Ahh… Sleep!
December 2, 2009We are pretty much settled into our rental house now. Xander is sleeping in a queen size bed and across the hall Parker is in his crib. For the most part, we’ve been sleeping blissfully well. Parker has been sleeping straight through from 7:30/8:00pm to 6:30/7:00am without a peep! We have never been a “cry-it-out” family. This resulted in Xander sleeping in our bed until well into his second year. Parker has always slept in his crib, but I would often cuddle him to sleep and then put him down. Recently he’s been rather disagreeable about cuddling before sleep. So, a few nights ago I let him cry it out. It took 12 long minutes, but then he fell asleep. We tried this with Xander when he was a baby, but when Xander woke up it would be the middle of the night, and he wouldn’t stop until you picked him up, so we gave up pretty quickly. Last night after we read books, I tried to cuddle Parker for a few minutes but he would have none of it, so after lots of hugs and kisses I put him in his crib, covered him up and walked out. He squeaked maybe twice and then fell silent.
I feel like we’ve finally turned a corner when it comes to sleep in our house. Parker’s been sleeping great for almost 2 weeks now, and Xander has occasionally woken up, but most nights goes back to sleep quickly. Ahh… Sleep – it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing 
A few nights ago I thought my baby might never sleep again. He slept three hours that night, and they were not consecutive. I’m not sure how I made it through work without falling asleep in my chair. But last night, oh last night was blissful. Zach put Parker to sleep just after 7pm. We’ve got a good bedtime routine now – bath, dinner, books, bottle, bed. Xander was in bed and books read and lights out just about 8pm (after two trips to the bathroom and a lengthy discussion of what we were doing tomorrow). Zach and I were both in bed by 11pm. Xander woke me around 4ish looking for his binky, but that was a quick trip.
In typical Sara fashion, I have been doing as much research as possible on parenting. Now I’m not sure if the information was helpful or just stressed me out. You see, when I read through the books I find that I’m not doing half of what they suggest. Then I worry that I’m not stimulating my baby’s development enough, or that I’m fostering bad habits in my kid.