Hi All -
I've been meaning to post here for awhile, but am now just getting around to it. I thought I'd share some thoughts with you all since I've been reading and using the information on this site for 5 months now, but have contributed nothing. I'd like to give some hope to those moms who are just at their wits end....I know how you feel, trust me....let me tell you how far we've come over the past 5 months.
We started BW at 2 months (he's now almost 8 months) when I needed help. My lo was on no sort of routine. He would only sleep in his vibrating chair, on the sofa with me, or in the bed with me. He was never even in his crib, let alone sleeping in it! It would take us two hours or more to get him to go to sleep at night, walking, rocking, and walking some more. I just couldn't handle it anymore. I read Tracy's book cover to cover and well, here's what I learned....
First we tackled the sleeping in the crib thing. I said that's it....I'm only putting him down in the crib from now on. We started at night. I did sh/pat for a week (sometimes for an hour or more) until he learned to fall asleep at night on his own. Once I put him in the crib, he was there to stay. He caught on pretty quickly for bedtime, I think the routine really helped too. His bedtime at 2 months old was 6:30pm and he woke at 7am, getting up once or twice to eat. After he nursed I put hiim right back in the crib and did sh/pat til he fell asleep again.
Now bedtime is 7:30 and wake up is at 7am.
Naps were a whole lot harder. I think I cried as much as he did. PU/PD never really worked for us, so I used sh/pat but rubbed his head instead of patting him since he slept on his back. When he finally did fall asleep, he usually only slept from 20 min to 40 min. I tried WTS at 40 min and it never really worked so I would sh/pat some more. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
I've learned alot about my son over the past few months. I now know that every 3-4 weeks I need to extend his awake time by 15-20 min...otherwise the 40 min nap monster shows up. I now know that when his little body decides to wake up at 5 or 5:30 am for 3 days in a row I need to extend his morning awake time by 15-20 min. After a few days of morning crankiness, the early wake up stops and the morning nap extends. I now know that every month or so bedtime gets pushed back 15-20 min, but never past 8pm. I now know what his mantra cry sounds like, and when to leave him alone to settle himself. I now know that on days when the 40 min nap monster does show up, it's not the end of the world...we just move our focus onto the next nap or bedtime. I now know that my lo is not a Grumpy baby, but a Textbook one....he's happy, contented and growing like a weed. I've relaxed a bit and have learned to roll with the punches. It's been a long 5 months and I know there's a lot more I have to learn, but I take it one day at a time. I hope all you moms out there feeling some frustration will stop and look at your baby today, take a deep breath, and know that everything gets better with time....
J.
