Sleep Training

At about 9 weeks old, Hunter started sleeping through the night. In order to fall asleep though, I would nurse him and rock him until he was fully asleep before placing him in his crib. If he wasn't fully asleep, he would cry until you helped him get there. If Hunter woke up in the middle of the night, Darin would try to walk him and rock him back to sleep. It worked about 50% of the time and the other 50% of the time, I would nurse him until he fell back asleep. With all his colds, ear infections, teething, and traveling, Hunter hasn't been consistently sleeping through the night for the past couple of months. So, we started sleep training with Hunter last night. We are following the Ferber method, progressive waiting. Since I struggle with listening to my baby cry and not "rescuing" him, Darin has been going in to comfort Hunter. We were also afraid that if I went in to check on Hunter that it would be torture as we know he can smell the breast milk. Darin checked on Hunter after 3 minutes, then 5 minutes after that and every 10 minutes after that until Hunter fell asleep. Each time Darin went into Hunter's room, he would pat Hunter's bottom, tell him that he loves him and sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and then leave the room. The length of time that Darin waits before going into Hunter's room increases each day. Last night, Hunter cried for 40 minutes before falling asleep. I woke him up at 7:15 this morning to keep him on schedule (as that is when he has to be up for daycare during the week). Hunter cried for 20 minutes before taking a 50 minute nap (2x's as long as his normal naps) this morning. After crying for just short of 1/2 hour, Hunter even took an hour nap at Pop and Nana's house. He would have slept longer, but we woke him so that he would be able to go to sleep tonight. He only cried for 20 minutes tonight which is a great improvement! We pray that Hunter will sleep all the way through the night. It is so hard to see Hunter so tired and to hear him cry, but we know it is for his own good that he can self soothe and put himself to sleep.