Diary of a Sleep Training Parent: We All Fall Down

 Thursday: We All Fall Down

This family is tired.
It is an odd thing that the very reason we decided on sleep training was because of an exhaustion that was slowly creeping into every moment of every day. Odd because...today my husband and I are both beyond exhausted. I literally could not keep my eyes open for a portion of the morning. Thank you God for coffee.
I am honestly getting more sleep (in one stretch) than I have in a long time but my body basically shut down on me today.

Last night (night 2) ended up going well overall: once Noah fell asleep he stayed asleep until 6:30 am with only ONE night waking all night long. That is a huge improvement.

Today (day 2) has been a struggle. They warn us in The Sleepeasy Solution that naps will be the hardest and Noah is proving them correct. We put him down for two naps today and after an hour of protest for each - it was 1:00 in the afternoon and he was exhausted and hadn't slept a wink since that morning. The system warns not to let your baby fall asleep in your arms or nursing during this process but with a firm resolve that my baby needed to sleep I go to plan B. So, I put Noah in the car and then in the stroller and he napped there for about 1/2 an hour...better than nothing. This got him to sleep but didn't "send mixed messages" that sometimes I will hold him or nurse him to sleep and sometimes I won't. I may use this again in the coming days. We tried a third time in the later afternoon - one hour of whining - little cries and squawks - and quite a bit of talking to himself - no sleeping. Another little cat nap with Grandma Betsy in the stroller....so yeah, naps are NOT going well.

My husband through all of this is a rock. He hasn't wavered on carrying through even when I want to quit. If the old way of doing things was bad for me it was terrible for him...it was to the point where Noah really wouldn't sleep unless I was with him. One of the goals of this process is that Daddy will be able to put his son down for a nap or for the night. A worthy goal, I think.

So, we carrying on...with a commitment to each other for one solid week of this system. So in to night 3 I venture...


(6th in a series)