What a circus! Rex met all sorts of new family and really got himself overwhelmed over the course of two days. Plus, of all times of the year, my baby boy got his FIRST TOOTH on Christmas Eve! And of course the second followed quickly. He pulled in a TON of loot from family and friends. Lots of toys, clothes and goodies! He really is a lucky boy to have so many people who love him so much! Overall it was a lot of celebrating and I think we've decided that next year we're going to try to cut back on some of the festivities and have a little bit quieter Christmas.
In the midst of all the crazy Christmas celebrations, we realized we needed to help Rex with getting to sleep. We really didn't know where to start so I went to the library and went crazy getting books. I got everything from the sternest Cry It Out (CIO) to the gentlest co-sleeping no cry methods. I was really just lost and looking for some sort of direction. Rex's sleeping habits are terrible and we have nobody to blame but ourselves. So this week we are starting to implement some training.
We've decided to go with a gentle CIO approach to helping Rex learn how to sleep better and by himself. The first rule we've learned in our research that ALL of the "experts" agree on is to create a routine. Some experts recommend a long routine that helps baby wind down slowly and get into the mood of sleeping and others say that as long as it's the same, it doesn't matter how long it takes. Our approach is somewhere in the middle! For bedtime we plan on a bath with calming baby bath in it, put on Jammies and then eat. Then we'll rock him and sing or read until he's sleepy and before he's completely asleep we'll put him in his Pack and Play in our room to fall asleep.
Our hope is that if he falls asleep by himself, he'll not be as afraid when he wakes up by himself and will be able to go back to sleep more easily without our coming to his rescue. Now, if Rex starts crying when we put him down in his PNP we will let him cry for 5 minute intervals until he falls asleep, or one hour. If he has cried for one hour with our 5 minute checks and hasn't gone to sleep, we'll pick him up and check to make sure he's comfortable and full and not hurting (those teeth get the best of him sometimes) and then rock him and cuddle him to make sure he feels okay. Then when he starts to get sleepy again, we'll put him back in his PNP to try the process again. We don't want to deal with the extra cuddling, but who knows what Rex will do when we start this? Ideally, this will only take a few days to really let him know that it's bed time and he'll start to get in the groove and it will get really easy to put him to bed.
The next issue we're dealing with is his naps. Sometimes he will nap just fine several times throughout the day, and those days are like heaven. Other days he will refuse to nap altogether! Then there are days where he'll take an hour long nap in the morning and then won't nap for the rest of the day without sleeping in my arms. We are hoping to train him to sleep regularly during the day as well as during the night. So I'm going to start making sure we wake up by 9 every morning. I'll let Rex eat and we'll hang out for a while and then I'll take him upstairs and rock him for a few minutes then put him down for a nap by 11. Hopefully that will start a positive chain reaction! I'm still doing research and trying to figure out a good schedule for him during the day. I'm going to try to be very watchful and make sure I pay attention to his cues to see when he's really sleepy and ready to go down. Hopefully within a week or so I'll be able figure out the best timing to put him down for naps and we'll have a real routine going for us.
Wish us luck as we start to train Rex to sleep by himself and for long enough to keep himself resting.
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