Over the past few weeks I've become paranoid thanks to all the books that say I need to teach Max to fall asleep on his own. They paint these lovely pictures of a mother telling her baby, "It's time to sleep now", laying the baby down and it magically falls asleep. If the baby cries? You pat it's chest until it calms and then step away. Still crying? You can pick it up but put baby down as soon as it is calm again. Lovely in theory and I'm certain there are babies out there that follow this but my son is not one of them.
I've reserved and read nearly every sleep book that the library offers hoping to get a handle on when this vision is truly realistic and how I go about dealing with my cuddler of a son. Remember this is the boy that I can't even get to sleep on his own during the day. He thinks it's perfectly appropriate that I should carry his 14+ pound self around all day. The only way he naps on his own is if I feed him side-lying in bed for 45 minutes. Who knew that such a thing could be called a "sleep association" that I must end so that he doesn't think that the only way to fall asleep is with a breast in his face. (I'm certain many men still aspire to this)
Certainly I've been taking all this with a grain of salt and processing the advice to come up with my own theories and approach. Yes, I would love to be able to set my son in his crib and have him drift off to sleep. A fabulous first step would be to get him to nap in his own bed at all! So I've been toying with each of the approaches over the past few days. Nothing appeared to be working but today is my day! Max, my genius son, has taken 3 naps in his pack n play. On top of that, he actually fell asleep there! I'm so excited I could burst!
No, it wasn't the lovely scene painted in the first paragraph. It usually involves about 5 minutes of crying but he's making the connection. Each nap today was a progressively smoother process.
Best of all...Alex and I are going out to dinner so I have the time to go pick out some clothes to change into. I won't have to wear my vomit crusted ones! Oh, it's going to be a hot night tonight! ;-)
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3 comments:
Hope you guys had a great night out. Looking forward to seeing that little genius on Friday.
Hey I noticed you haven't gotten the blog coffee details yet. We really would love for you to come. Please email me at theglorylaine@yahoo.com and I'll send you the information.
Becca
Aren't those moments so exciting and I'm so glad you got to share! I remember when I ended Maisie's habit of sucking on my pinky until she fell asleep. She found her thumb and it was beautiful - putting herself to sleep from then on out. Good job!
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