Sleep training

It used to drive me so crazy when I was a new mom and I'd ask other moms or the grandmas for advice and what worked in their experiences and hear back, "I can't remember." Are you kidding me? I am dying for some insight here, people! But it's happening to me, too! I have been grateful for the blog posts I wrote when Charlie was a baby because I've been referencing them a lot now that George is the same age. I honestly can't remember all the little details. So here's another post that I'll be thankful for in the future!

Georgie, this month we have been sleep training you. It's been pretty rough. After two weeks of working on it, you slept through the night a few times. Most importantly, you no longer need continual help to go back to sleep in the evening. We had been putting you to bed at 7 pm but then would have to go back in and either rock you to sleep or nurse you to sleep every 30-45 minutes. It was brutal. I really miss the co-sleeping, but I just couldn't handle that evening grind anymore. Plus, you are so close to crawling, it isn't safe to have you on our bed anymore unless we're right next to you (and sometimes, even then! You have rolled off the bed. Luckily, our bed is really close to the floor, so you weren't hurt).

Now we do our normal bedtime routine and then I put you in your crib (it was in the toy room, but now we've moved our bed in that front bedroom and you're back in the back bedroom where we all used to sleep) and you cry for a little while and then you fall asleep. So far the best night has been 3 minutes of crying and the worst night has been 90 minutes. Adding in the naps was hard, too. Scratch that, the naps have been impossible. I finally figured out that you weren't going to be able to fuss/cry/scream to sleep for naps. The only way you'll nap is if I nurse or rock you to sleep, swaddled (we returned to swaddling!), and then put you in your crib asleep. The transfer is so hard. Finally, after five weeks, you are getting much better at staying asleep through the arms to crib transfer. Some days you don't get all of your naps and then you go to sleep for the night at 6 pm. The early bedtime is the only thing that's saving both of us!

The dirty little secret of babies and sleep is that you are never really *done*. There's always a new stage around the corner that can screw up everyone's mojo and the "training" or diligence with sleep is constant. But it is worth it.