Sleep Transition: Days 5, 6 & 7

Day 5:  The schedule was only slightly off as we started dinner late and such.  I don't realistically think that the timing will be bang on each night, but the actual routine should be followed and done as close to the times as possible.  Both kids were in bed at a decent time, and it was nice to enjoy a few hours of peace before heading to bed ourselves.

Day 6:  We were very much off schedule, but followed the routine and I think it's going well.  Levi learned a nice quiet game of cards with mommy, and we had some quality time.  I think this will need to be our special time every day.  Parker resisted to the point that I just gave in and slept with him.  I know I shouldn't, but I'm going crazy!

Day 7:  Levi and I enjoyed cards again.  I love spending time with him again.  Parker went to bed wonderfully at 9, but when he woke at midnight, he would not go back to his crib.  Again, i had to give in and sleep with him.


The schedule we set up has been working well for our 4 year old.  He's going to bed well and getting up well.  We still have attitude problems, but he is finally averaging about 11 hours of sleep a night.  I'm hoping that after a few more weeks with this routine, he calms down more and rests better.

The schedule works well enough with Parker, also; however, he is still refusing to sleep in his crib.  We're going to give in and try a pacifier with him.  I'm also going to take his mattress out of his crib and put it on the floor.  He notices as soon as I pull him away from my chest and wakes up screaming.  I know this is a difficult transition for him, and I am trying to remain patient, but my lack of sleep has left me bitter in the wee hours of the morning.  My hopes with our new plan is that he can go to sleep much the same as he had been, on a mattress on the floor, but he will be getting used to a new mattress.  I will continue to wake up to feed him, but when he chooses to just suckle, I will pull away and place the pacifier in his mouth instead.

Here's to dreaming of a peaceful sleep soon.

Sleep Transition: Days 3 and 4

Day 3: Parker went to bed easily, but of course I put him down while asleep.  He managed to go quite some time before waking, and when he did wake to eat, I was able to get him back down in his crib again.  The only problem was that Levi had decided to get up and crawl into my spot in bed while I had been feeding Parker.  This made me pretty upset because I then had to wait until Parker woke up again to go back to sleep.  We can't hear him as easily from Levi's room.

Day 4:  Parker fought his crib!  He refused to go down and it was after midnight before I managed to get him peacefully asleep.  Once asleep, he did very well and didn't wake until about 3am.  I was way too tired by this point to bother trying to get him back in his crib, so I gave in and put him in bed with us.

Tonight, probably the dumbest night to start, we plan to start a new sleep regime.  This is how it will go:

5:30 TV Off and Dinner
6:15 Levi has his bath
6:35 Quiet family activity
7:00 Bedtime snack
7:15 Stories for Levi, bath for Parker
7:30 Levi brushes his teeth, Parker has stories
7:45 Lights out for Levi, Nurse Parker
8:15 Brush Parker's teeth
8:30 Lights out for Parker

It is going to be a tough run, but we've decided that we are going to hold to this schedule and make it work.  Once this schedule is in place, I can finally come up with a daily routine that works well for all of us.

Sleep Transition: Second Night

It was possibly more successful last night.  I have a lot of people telling me to use the CIO method, but that just doesn't sit well with me.  We had tried it with Levi and gave up after about 4 days because it was just too hard on us all.
I got Parker down around 9, in his crib, and he slept right through until 12:30.  I went to bed right away, but couldn't sleep because I had hit my second, or third, or possibly fourth wind.  I did manage to unwind quite a bit and eventually fall asleep after Kirk came to bed.
Now comes my fail.  Once Parker woke up, I nursed him and then snuggled and then attempted to put him in his crib.  He sort of woke up a little grumpy, and I could have held him another 10-15 minutes and gotten him back to sleep.  Instead, I marched into my room, shoved him into the bed, and curled around him for what I hoped would be 4 hours of blissful sleep.
What I wasn't counting on, was Levi keeping me up.  He woke upset because he needed to use the bathroom, no problem.  Then, he comes in, says he's too hot in his bed, and when I get out of bed to put him back, he says "well where are you going to sleep?"  Oh, the audacity of a 4 year old!  

Sleep Transition: First Night

Well, that night was a bust.  I didn't get any sleep at all.  Parker went down the same as always, but as always, woke up a couple hours later to eat.  After one failed attempt, I managed to get him back to bed and then crawled back into bed myself.  I actually started drifting off, and was feeling confident about the night, but just before I crossed that border into sleepy land, Parker woke up again.  This time, I never managed to get him back in the crib.  He wanted to sleep on mom.  I was too grumpy for that, so I kept him awake a bit in hopes he would eventually go down in his crib.  Needless to say, i am going to be one crazy and grumpy mommy today!

I did decide that I need to enforce a more definite routine with him.  It was so much easier with Levi, especially being bottle fed.  Once I come up with an actual routine, I will post it on a page.