Sleep Training

It’s hard to complain when your infant sleeps for eight hours in a row, but I’m going to anyway.  The eight hours part was nice, yes, but does it have to be from 8:30 to 4:30??  No matter what I try, this little man’s internal clock always gets the best of me.

For a long time, longer than with either of the older boys, I fed him on demand all through the night.  It was a combination of him being my last child, him sleeping in my bedroom and the fact that he was born a little smaller than the others and continued to lose weight for longer than the pediatrician wanted, that kept me waking up at all hours even after I started back to work.  Finally, over Memorial Day weekend I decided it was time to sleep train.

We moved the crib from our bedroom to the dining room (the other bedrooms are upstairs and I didn’t want him to wake the other boys, nor did I want to have to go upstairs to get him) and put him to bed after his 10:00 feeding.  He woke up for that 2:00 feeding and screamed for over an hour.  Exhibiting amazing willpower, my husband never even woke up.  I lay there and listened.  Eventually the baby went back to sleep and when he woke up at 6:00 I fed him.  We did this again the next night and the next with the periods of crying getting gradually shorter.  Then for three glorious days he went to bed at 10:00 and woke up at 6:00.  Halleluiah!  I was feeling pretty good.

Then he went to bed at 9:00 and woke up at 5:00.  Ok, that’s not so different from 6:00 so I went with it.  That lasted 2 days.

Then he woke up at 4:00.  What the hell?  This kid is going to nickel and dime me back to that 2:00 feeding!!

So I started trying to keep him up later and later.  I would try and stretch each interval between feedings so that his last feeding was at least 10:00 or later.  He likes to fall asleep after his 8:00 feeding, which doesn’t work so well for me.

Two nights ago I fed him at 8:30 then stayed up and made him wake up at 11:30 so he could eat again.  He woke up at 2:50.  I let him scream.  It lasted over an hour again.

Last night I fed him at 8:30 and put him bed and he stayed there quiet until 4:30 at which  point I got up to feed him.  I guess I’ll take what I can get.

It makes me wonder though, who’s training whom???