Spit up, Poopy Diapers and Junior High

It is so amazing how quickly the days go by when you are counting them. Today is already “Day 3” of our sleep training led by our sleep specialist. We are seeing progress, not as quickly as I’d hoped for, but it’s progress so I shouldn’t complain right? 

The first night went exceptionally well, I think. Travis woke for the first time around 10pm and we left him in his bed to soothe himself back to sleep. No, we aren’t just leaving him there to cry and fend for himself, we are teaching him the skill of putting himself to sleep. we check in on him at 5 minutes, 10 minutes and so on until he puts himself back to sleep. We are lucky enough to have a video monitor so we can watch him as he tosses and turns in his crib. He cried for a total of 30 minutes and then was silent. He put himself to sleep! We did not rock him, bounce him, give him a bottle, he did it all on his own and slept until 4am!!

Another part of our sleep training is teaching him that from 7pm-7am it’s “sleep time”. No meals. So… this was the first night that we eliminated his early morning bottle. Was he pissed? Yes. Did he starve? No. He cried from 4am until 6:45am and at that point it was just about wake time, so we went in and got him up for the day. He was happy and still didn’t have his breakfast bottle for another 35 minutes or so. 

The second night went even better. He only cried for 20 minutes when we put him down to sleep and then he slept until 4:45!! When he woke, he wasn’t crying, only whining and did so for only 15 minutes and went back to sleep until 6:45! Amazing!! 

The third night was a little different, again. Went to bed, cried for about 20 minutes before putting himself to sleep and then woke up at 2am and cried until about 3:30. He put himself back to sleep and slept until 6:30. I got him up at 6:45 again, to create a routine and be consistent. 

I’d say we are definitely making progress. He does not scream when we we put him in his crib. He know just closes his eyes and talks to himself, soothing himself to sleep. He rolls back and forth, wimpering just a little bit and it’s amazing to see the transformation. 

Our sleep consultant said on average it takes 3 days for it to “click”. He hasn’t completely trained himself yet, but progress is what we are looking for. If it takes two weeks for him to make his total transformation, then so be it. That is still better than 3-4 years of sleep problems and having to rock him to sleep. 

She is well worth her money…