Adventures in Sleep Training - Part 1

I've been meaning to write this for awhile now, but like usual, I'm just getting around to it. Don't knock me, this is my 2nd post this week. That's got to be a new record.

I'm going to start off with a disclaimer: I'm biased when it comes to sleep training, and I am anti-CIO (cry it out). I reserve the right to get a little preachy, however all my preaching is in regards to my own family and I don't judge anyone who chooses a different method with their child(ren). I have never felt Gabe would respond well to a CIO method. I will admit, there have been times when he has tried my patience and I've needed to set him in his crib for five minutes and walk away. Each time I have returned to find that he has not settled down in the least bit and if anything, the situation has escalated. My hope in writing these posts is NOT to show the *right* or *wrong* way, but to share the knowledge I've gained over the months in trying to get my son to sleep.

It's also worthy to note that our issue has been getting Gabe to go to sleep, not necessarily keeping him that way, although I believe that in our case the two are related.

We began our first sleep training attempts when Gabe was around 3 1/2 months old. All of a sudden, my easy going baby who fell asleep quickly once swaddled turned into a wild-eyed, overtired, cranky baby. He fought going to sleep with a fierce intensity and we started having hours in the late evening that were spent trying to calm a tired, screaming baby.

Desperate for answers, I read "No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. This book along with our own techniques, which I call the 2 Minute Drill, have been the key to sleep training for us.

The first thing we did was set a bedtime and a bedtime routine. We've tweaked it over the months following. Originally it was bath, pj's, books, bottle or nurse in his room, and bed. We quickly found he was too tired to deal with the books and now we do the bottle out on the couch with some snuggle time.

The first night, I planned to start the routine at 7pm - a good two hours earlier than he usually fell asleep, but considering that the normal meltdown started around 7:45, I was aiming for a 7:45 bedtime.

At 6:45, he rubbed his eyes. Two minutes later, the same thing. So I threw the "start at 7" routine out the window and decided to jump on his cues and get him into the bath.

What a difference. He was out by 7:15 that night, without any of the characteristic screaming. I rocked him to sleep in the rocking chair. I knew this wasn't the best habit, but at the time I enjoyed rocking him to sleep and my main priority was just getting him down to sleep at a reasonable hour.

He took to the routine amazingly well. We've tweaked it a bit, he now goes down around 7:30 or 7:45 depending on how tired he seems. Even better, I have the time after he goes to sleep to do things I wasn't able to do previously (blog anyone?)

We continued with the rocking to sleep routine until he was about 5 months old, when we (and by that I mean he) changed it up a bit. More on that in the Part 2.