Monday, July 9, 2012

Diary of a Sleep Training Parent- The End of an Era

Monday Night- The End of an Era


Monday night I put Noah to bed as I had for months...with nursing and staying near to him until he drifted off. He woke up 5 times throughout the night each time needing to be nursed and held back to sleep. There was a "nice" stretch from 3:00 am to 4:00 am where Noah laid on each and every part of my body trying to get comfortable. By morning I had one stretch of 3 hours of sleep and the rest of the night had been in dribs and drabs. The night was very typical and yet very special. I was keeping track of Noah's wakings and feedings so I could begin night weaning and so we would have a starting point for our program the next night. It was a hard night because I knew that we had decided that this would (hopefully) be the end of this behavior. I had posted on facebook about our plans to sleep train and received gabs of supportive remarks. I appreciated each one but also knew many of my fb friends did not support sleep training but were respectfully remaining silent on my wall. I felt pangs of guilt for abandoning a philosophy I had clung to and shared with others for many months. In some ways putting it on facebook made it official and now I couldn't back down...maybe that's why I posted it in the first place.

Goodnight sleeping with Noah tucked between us. Goodnight little hands stroking my arm as sleep took over. Goodnight rocking, and rocking, and rocking. Goodnight laying with Noah until the pacifier fell out and his eyes slowly closed. Goodnight, my newborn. I loved every moment of it. 


(2nd in a series)


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