Sleep Training

With a heavy heart, we decided it was in Logan's best interest to sleep train via CIO aka Crying It Out method.

Day 1: Bed at 9pm, cried for 50 mins. Woke at 2:40am, cried for an hour.

Day 2: SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! Nursed at 6:20pm. Strict bedtime routine starting at 7pm (bath, play, rolling, tummy time letting out some big burps, go to bedroom, read book with the light on, nurse at 7:45pm, burp real good, rock and sang, Logan sings back to me, asleep by 8pm. Deep sleep and put him down at 8:14pm. Cried 3 mins at 9:05pm. Slept through the entire night without a single peep until I woke him for the sitter at 6:00am. He took two 2-1/2 hour naps. Much more pleasant and well rested through the day. Curious to see how long he can sleep had I not woken him for the sitter.

Night 3: Started routine late at 7:30pm which messed us up. Sleep at 8:23pm. Cried for 10 mins at 9:15pm. Slept. Cried at 3:40am for a few mins. Slept till 7:48am. Played by himself in his crib. Picked him up at 8:14 am for the morning!

I feel like posts on sleep training always come with an explanation of why I would have my baby cry it out, so here goes mine.

Our work schedule/sitter's schedule and his natural feeding/sleeping patterns were conflicting leading to a very cranky Logan who got no sleep. I was nursing him at 4am, he'd want to sleep till 8am and we're waking him at 5:30-6-30 am to go to the sitters. Then we would pick him up from the sitters at 4:30pm when he wanted to nap from 3-6pm. Then he'd nurse at 6pm and it was messing up his play/nursing/bedtime. It was getting so bad that the last 2 weeks he was napping (20 mins, 15 mins and 65 mins = 1 hr 4o mins = not enough) So I moved my work schedule to allow him more sleep in the morning and pick him up later so that he can get his 3rd nap in as well. I worked with the sitter asking her to offer him quiet time or a nap every 2 hours and it worked!

Logan is an easy baby. He went down so easily while nursing that we never needed to put him on any regiment. Usually around 7pm he'd go to bed. At first we didn't recognize that he was tired and needs to put to bed not just wait till he falls asleep. He was extremely overtired - napping only 20 mins here and there and then waking in the night (which I found wasn't hunger related because I'd pick him up and he'd doze right off again). I couldn't function on 5-6 hours of sleep nightly and waking at 4am then going off to work full time. And ulimately, I felt like he was ready. He is thriving at 15 lbs and 2 oz (at 17 weeks old) and has been gaining weight regularly. Had I had an inkling that he was hungry I wouldn't deny him a midnight feeding. After talking to many friends with different experiences and versus what Pediatricians and books say, I pulled together the best method for us.

Fingers crossed it continues to work.