Whew. Two weeks of officially sleep training Gavin are DONE. Hallelujah. I did not mean for this post to take so long for me to write, but I was so intent on catching up on things around the house now that Gavin has actually been napping on his own! We still have a long way to go, but we have come SO far in such a short period of time. I was so nervous, because I really just didn’t think we could do it. Things were so bad with Gavin’s sleep just two weeks ago – for reference, check this post out to see where we were at before. You can also see 14 days worth of posts on this page with a breakdown of how each day went.
Here’s where we are at now:
Gavin is sleeping in his crib from approximately 7pm – 7:30am!! He typically eats around 10:30pm (Chris gives him a bottle of pumped milk), 1:30am (I nurse him), and 4:30am (I nurse him). He also usually wakes up once around 8pm and once around 6am whining, and we just go replace the paci real quick.
On the average day, he takes three naps that are about 1.5 hours, 1.5 hours, and 30-45 minutes.
The crying before falling asleep has subsided so greatly. If anything, he whines/lightly cries for a few minutes and then falls asleep. On a great day, he plays in his crib and then falls asleep with no crying at all! He also can usually put himself back to sleep fairly quickly if he wakes up mid-nap (around the 30-40 minute point).
Our current struggle is helping Gavin learn to nap other places. He does okay at my parent’s house, but we have quite a setup there. My mom put the pack and play in their basement bedroom since it’s pitch black and I always give him a security blanket that smells like me, put him in his sleep sack, and have white noise on super loud. Without those things, there is no way he is falling asleep. We also don’t have much flexibility on timing of naps. In the morning he goes down for his first nap 1.5 hours after waking, then 2 hours between the next 2 naps, and 2-2.5 hours awake before bedtime. If we push those windows, he is a mess! So we are working on finding a balance of him sleeping well and us still having a life.
I do think he still has some tummy issues/gas problems that are causing him to have additional wake ups, but I am going to discuss those with our pediatrician at his 6-month checkup next week.
Something that has really helped us is putting a bunch of pacifiers in the crib and a few security blankets so Gavin can easily find them. It is also SO cute to watch on the monitor when he is upset and searching for his stuff and then finds it and cuddles on and falls asleep!
The next goal is to work on weaning night feedings. On a REALLY good night (this has only happened a few times), Gavin will have his bottle at 10:30/11 like normal, not need to eat until 3am, and then be up for the day around 7. That feels like heaven to me! However, it is not the norm. So first we will try to wean the middle of the night feeding, then the late night one, and then the early morning one. Gavin is super big for his age and at the top of the growth chart, so I know he doesn’t actually need to eat at night!
And there you have it! I would SO highly recommend sleep training your babe once he or she is developmentally ready, you are emotionally ready, and your pediatrician gives you the okay. I was so nervous to do it and the first few days were really hard, but it was so worth it to have our sanity back, to have Gavin well rested, and to have more time to invest in my marriage, home life, and friends. I would also totally recommend checking out Chrissy at The Peaceful Sleeper – we could not have done it without her!
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