Have to share!!

This may not be huge to you, but it's a very big deal to me! I've been doing a method called the No Cry Sleep Solution. Basically there seems to be two theories when it comes to babies and sleep and that is you either let them cry it out or you learn to live with it. With Addison I did crying it out off and on and always felt guilty and hated it. She was a lot easier to get to sleep at night so I didn't have to worry too much. With Weston it has been a whole different ball game. From night one he has wanted to sleep by my side. At first it wasn't enough to be in my bed, but had to be skin to skin. My need to have my husband back in the bed caused me to move him to his room at 8 weeks. At first he was doing ok, still getting up about 3 times. He went down to about two for a couple of weeks and then it was as if a light switch went off. He was no longer napping and he was up constantly. Nathan started talking to me about letting him cry it out. We did it for a day, maybe two, then he got sick so we took many steps back. And then once he was well he wanted me to try again. He said, "Either let him cry it out or learn to live with it without complaining." Neither option worked for me so I sought out a friend who I knew had been through the same thing I was. I started reading this book and over and over she explains why you should NOT let your baby cry it about. She explains several studies about why this isn't good for the baby or what can happen. With Addison I think she only every cried for maybe 20 minutes straight. I couldn't believe some of the stories I read that had babies crying for 2 hours and even getting so worked up they vomited in their bed! Everything she wrote about made me feel what I knew in my gut. The book is a longer process for sure. It isn't a quick fix. But she gives lots of practical ways to help your baby start sleeping better at night. I don't expect him to "sleep through the night" at his age. He isn't getting solids yet so if he wants to wake up once or even twice to nurse I'm fine with that. By text-book definition sleeping through the night is sleeping 5 hours straight anyways.

Anyways, when I started this book, Weston was waking up EVERY hour to hour and a half!! Sometimes when he would wake up it would take over an hour to get him back to sleep. I was a desperate woman! Some nights I just needed sleep so I would pull him into our bed and he would do a lot better. I was to the point that I was ready to let him sleep in our bed, but Nathan does not want that. I respect his decision and if I'm honest with myself I don't really want him in the bed with me either, I just wanted a quick fix to sleep. But nights that I have been up a lot even Nathan offers to bring him to bed for me so I can get a little sleep. Throughout this process we have seen slow improvement. But tonight has been the best. He went to bed at 7:30, slept until a little after 10 and was back down about 15 minutes later, woke up at 1:46 and was back down right at 2, and slept until 6, nursed and went back down about 6:17 and is still sleeping!! It is now 8:20 and counting. Unfortunately I slept pretty bad because of my cold but I'm so proud of my little man!! We haven't had a 4 hour stretch since he was about 2 months old! I know there might be some set backs but this gives me so much hope that we are headed int he right direction!