This post suddenly got very long...get ready...
My son, Rowan, is 4.5 mo. I took the BW test with him and he is mostly and Angel Baby with some Textbook Baby traits--all in all his is a JOY!
He sucks his thumb (was able to get rid of the paci about 3 weeks ago) and has a lovey he snuggles with. All of this should lead to a baby who can sleep independently...right??
The bugaboo in my house is my adorable, precocious, LOUD, wonderful two year-old, Tru. He is my shadow and I'm finding it very hard to work on any type of sleep-training (at naptime) with Tru in the house. I have read all the success stories of teaching idependent sleep using pu/pd or pat/shush but there is no way I can commit that much time in the nursery while my son is around. I'm going to go to the Toddler Board for suggestions on what to do with Tru while I'm working with Rowan on sleep.
I've got the next 2 days to try to work on some sleep training with Rowan while Tru is staying at my m-i-l's a few hours away. Other than that, Tru will be in nursery school 2x a week from 9 to noon in a few weeks. I also have bedtime when DH is putting Tru to bed. Those are my opportunities for some uninterupted time, lol.
My winddown routine consists only of sitting in the rocker while Rowan sucks his thumb and I put his lovey up against his face. We rock for about 5 minutes, sometimes longer if Tru is being especially loud. Then I walk upstairs, maybe sit in the glider in the nursery for a minute or two longer and put Rowan in his crib. Trouble is, he wakes up and can't resettle or I put him in too awake to settle himself.
By this time if I want to pat/shush or pu/pd, Tru is starting to shout for me and is coming up the stairs to see what I'm doing (have explained it all to him, given him munchies, Thomas on TIVO, play-dough, you name it). So, the sound of his big brother only further stimulates him and then I'm back to square one, trying to sit back in the rocker and get him asleep or very close.
Tru started to fall asleep on his own around 4 months. I tried every last thing to get him to sleep on his own. Finally one day I gave up, left the nusery and found that he was asleep 10 minutes later after talking himself to sleep. I know that sleep consolidation and going to two naps helps with 45 min. naps, so in a way I am thinking things will improve on their own when Rowan is 6 or 7 mo. But the 45 minute naps are hard to manage right now, it's messing up his eating, and it's making it hard to get anything done around the house, let alone have time for just Tru.
I recently started putting Rowan on his tummy to sleep as he learned to roll from his side to his tummy. It does make it easier to pat/shush and he has good acess to his thumb. I just have not seen any indication that he can put himself to sleep this way on his own. He lifts his head up and looks around and gets all out of sorts.
I know the key to overcoming 45 minute naps (eventually) and nightwaking is learing independent sleep. While I'd like to have the time to go in and extend his naps, I really have to use what little time I have at the wind-down and getting him to nap.
Here is our rough schedule. Hoping to move him to a 4-hr. schedule...but that's another post. :roll:
7:45 a.m. Wake
Breastfeed by 8:00 a.m.
8:30 a.m. Rice cereal
9:15-9:30 a.m. Nap
~45 minute nap these days~
Breastfeed at 11:00 a.m.
Activity
Noon-ish Nap
~yet another 45 minute nap lately~
Breastfeed at 2:00 p.m.
Activity
3:00-ish Nap
~sometimes he'll go 90 minutes on this nap~
Breastfeed at 5:00 p.m.
Activity followed by a catnap
Cereal at 6:00 p.m.
Bath at 7:00 p.m.
Breastfeed and into bed around 7:30 p.m. (sometimes will wake up briefly 30 to 45 minutes later--is settled with patting/shushing)
Dreamfeed at 10:30 p.m. (will only take one side)
Then he will usually wake to eat around 2 a.m. (decent feed)
Wakes again around 6:00 a.m. (small feed) and then sleeps to close to 8 a.m. and we do it all over again!
You'd think that having gone through this once with ds#1 I wouldn't be so clueless, but I am appealing for help from all you super BW moms!!
Tru's Mommy
(sidenote: today I put him in just as he was closing his eyes and patted/shushed. Stayed in the nusery the whole nap since Tru is not at home today. Had to resettle with patting at the 30 and 40 min mark, then he jerked awake at an hour and was up for good. One hour later he was tired again, so I rocked him a long time and put him in sleeping soundly as I just wanted him to finally get rested after a busy morning. He was out like a light but my neighbor rung the doorbell and my barking dog woke him up :evil: :twisted: :evil: :twisted: )
