He finally slept through the night!

Thank you all for your prayers. I don’t mind sharing what I did. I am actually thinking about writing a book, but need some other moms to try it to see if it works for their babies. The book idea is because when I was looking for a gentle sleep training book I couldn’t find one. It will probably take a long time to write it, but who knows.

Let’s see. First of all, I do my best to put Justice down at the first signs of tirdness. Rubbing his eyes and yawning. We go upstairs and sing a song, and pray. I then put Justice in his bed. Okay, now I need to go back. I started out letting him cry while I was in the room. That really didn’t work because we both go frustrated. I left the room for a bit and came back and he was really upset. The next day I rubbed his back until he would go to sleep. I did that for two or three days I think. Then all of a sudden one day he didn’t want me to rub his back anymore. So, now I just stay in the room with him until he goes to sleep. He will stand up and play around and sometimes cry a bit. I just keep putting him back down and saying night night. I also do that at night. As far as where he sleeps, he is in a crib in the room he will be sleeping in. My older son is sleeping in my room on my bed while I am on a mattress in the room with Justice. As far as nursing him goes, I wasn’t sure at first how to deal with that. I did feed him twice a night for a few nights. I realized very quickly that he was getting all his calories at night. I was very engorged the first few nights. So, I fed him probably more for me than him. I eventually started to try to feed him more during the day and also feed him with his blanket that I am having him sleep with. First thing in the morning I am bringing him in the bed with me to nurse him and snuggle. That way I get my snuggles and he gets his. I had to be consistent with not feeding and also putting him back down whenever he would get back up. Things weren’t always the same. Today for nap for example I allowed him to cry a little more than usual. Nothing I did seemed to help anyway. Nap time was a bear today, but I think it was because his reflux was acting up. I think I ate something that bothered him. Tonight was hard to get him to sleep too. I gave him some mylanta and almost immedietly he was asleep. As far as not waking anyone else in the house, they slept with very loud white noise on. Oh, I kept a log. That is very important because I wouldn’t have known we were making progress otherwise. It was very hard, but easier than just letting him cry it out. That to me is so much easier. The first few nights were VERY hard. I was up for hours trying to get him to go to sleep. I kept thinking it would never work, but heard God saying just keep going. Who knew week one and we would have this kind of progress. I hope I didn’t leave anything out. I know it’s all a little choppy. Sorry. I would love for someone to try it to see if it works for them. If things are going crazy you could always pm or e-mail me.

Lauren, I feel so bad that I never answered your question. Funny thing is I think about it all the time, but just keep forgetting to get on here and reply back. Justice still moves around alot in bed, but I can’t tell if he is doing the same thing as he was when he was in bed with me. He has a bumper on the crib and i can’t really see him.