it I already knew {not to sound like a know-it-all, but just that I had already read about consistency at bedtime at babycenter.com} and I don't totally feel like it was even worth the 3 dollars for me right now. That's just me.

Oh, and I don't want anyone who has done the cry it out method to feel like I think they are bad parents or to feel like they made the wrong choice. I just didn't want to do it, because I didn't feel like it was what Gavin needed, though it could very well be what our next baby needs. Who knows.

Thanks for reading!