Sleep

I was not going to post about this, because there is so much drama involved with sleep training your kids recently - and also because I didn't want to jinx the parts that are working so well, and finally because I did not want to admit my parental fail... But here it is. We are 90% good with Baby James sleeping right now. Dare I try to go the extra 10%?

This has been going this way for a while now. Just after daylight savings time he has adjusted to no longer wake up earlier than 6. Actually, yesterday morning he had a crying fit at 5:45 for about 1 minute and then went back to bed... Other than that, an after 6 waking baby is an awesome baby. Notice this has coincided with a lot of happier Mommy posts.

I will say it, I wish the kid slept until 7 or later, like his brother. I know, that is asking for too much and I should be thankful, over-joyed really! I should. But, I can't help it and other things this baby is doing is making me think that some of my recent bad-Mommy habits are preventing my little bundle of joy from being on the golden 7:30-7:30 schedule. Here they are, I am admitting them, for all to see.
#3. I do not keep a strict bedtime. 7:30 is "bedtime" in our house for the boys. But we are not very good at keeping this tight. With the holidays we have been creeping towards 8. Last night I realized we were going for a later bedtime for James so I tried to speed things up... But it was too late. By 7:35 he had turned into a pumpkin and was a complete crying mess until I put him in his crib. Literally, while I was pulling down the shades and putting on his sleep music the kid was snuggling in for the long haul on the floor. It was the only thing that calmed him so I almost left him there, 1/2 passed out, on the floor. But finally moved him to his crib. He passed out before I could turn the monitor on. Am I putting him to bed too late? But if I put him to bed any earlier, will he start waking in the 5's again?

#2. I let him nap too long. The little bugger naps like a champ. A real champ. Right now he is at two naps a day, two hours each. And, even with that I have to wake him up 1/2 the time because he is stretching towards 2-1/2. That is four hours a day of baby nap time. I wonder if I cut it down to 1-1/2 hours each nap, would he tag that extra hour onto bedtime? The thing I am most petrified of, and most convinced of, is no - he will not tag that onto bedtime, and I will loose an extra hour of nap time too...

And the #1 thing that is totally my fault and creating bad sleeping habits...

I let the kid in the bed. I know, I should be thankful that he wakes up in the 6's. Today he woke up at 6:45! And, what did I do? I grabbed him before he could make too much noise and wake his brother (who I would like to keep sleeping until 7:30), and brought him in bed with me. It is our new thing. We snuggle every morning now. We love it. Almost 95% of the time, he falls back asleep too. The other morning he was snoring so loud at 7:30, and I heard Joel Andrew was up, so I had to wake James. James was pissed. This morning, at 6:45, a really late time for most kids, James fell right back to sleep in my bed - so quickly, I did not even have the covers on right. So, don't you think that if he goes back to bed at this point, that he should be able to make it to 7 on his own, in his crib? But, he makes lots of noise before I get him and move him... Do we just fight through the noise and see if he eventually gets it? What about waking the toddler?

So, I will take suggestions - do I try to mess with something that is actually working for our family (look at the long blog I am writing while James is napping) - or do I leave it be? Am I creating a monster with the kid in the bed thing... When should I stop that by? Can we make it to daylight savings and then the kiddo will wake at 7 and all will be golden? Should I just stop stressing over this finally and move onto something more important like world hunger?

CIO, a small footnote.

I have seen lately a lot of Moms pinning against other Moms for the Cry It Out thing. I just want to say once and for all, that there are two camps here. There just are. I am on the Cry It Out Camp. You are not going to scare me with your I am emotionally ruining my child, I am making him fat, stupid and insecure. I already know I am doing all of those things by no longer breastfeeding :). I have done Cry It Out with both my kids, and both times it was entirely different experiences. Joel Andrew cried, and cried, and cried for hours and then two days later and ever since has slept through the night. James would cry for one minute, sleep for an hour. Cry for another minute, sleep for two hours. Cry three minutes - by the time I had enough and I got to his bedroom door, sleep for four hours. He did this for months, waking up once or twice a night or so but never for longer than two minutes. Sometimes, he still does this if his teeth bother him but each time when I get to his door, he is passed back out again. There was one awful night where he did 1 minute of crying every hour. This was much worse for Mommy as although little man passed back out, Mommy was wide awake, and could not go back to sleep for the next 59 minutes. Then, finally, Mommy would get back to bed and little man would cry again. I posted on Facebook about it which led to lots of drama as to whether Cry It Out is the best choice or not. The one thing I learned from that is that it is each person's choice. Each person is a parent to their own kid. All of my friends and family do their best to make their kids healthy, feel safe and secure, we are all doing our best. My best is done when there is 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep, for all!