Sleep Therapy 101

I know, I know, I've been slacking on the posts. I really have been ridiculously busy and tired. Field trips went alright this week. They really might be more exhausting than actually being at school! Anyway, I'm really going to try and get some more posts up this week. We've gotten some really cute pictures in the last couple weeks that I definitely need to share!

On to the sleep issue. I give kudos to you mommies out there that were born with fantastic sleepers, and those of you that used the cry it out technique to create some fantastic sleepers. I, on the other hand, was not given a born sleeper, and am not able to go through with crying it out. Nope. Can't do it. I'm a weenie. I just keep thinking to myself, you know, I HATE sleeping by myself. I get scared. In fact, when Danny is out of town, I either leave and stay somewhere else, or someone has to come spend the night with me. So what does my poor little guy, who's been sleeping right next to me for 7 months, think when he's all alone. And he's screaming for "help" and no one is coming. Again...can't do it. Soooo, I'm trying something else. My friend Christen has been blessed with a wee one that also does not like night night time. She's done all the reading, experimenting, and crossing ideas out for me. :) And she has passed on her best advice. In a way, it's kind of like cry it out, but you don't leave them alone. You stand there next to their bed where they can see you and know they are safe. Last night was our first go at it. It was rough. He screamed bloody murder for about 45 minutes. But what made it even worse is that he just stared at me, with tears rolling down his cheeks, trying to figure out why his mommy was torturing him. Broke my heart. I even had to text Christen to make sure I wasn't neglecting him or something else illegal. :) I picked him up twice, calmed him, then laid him back down in that 45 minutes, but I never walked off. He pulled on me, reached for me, and made not so nice faces at me, but ended up falling asleep. For about 30 minutes. haha. But once I went back in, he fell back asleep within 10 minutes. He woke up again at 11:15, but only took 3 minutes to fall back asleep. Then there was the 2:30 wake up. It was play time. He kicked, laughed, talked, and then screamed for an hour! Yes, I stood there for an hour. I crawled back into bed at 3:40. After that wake up, he lasted until 5:15, which was pretty much breakfast time, so I went ahead and picked him up. Man, long night. But worth it. I felt better about not leaving him screaming and wondering where his parents had disappeared to. Thanks, Christen, for texting me through the whole traumatic night! :)

Tonight was night 2. He was ridiculously tired because he napped maybe a total of 1 hour today. Are you ready for this....he did not scream AT ALL and he was asleep within 10 minutes!! Yay! He's been asleep for about an hour and 40 minutes. If I had it my way, I would have gone and crawled into bed right after he fell asleep, but I had to work on lesson plans. So I'm about to hit the sack now. We'll see how long he lasts tonight. I'll let you all know soon!! Wish me luck!