Sleep Work

It's been quite a week and a half in our household! All three of us have been working long and hard at sleep training, getting our LO to transition out of 1. co-sleeping, 2. weaning off of nursing to sleep (I know... it was a horrible habit all the way around!), and 3. sleeping IN his room IN the crib!

When I was preggo with Mata, I was adamant on him sleeping in his own space because I knew how much I wanted him, the hubs and I to sleep well without disturbing one another. We started him off in his bassinet and a nap here and there in his crib. BUT it eventually morphed into him sleeping in bed with hubs and I when we travelled. It was just easier on everyone!

Fast forward to 17 months later of restless nights and early mornings, extremely early morning wake-up calls, soar back and bones and watching the monitor like a hawk so baby wouldn't roll off of the mountains of pillows we surrounded him with to contain him on our bed. The time had come to get this baby in his own space to sleep, not just at bedtime but for his naps too.

We began our journey with the lovely Lauren at Sleep and the City who I discovered through another blogger who sought out help from her as well! Lauren was a breath of fresh air to work with. She definitely knows a thing or two about babies and sleep, and totally helps customize an approach based on baby. Yes, I read books on the Sleep Lady Shuffle, the CIO method, and others in between. What was missing for me was all the tips for babies who didn't follow the instructions as directed. There were way too many things that happened outside of the text, I didn't know where to go or what to read for those what if's. When we started working with Lauren, she helped the hubs and I understand our LO in ways we hadn't, particularly because he isn't able to verbalize his thoughts and feelings as we did. So we didn't know if his breathless cries meant that we were hurting him and causing emotional damage... and so on!

Here we are... almost two weeks into the process after implementing multiple transition phases and a sleep plan consisting of: a consistent structured schedule of eating and sleeping, tweaking his sleeping environment, having the answers to our what happens if moments, and a TON of patience. We have made SO much progression in this half-way mark to the 3-4 week period of seeing a consistent change in sleep habits!

1.  Mata is solely sleeping in his CRIB
2.  He learned how to self-soothe himself to sleep (from a whine, to chatter, or just silence)
3.  Mata is sleeping a whopping 11-12 hours at night with one to NO wakings at night
4.  We are nursing LESS and definitely not to sleep
5.  Hubs and I have a decent chunk of time in the evening to enjoy each other as husband and wife

The picture above was taken the first morning he woke up from sleeping in his crib... and it's proof that he made it out alive and HAPPY!

I totally recommend reaching out to Lauren with SATC to see how she may be of help!

Have you been through similar issues with your LO? What worked for you?