The great sleep experiment

So, the whole crib-in-our-room thing is going pretty well.  I’m still tired, and the baby’s still waking up all.the.time, but I feel like we are at least working toward a solution.  Seriously, does anyone out there have a baby who seems to wake up every two hours?  Because I?  I do.  He’s not usually hungry when he wakes up, and he’s not awake and happy and playful.  He seems angry and tired, but just unable to soothe himself back to sleep.

I think I mentioned before that he refused to sleep unless I nursed him.  Already, I’ve seen a big improvement with that issue.  Last night for example, he nursed, had his bath, and then we tried to settle down for bed.  Jason and I sat in our bed right next to him, and he played in his crib.  It took a while (more than an hour) but he finally put his head down and slept without a single cry!  Hopefully, he’s getting more comfortable in the crib and learning how to fall asleep on his own.

He woke up around 11:30, so I nursed him and put him back down.  He cried a little but I patted his back and he fell asleep.  Unfortunately, he was up again at 1:30.  Then again at 3:30.  I’m proud that I didn’t pick him up between 11:30 and about 4am.  I just talked to him and patted him and he did very well.  I realized, though, that he was hungry around 4 so I nursed him and put him back down.  And get this!  He then slept for more than four hours without waking up and crying!  Woo hoo!  He hasn’t done that in months!

This process isn’t easy, but I think we are making a little progress.  He’s learning to sleep without my boob in his mouth, and we haven’t had any awful screaming sessions.  I’m just sticking with this and keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll keep improving and sleeping a little longer each night.