CIO

Noah and Nadia jumping over cracks at the zoo

Since Oliver started sleeping 10-11 hours straight at night just before he turned 4 months old, I thought we'd be able to skip "sleep training" (crying it out) with him. A little before he turned 6 months old he started to regress, and the unsolicited advice of the pediatrician at his 6 month appt was that as long as Oliver wasn't sick, I should let him cry it out. Almost 4 momths later I finally reached the point where I agreed. Last night Oliver woke up at 12am. I got up and closed our bedroom door to muffle the sound. When he stopped crying, I reopened our door.

He started up again at 3:15, and that time he cried much longer (until 5:05). I decided the next time he started crying (even if it was 15 minutes later) I would go get him. When I peeked in his room a little before 7am, he was just waking up. That's definitely the most he's ever cried before (by a long shot), but thankfully he didn't persist as long as Ian did the first time we let him cry it out at night. I'm expecting a fair amount of crying again tonight (although I'd love to be wrong). Experience has shown me that it usually takes two rough nights (the first being the worst), and then the crying episodes are usually VERY brief (maybe 15 minutes at the most) after the two rough nights. Given he's not napping well, I decided now is the time to insist that he starts sleeping at night. My goal is for him to sleep at least 10 hours straight, but at this point I'll settle for 9 hours. As for the nap situation, I've been letting him cry after his morning nap until he's been in his crib for one hour. Today his morning nap was 25 minutes long so I let him cry for 35 minutes before I went and got him. This was the advice that Ian's OT gave us.

 

For the afternoon naps, I've been getting him and then helping him fall back asleep and sleep on me for the duration of his nap. I was thinking that he was so sleep deprived that it was making it hard for him to sleep and hoping that at least one half-way decent nap a day would help him get back on track, but I'm not sure if that theory is working either as it's probably still interfering with him resuming his self-soothing skills that he totally lost in Florida. At this point I think I'm going to just get him when he wakes up (from both naps) even if he's only slept for 15 minutes. I'm not going to leave him crying in his crib after either nap, but I'm also not going to let him sleep in my arms. I am really puzzled. He was such a good napper before our vacation. You think he'd be exhausted as he got at the most 8 hours of sleep last night, which is definitely not enough for an infant, especially one who isn't napping well!

 

P.S. Today his afternoon nap was 80 minutes long!!!! This honestly was the best thing that has happened in a week. Please let this be a sign that these 15-30 minute naps won't continue to be the norm!!!