Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Sleep

Let's get real. Babies are cute and fun, but taking care of one around the clock is exhausting! Shawn has never been a good sleeper. Around 3 months he started doing a little better and would give us one solid 4-6 hour stretch of sleep, but once he turned 4 months old the sleeping situation went downhill. He wouldn't sleep in his crib for more than 1-2 hours without waking up. We tried it all! Different swaddling products, the swing, putting him in bed with us, etc. etc. etc. And naps were a joke! Someone had to sit near his swing and be on "binky patrol" because if that thing came out, you could forget about nap time. 

But now, at 7 months old, we are all finally getting some sleep! Last month we tried some sleeping training to help Shawn learn to fall asleep on his own. Prior to that, we always had to rock/bounce him to sleep. We did a modified cry-it-out method where one of us went in every 5 minutes to soothe him without picking him up. After a week or so he was able to go to sleep without crying at all. Life became a little easier, but he was still waking up anywhere from 2-5 times a night. Usually the only way to get him to calm down and go back to sleep was to feed him. But this month, he has gotten to the point where he is only waking up 1-2 times per night. Last night he went down at 7:00, woke up at 10:00 to eat, and then slept all through the night until 7:50 this morning! I haven't felt this rested in forever!! 

Nap times have been a little tricky over the past week because Shawn learned to stand up in his crib. Every time I lay him down, he just cries and stands up! So I've had to resort back to the bouncing and rocking a few times. But once he gets over the new-ness of standing, I think we'll have ourselves one good little sleeper!