Sleepy Heads

Prior to this week, we were a family of sleepy heads.  In a recent post, I mentioned the sleep issues Jackson began experiencing the day he started really crawling (December 23) and this left us all exhausted.  The first week was likely due to him trying to get rid of the flu bug (think lots and lots of blowouts that went through his pj's, sleep sack and sheets - fun!).  But by the time he went back to daycare after the New Year, there was no sign of the flu bug, but the sleep issues were still in full effect.

From everything I read online, it sounds like when babies hit large developmental milestones (i.e. sitting, crawling, walking), they can start waking up and night working on their new skill.  We were finding that unless we rocked Jackson a few minutes longer than normal, until he nearly asleep, he would immediately sit or stand up in his crib and wouldn't lay back down on his own to go to sleep.  And this would happen again during the night, between sleep cycles that he previously was able to sleep right through. 

When he'd wake up sitting/standing in the middle of the night, we'd try to run into his room right away to avoid him waking up too much; however, he'd already be wide awake and rocking or bouncing him for 1-2 hours became the norm as we tried whatever we could to get him back to sleep, only to have him wake up ready to start the day well before 6 a.m.  It made for some long nights and led to me spending portions of several nights sleeping in the glider with him in my arms (those nights were nights that only I would do and if Corey tried to rock or bounce him, screaming ensued).

Last week, we decided we'd all had enough and could not continue to sleep (or not sleep) like this any longer and resorted to The Sleepeasy Solution, which we'd used a few nights in the past when we'd encountered rough sleep patches.  In a nutshell, it's a method of crying it out, where you do periodic brief check-ins at 5, then 10, then 15 minute intervals when they're crying, until they finally fall asleep.  While the crying is heartbreaking to hear, we knew that having a few rough nights would eventually lead to him learning to lay himself down and put himself back to sleep when waking up at night, meaning him getting the rest he needs.

The first night was rough --- though it only took him 30 minutes to fall asleep after we put him in his crib completely awake, he woke up around 3 a.m. and we did check-ins for over two hours during him crying on and off while sitting in his crib.  It was a long two hours, but he finally flopped over and fell back asleep about 30 minutes before our alarm went off.  That was last Thursday.  Friday and Saturday nights were much better and he went right to sleep without a peep when we put him down.  He woke up once each night but after fussing/crying for a few minutes when waking up and sitting up in the middle of the night, but after a single check-in from us, he put himself back to sleep.  Sunday night was another rough night - he went down completely fine but woke up and was up crying off and on while we did check-ins for a few hours right before we tried to go to bed. 

They say that babies can have a relapse right before they officially kick the sleep issues, so I don't know if it was that, or if his runny nose that he'd had over the weekend was proof that maybe he wasn't feeling 100%.  Since then though, we haven't had to do any check-is and he's gone to sleep with no problem (knock on wood!).  He's woken up each night around 8:30 p.m. and fussed while sitting up for a few minutes but then has laid himself back down and gone back to sleep until between 6 and 6:30 a.m. or later most days.

So, fingers crossed that he continues on this good sleep stretch for a long time, so that we can all catch up on our ZZZs.