Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Sleep Decisions

Sean is away for 5 nights in March, so I am deciding whether to sleep train Nolan that week in the hopes of getting him to sleep through the night.  Right now (when he's not bothered by teeth!) he wakes three times a night; when we go to bed, and roughly 2 and 4.  I go in at first peep (well, when I can tell that it's a sitting up awake noise, not a in-his-sleep noise), nurse him and put him back in his crib. 

The reasons why I wouldn't do anything:
  • he hardly wakes up so it's easy to put him right back in his crib (usually - sometimes he sits right back up again and I pick him up for a few more minutes and try again)
  • it doesn't affect my overall sleep too much
  • and honestly, I enjoy holding the sleeping baby and know it won't last forever

The reasons I'm considering it:
  • Sean is a light sleeper and wakes multiple times a night either to Nolan or to me coming or going.  
  • I believe Nolan could sleep through the night and just needs a chance to try it.  
  • I would do better on a fuller night's sleep, you know, managing emotions and all that...  

Other Considerations:
  • Sean doesn't like the idea of letting him cry it out, so we're researching other methods.  
  • The goal I'd like to see is to have him better able to self-soothe & get to sleep on his own; for naps half the time he does and the other half he falls asleep nursing.  For bedtime, I pretty much always tack on another feed at the end of our routine so he can fall asleep nursing.
  • My plan is to start now with naps and always put him down awake, rather than letting him fall asleep nursing.  I imagine there will be some crying, but we'll see how it goes.  When Sean is gone, maybe I'll try that at bedtime, too.  As far as when he wakes in the night... that's to be determined.  Ideally, once he can put himself to sleep, when he wakes in the night, he'll just go back to sleep on his own.
  • There's the whole issue of weaning tied up in there, too.  I imagine once he no longer nurses, he might no longer wake.  ??Maybe??  And I am happy to have him nurse for a while longer yet; no rush for that.  As it is, he only nurses a couple times during the day now anyway.

Like I said, Sean is going away for 5 days in March - that's the main reason these decisions have come up now...  I'd love it if you'd weigh in with your thoughts and opinions and stories of sleeping through the night / sleep training / weaning...

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