Sleep training (part 2) with a side of regression

(Read Sleep training part 1 here.)



We tried the pick-up/put-down method I spoke about before for about 2 weeks, I believe. It worked, I guess. There were nights when it took an hour or so to work, then again, is that really working?
One day I asked Shawn if he felt like it was working or if he wanted to try something else. Something else. This time we went with the Dr. Sears method. Somehow everything always leads me back to Dr. Sears, maybe with the next baby I'll realize I should just go full-blown attachment parenting from the start.

Anyway, I had read about the Sears method before in The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two
(which I highly recommend, SO much information) and after watching some baby sleep videos on BabyCenter (all of which you can find here, under the heading "Baby sleep") this is what we've done since. Oh and I love, love, love that the parents who tried the Ferber method (cry-it-out) gave up! Ha!

There are still nights when it takes 30 minutes or more for Will to fall asleep and nights when he fights it and nights when I have to nurse him again (and sometimes again) before he'll go to sleep. Sometimes he's overtired, sometimes he's not tired enough, but all-in-all we're happy with this method. It's actually what I had been doing already when I'm in the backseat of the car with Will and I tried it in the crib for a nap before Shawn tried it at night. For the nap, it worked great, but he still only slept for about 15-30 minutes. The car seat solution is still working great by the way and this is how I get him to sleep for his naps in it. Shawn says he even likes doing it, that it's their bonding time. I can tell when he walks out of the room after getting Will to fall asleep that he enjoys this method, whereas the PU/PD seemed more stressful.


(mmmm, yummy lip)

So, thank you, Dr. Sears, you've done it once again.

The Sears also have The Baby Sleep Book, which I do not have, but I've seen a couple of reviews that say it basically has the same information as The Baby Book, so if you're considering one or the other, get The Baby Book.

I almost forgot about the side of regression. If I hadn't read so many baby/parenting books and websites I think I would be going crazy now wondering what we did wrong. Will used to sleep through the night. The medical definition of sleeping through the night is 5 straight hours, he could do this with ease. On more than one occasion he even slept for 7-9 hours. Crazy, I know. It was more common for him to wake up once, eat, go back to sleep. Then we hit the 4 month regression. He was waking twice, then he was waking 4 or 5 times! Thankfully, I have a wonderful husband who got up with him more than I did when this was happening.

Now we're back to waking up 1 or 2 times a night, usually 2. Who do we have to thank? Dr. Sears of course, well, sort of. First, I considered going back to feeding him every 3 hours, instead of every 4, but that really made me feel like we would be taking a step backwards. I tried going back to cluster feeding in the evening, which may have helped a little. Now I just squeeze in an extra feeding here and there, as the Drs. Sears would say, I'm "tanking him up" during the day, so he'll sleep better at night.

Given that we've stopped PU/PD and I'm doing extra feedings, I don't know if there's anything from The Baby Whisperer
that we still use? Maybe a few small tips here and there. I still think a lot of the knowledge in the book is very helpful and reassuring. EASY definitely helped for a good while, but the only part of it we use now is the duration of activity time and a somewhat altered napping plan. Our routine is more like: eat, activity, maybe eat again, sleep, eat, activity, eat, sleep, eat, activity, eat, catnap (depending on how close it is to bedtime), maybe eat again, activity, eat, bed.

I would like to point out that I was not starving my baby before I started adding extra feeds, he was just making up for it during the time he should have been sleeping at night. This way he wants less at night because he's getting more during the day.