Sleep Training...or maybe not!

After that wonderful night when Isaac only woke up one time, he went back to his usual schedule of waking up every two or three hours for several weeks. I was getting to the beyond frustrated and extremely exhausted point, so last Friday I came up with a plan for sleep training. My rationale was that when Isaac was waking up at 1:00am, he was barely eating before falling promptly back to sleep, so he must not be hungry. I also read that three months is an appropriate time to make a first attempt at sleep training.

There are lots of ways to do sleep training--anywhere from letting him "cry it out," (which means letting him cry until he goes back to sleep no matter how long it takes) to the more gradual approach of nightly decreasing the number of minutes he eats at the feeding you want to get rid of.

I came up with a middle of the road approach that Zach and I felt comfortable with (remember, if you're reading our blog, you're not allowed to judge us!). When Isaac woke up at 1:00, we would let him cry for 15 minutes to see if he would go back to sleep. If he didn't, Zach would go in and comfort him with cuddles and a mimi (pacifier) to try to get him to go back to sleep without eating. If that didn't work, then I was going to feed him.

Isaac went to bed that night at 9:15 and we reviewed the plan. If he woke up before 5 hours of sleep, i.e. 2:15, sleep training would begin. We were ready for anything.

What happened next proved our son's enormous intelligence. He had heard the plan, and apparently comprehended it. He slept until 2:15. Exactly.

No sleep training necessary! Isaac has been steadily increasing the number of hours he sleeps at a stretch once again. Last night he slept until 3:30!

My new goal is to stockpile pumped bottles of breastmilk. Next weekend, Daddy's taking over for a night and I'm going to get as many hours as possible of (almost) uninterrupted sleep! I've never been so excited to get some shut eye.