Nate slept!

Nate hasn't been sleeping very well lately. His naps are regularly 30-40 minutes and it feels like he is starting to wake up more and more at night.  Although he will actually sleep in his crib, which is far beyond what our first baby would do, I'm not completely satisfied to wake up every 1 1/2-2 hours all throughout the night to nurse the little guy. We have his crib in our room so I don't have to walk down the hall 6 or more times a night every time he wakes up. Climbing out of bed, picking up the baby, and sitting in the chair for 15 minutes to nurse him, where I can't really even slouch or get comfortable starts to feel like torture when I have to do it over and over and over.

After a particularly grueling night, when Nate was waking way too often and then having to be held and bounced because his stomach couldn't settle, I decided it was time to start sleep training him and stop sharing rooms. As convenient as it was to have him close, maybe we were bugging him and I think I was too quick to respond to his every noise. I didn't want him to bug Tanner any more than necessary, so I would pick him up if I thought he was close to crying.  I think I was unintentionally forcing him to wake more by picking him up instead of helping him.

That morning I told Tanner about my bad experience and that I was planning to blow up the air mattress for Tanner and I to sleep on in the room next to Zoey. We would leave Nate and his crib in our room, down the hall from Zoey so as not to wake her when he cries. I was determined not to feed him till 4 hours after his bedtime feed.

He went down really easy that night around 8:30 after I nursed him at 8. He woke up at 9:30 and I let him cry for 5 minutes. He has been throwing up frequently, so I went to check on him expecting to do a quick clean up, but there was nothing. I picked him up and he kept crying for about a minute. Then he spit his binky out and was quiet, so I put him back in his crib. He just kept sleeping. Weird.

He didn't wake up till 3 1/2 hours later (11:30). Not quite the 4 hours I was hoping for, but also not the fight I was expecting. I was happy to feed him. When he woke up 2 1/2 hours after that, I was expecting a hellish night. I let him cry for 5 minutes and went to check on him again. I caved and nursed him. He fell right asleep and I went back to bed.

I woke up at 6am, went to look at the monitor to check on him and realized that the sound had been turned off and it was facing down. I wouldn't have noticed if it turned on when he cried. He was sleeping at the time, but I felt guilty not knowing if I slept through a crying spell that may or may not have happened during that 4 hours.  I shrugged, thought 'what can I do now?", and went back to sleep.  I was more aware from then on. Every time he peeped, I knew it, but I didn't go to him. I didn't need to. He never woke up.  Not till 8am. That's 6 straight hours of uninterrupted sleep for me, people!

When he woke in the morning, he just sat up on his elbows and looked around. He didn't cry out. He was all smiles when I went to him. If he did cry for 3 hours straight, (I don't think he did) he was holding no grudges. I am thrilled with our success. I am definitely encouraged to keep our training going.

To make things even better, he went down for his first nap 2 hours after he woke up and slept for 2.75 hours straight. He has not done that since he was a teeny baby. Go Nate.