Sleep Training Day One

Stian has never really slept in his crib. He slept in his bassinet when he was a newborn, but then basically went into the swing because he just would not sleep in his crib. For the last several months the swing hasn’t been going most of the time, but he still needed the shape of the swing I guess. But he’s now 23+ lbs and the swing is only rated to 25 lbs. So it was really time to get him out of the swing and into his crib.

After doing some reading, I settled on The Baby Whisperer’s Method of Pick Up/Put Down. This is sort of a middle ground from letting baby do whatever he wants and having him cry it out. I’m not willing to have him cry it out – at least not until I’ve tried everything else. The Pick Up/Put Down method is basically what it sounds like. When he starts to cry you first try to sooth him without picking him up. If that doesn’t work you pick him up. As soon as he stops crying you put him down again. Or if he starts to fight you, you put him down again. Or if it’s been more than two minutes holding him you put him down again. Even if he starts to cry on the way back into the crib you put him all the way down, take your hands off him and then pick him right back up again. Over and over and over. It is supposed to reassure him that you are there, you have not abandoned him, but you also are not the one putting him to sleep. He eventually puts himself to sleep.

It’s a lot of work! She says in the book for babies under about 4 months this should work in about 3 days. For babies older than that it can take longer.

So this is how the first 24 hours went:

7:05 am – Kris wakes Stian up, changes diaper, plays with him
8:05 am – Kris brings Stian to me, I nurse him, we play
8:55 am – begin getting ready for first nap – change diaper, go into his bedroom, close doors, play soft music, sit in chair quietly for 5 minutes.
9:08 am – Now instead of putting him into his swing awake, I put him into his crib awake. He starts to cry. I pick him up and put him down 8 times
9:16 am – turn on soother (Fisher Price crib aquarium thingy), he stops crying, soother goes for 5 minutes.
9:21 am – awake in crib but not crying or fussing.
9:24 am – starts to fuss, but calms down when I put my hand on his chest.
9:37 am – fussing, does not calm down when I put my hand on his chest.
9:40 am – crying. I try putting him on his belly and turning on the soother, he quiets down
9:48 am – crying. Pick up/put down 42 times, much hysterical crying.
10:08 am – asleep! In his crib! (on his back)
10:08-10:28 am – I stand with my hand on his chest (the theory here is that it takes a person 20 minutes to fall deeply asleep, if he stirs during that 20 minutes he will likely get upset again if I’m not right there – this isn’t a permanent thing, just until he learns how to go to sleep on his own).
10:29 am – I sneak out of room.
10:46 am – crying, but he stops by the time I get upstairs, so I don’t go in. I go back downstairs. I can hear him awake over monitor. But he’s not unhappy, just talking to himself.
11:10 am – fussing, so I go get him. Change his diaper. This is normally when he gets rice cereal, but he starts to cry when I put him in his high chair, so I don’t push it and nurse him instead. Play time.
12:15 pm – rice cereal, but he doesn’t eat all that much. Play time.
12:40 pm – get ready for nap – diaper change, shut doors, soft music, sit quietly
12:50 pm – into crib awake. Flailing about and a bit of fussing, but calms to my voice and touch.
1:05 pm – quiet in crib.
1:15 pm – asleep in crib!
1:37 pm – crying, calms to voice and touch, then awake in crib but quiet
1:55 pm – crying. PU/PD 4 times, turn on soother, quiet in crib.
2:05-2:43 pm – lots and lots of crying. PU/PD 40 times.
2:43 pm – asleep! I only have my hand on him for 5 minutes this time. My back is killing me. I lay down on mattress on floor. I sneak out of room around 3:10.
3:15 pm – crying, but just for a second. Then he’s quiet in crib. He’s awake talking to himself, but not crying or fussing.
3:30 pm – go get him out of his crib. Nurse him and change his diaper. Play time.
5:30 pm – diaper change, rice cereal and nursing
6:50 pm – Kris gives Stian a bath.
7:08 pm – begin sleep routine: massage, 3 stories, nursing
7:39 pm – into bed. Cries, calms down to my voice. He turns on the soother himself. Fussing off and on, calming to voice and touch.
8:08 pm – asleep!
8:48 pm – crying. Calms to voice and touch.
8:50-9:03 pm – PU/PD 22 times.
9:03 pm – asleep.
9:30 pm – I go to bed.
10:03 pm – crying.
10:03-10:20 pm – PU/PD 27 times.
10:21 pm – asleep.
11:10 pm – crying.
11:21 – 11:26 pm – nursing. This may have been a mistake, but I usually nurse him around this time when I go to bed. But since he nursed such a short time, I don’t think he was actually hungry.
11:26 pm – asleep.
1:04 am – crying.
1:04-1:28 am – PU/PD 25 times.
1:28 am – asleep.
2:30 am – awake, but not crying. Starts to fuss, calms to voice and touch. Awake, playing with mirror in crib.
3:09 am – still awake, starts to get fussy, turns on soother himself. Awake and quiet.
3:40 am – starts to get really fussy.
3:45-4:03 am – nursing. Again, he’s used to getting nursed once, and usually twice between 11:00 pm and 7:00 am. He seems quite hungry this time.
4:04 am – asleep.
4:12 am – fussing, quiets to soothing.
4:16 am – asleep.
5:44 am – awake, but just talking to himself.
6:02 am – fussing, I turn on soother.
6:10 am – asleep.
7:05 am – Kris comes and gets him.

Amount of sleep in the last 24 hours:
Stian: about 8 hours 15 min
Mommy: about 3 hours 30 min

I’m hoping the worst is over now. I know we still have several rough days ahead of us, but hopefully yesterday was the worst day. Man my back is killing me. Picking up and putting down 23+ lbs over and over is really hard on my back! I'm hoping I'll be able to sleep more too. My nerves were just so frazzled that even though I could have gotten a little more sleep, I just couldn't fall asleep.