Monday, February 21, 2011

Second Son Sleeps

Recently, Kansas Dad and I reached our limit with Second Son. He wasn't napping well, even if I held him. He wasn't sleeping in his crib at all at night. I would sit on the sofa, holding him, for hours before we went to bed. I watched a lot of Netflix, but nothing was getting done. You know, fun things like paying the bills.

So we decided to take action. As soon as Second Son's cold was a bit better, we prepared. We checked out Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition by Richard Ferber. Kansas Dad bought some wine and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, in preparation for a stressful evening. On Friday, I read a special nighttime story to Second Son (The Going-To-Bed Book by Sandra Boynton, of course), nursed him, then settled him in his crib while he was still awake.

He cried.

We followed the schedule in the book, going in and talking to him briefly. After an hour, he fell asleep. All in all, we considered it fairly easy.

On Saturday, he cried for less than ten minutes.

On Sunday, he cried for about two minutes before falling asleep.

Tonight, no tears at all!

Oh, the joy! The bliss! Wandering the house without a baby in my arms!

I'm nearly too exhausted to take advantage of it, but soon, very soon, I expect to start making a dent in the List of Things That Have Been Left Undone for Two Months. Hopefully I can tackle a good bit of it before he starts teething and stops sleeping again.