Sleep

Besides the fact that I need more of it, sleep was becoming a major battle with Rhonen. Because he is so little he needs a lot of naps during the day, about every two hours you can really tell he needs to go down. So every two hours I was having to take him on walks so he would fall asleep, it was becoming a major inconvenience. Nap time was also supposed to be my break! I think I created this battle by having him nap in a swing for the first three months. Then he started to associate the swing with nap time and hated to sit in it. He was also getting too big so I switched to the stroller, but I didn't want to take five walks a day trying to get him to sleep. So I bought healthy sleep habits, happy child. The book basically talks about how children become overtired, making it even more difficult for them to sleep and the importance of napping for overall better nighttime sleep. What I liked about the book was that it didn't push one specific method over another. Whether cry-it-out or no-cry sleep method was what you wanted to do, it gave examples of both as well as the pros and cons. Originally I was against the cry-it-out method because I didn't think I could just let him cry for hours. But the book also illustrated a control cry method where you don't let your baby cry for more than twenty minutes. I decided to try it because I was at my whits end with him and I knew all he needed was sleep. I also was realizing that learning to put himself to sleep was a skill he needed to have and one that would prove very crucial in the years to follow. I was having visions of pushing him in the stroller until he was four trying to get him to sleep everyday!

So I decided to watch him carefully for signs of drowsiness and then do ten minutes of soothing and then in to the crib he went. I made sure Dustin was home for support and had some things to do during the twenty minutes. By far the hardest thing I have ever had endure...besides labor! But to my surprise, after thirteen minutes of crying, he was asleep. I was so excited I didn't know what to do with myself. When he woke up he was his usual happy self, well rested and ready to play. So now it's been about two weeks since I started this routine and it's worked wonders. Sometimes he doesn't cry at all or maybe for a couple of minutes, but then he just rolls over and goes to sleep.

More and more I realize that as a mother you have to do what is best for your baby and sometimes a little bit of crying is what they need.