Getting Our Beauty Sleep (Finally!)

Ever since Jax was born I had heard so many parents of babies say "We are so lucky, our baby sleeps 10+ hours a night!"  We never have said that.  Don't get me wrong we do feel so lucky, but it isn't because of Jax's stellar sleeping habits.  Jax has been a terrible sleeper from the beginning.  He never got out of the 3 hour sleep cycle really.  We also have had to rock him to sleep and then transfer him and if he wakes up in the slightest you had to start the process all over.  Some nights he would wake up and you just had to do a quick diaper change, nursing and then he was right back to sleep.  Other times it was a 1 1/2 hour battle to get him back to sleep.  This would happen 3-5 times a night usually.  Jasper and I have been walking around in a constant state of exhaustion since April.  For many months we just kept powering through.  I am staying home with him and Jasper has a somewhat flexible schedule as to when he goes in, so if we had a really long night we could deal with it.  We knew that this wasn't good for Jax though.  His sleep was so interrupted and his naps weren't great either. 

I started doing A LOT of research on sleep training which introduced me to my new best friend ... Dr. Ferber.  He wrote the book on sleep training, literally.

 

I have heard MANY success stories from using this method and so I jumped on board.  I knew I didn't want to try anything until Jax was 6 months old which is also what Dr. Ferber recommends so once he turned 6 months we figured out our plan and how to put it into action.   I bought the book and studied it like I was preparing to take the bar exam again (highlighted passages, notes and all).  Jasper read it as well and we were both on board before the first night. 

The main part of the method is taking away the sleep associations your child has like having to be rocked, a paci, sound machines, etc.  That way if your child learns how to go to sleep without them, when they wake up in the middle of the night they won't be scared and need those associations to go back to sleep.  

On night one we got Jax ready for bed at his usual time of 6:30.  Instead of rocking him to sleep we put him down in his crib and told him goodnight and then left the room.  He immediately started screaming like we expected.  Hearing him cry and not picking him up was very hard on this momma and I will admit there were many tears from me as well.  There is a charted schedule for how often you go back in the room to reassure the baby that they are ok and that you are there, you just can't pick them up.  We followed the schedule exactly and after 30 min Jax was asleep.  We were prepared to have to do this all night long every time he woke up, but then the amazing thing happened ... he slept for 10 hours!  We honestly didn't think that was possible and are still in shock.  

The next night Jax went down after 25 min of crying and slept for a 9 hour stretch and then after a 20 min crying stretch slept for another 2 hours.  Then by the third night he went down without a single cry and slept for 11 hours!  It has been amazing.  We aren't done yet as Jax still cries for 5-7 minutes when he goes down for naps (which have also gotten longer to 1 1/2 hours) but we are in such a better place.  Last night was his best night yet with over 12 hours of sleep for our little man.  

He seems so well rested now and we are finally able to start developing a good schedule for him.  Happy baby and happy momma.