Sleep Update

Two of my friends spent the night (and are still here) with me to help Jeff and I get Leon "sleep trained." I admit this really was a last resort. I was against sleep training and CIO (cry it out). It seems so harsh and I was on the side of, "Let him eat (whenever, where ever, he wants)."

However after almost 10 months of bad sleep (honestly I have not slept more than 5 hours since Leon was born and it is not an exaggeration to say that most nights I sleep 1-3 hours before I wake up to feed him). When I co-sleep I don't have to get up to feed him, but I am a "prisoner" to the bed. So I don't use the bathroom, get a snack (being an all night snack bar burns a lot of calories), or roll over. But it's not all about me, or Jeff. It's about Leon.

If I was a stay at home mom, it would be easier for Leon. Since he prefers to BF to sleep, that would be doable for me (exhausting but definitely doable). However, he's at day care during the day. So he does not nap well. Usually they say he sleeps from 9-930 and then another quick nap in the afternoon. That combined with less than a full night asleep means Leon is not sleeping enough.

Sleep training was not as bad as I had predicted. He went to sleep (BF to sleep) late because we had other guests. He was in bed by 8:30pm ish. At 10 am he woke up crying. Usually I would take him out of the crib and feed him. On many nights, I'd just take him in to the bed and feed him and keep him there until the morning. But last night, I didn't pick him up. I rubbed his back (he was on his side) and stayed with him for a minute before I left the room. I repeated that twice more at 5 minute intervals. Then I did it again at 10 minutes. By the time my 15 min interval was up, he was sleep. So he was asleep by 10:40 or so. Then he woke up again at 2:00 pm. I waited 15 minutes (we had a stand off in the hall, i was convinced that he was probably hungry and that I should get him out of the crib or at least check in on him in 10 min instead of 15). Between 2:00 and 2:30 he cried, slept, and cried. It was very hard to hear him cry and not pick him up. My friend M. said, "You are doing this for you and him." My friend J. said, "get back in your room. He is not hungry."

At some point I went to sleep. Then at 5:30 am Jeff's alarm went off. I woke up suddenly and said, "Has it been 10 mins?" Then I realized he wasn't crying and I went back to sleep. He's still asleep now.

I know we have to continue this for a couple more nights for it to work. But so far, it seems to be working. I hope I'm not causing any lasting psychological issues for Leon. Sleep is priceless. Leon needs it (and I do too!).