zzzzzz

Oh, sleep.  The one thing I wish I could totally change about parenting.  I mean, if we were given the luxury of a full night's sleep from the moment a child arrives, I think a lot of the parenting frustrations and mishaps could be avoided.  Or at least dealt with in a more energetic, positive, and enthusiastic manner.  I can handle the tantrums and the messes and the total overhaul of what life used to be life pre-kids, but the change in sleep patterns is the one thing I have a hard time dealing with.  And I can't really complain.  Ella learned to sleep through the night very early on, and still clocks an average of 10-12 hours a night.  Both my kids stopped having to nurse during the night by 2 months.  So it's not like I have had it really hard.  I actually think we sleep a lot for being parents of such young children.  But Gavin posed a challenge I wasn't expecting--needing a pacifier at night, which led to needing comforting every time he woke up.  So by the time we came back from Hawaii (where he slept by my side every single night), I was ready to make a change.  Before Hawaii he had been going down in his crib every night, but would always end up in bed with us by 2 am.  It was just easier to get him and have him next to me than to keep going to his room every other hour to replace his lost pacifier.  But I had had enough.  I wasn't sleeping well, and I definitely did not like the idea of co-sleeping this long (even though I did love feeling his little hands hug my arm every night).  So I asked the pediatrician, and per her recommendation, buckled down, downloaded the above book, and committed to 14 days of solid sleep training. I was definitely doubtful it would work, and was overwhelmed by the challenge of consistent napping (something I haven't been very good at implementing with E).

It took all of 4 days for G to be sleep trained.  He cried a lot the first couple of nights, but by the third, he cried for 2 minutes, rolled over, and slept from 7 pm to 7 am.  He also started taking 2 hour morning naps, 1 1/2-2 hour afternoon naps, and was weaned from taking a pacifier.  I am a convert.  And I feel like a new mom.  It's amazing.  And it's still going strong.  I know there will be off nights, especially when milestones are hit and the little guy goes through some growing pains, but all in all, I am one happy customer.  So much so that I just had to share.