Well folks...it FINALLY happened...Parker slept through the night!
After talking with the sleep specialist on Monday she suggested some behavioral training for Parker to help him sleep. That's just a nice way of saying, "cry it out!" I had been so sleep deprived and was going basically loony so I thought I would give it a try. I tried the gradual extinction process first during his nap. In that one you let them cry for 3 minutes and then go in and check on them and let them hear you but you don't touch them. Then you let 5 minutes elapse and do the same thing, gradually working your way up to an hour. Well that little routine just pissed him off!!!! So I decided to do complete extinction at bedtime which means no contact at all and allows Parker to learn to soothe himself to sleep without my intervention. Dr. Pfeffer reassured me that 80% of kids are sleeping throughout the night by 4 days and 96% by 7 days. I thought what do we have to lose? So Monday night he went to sleep at 8pm and then woke up at 10:30pm and screamed bloody murder for 45 minutes. (It nearly killed me to listen!) But then miraculously he fell asleep on his own! Until 12:30 that is when he woke up and screamed for another 45 minutes! But then he did fall asleep and slept till 4:00am and then promptly woke up and screamed for yet another 45 minutes. But then fell asleep until I woke him up at 7am. Tuesday night was better. Again in bed by 8, but that night he slept till 2am without a screaming fest and when he did cry it was for only 30 minutes and 2 and 4am! So still getting slowly better. But last night asleep by 8 and no crying till 4 am! And then he only cried for 20 minutes and then slept till 6:30am! Blessed be the heavens!!!!
But it just keeps getting better!
Thursday night he slept from 8-7 with no crying!!!!!!
Thanks so much to each of yall for your prayers and support!
4 comments:
I know it is hard to have a kid not sleep through the night, but most babies don't sleep through the night until they are closer to a year old. In fact, Jacob will still wake up sometimes (like last night) crying because of teething pain. And Jacob is a lot like Parker - he will not cry himself to sleep for a nap for anything! He just gets more and more aggravated that you aren't picking him up and soothing him. Good luck getting Parker's sleep schedule worked out!
Congratulations! Bet you sleep better too.
Lots of Love,
Mom&Marcus
I did that with CJ from the get go... it's the bomb. Some people think it's cruel... till they do it. The beauty of starting it from 6 weeks old (or 6 weeks from their due date if they're early) is that you don't ever really have to listen to them cry. They naturally put themselves to sleep and, before you know it, they're 7 weeks old and waking once (for about 5 minutes) to nurse. :)
Do they Dream of playing leap frog,
or Stephy in a Wonder Woman suit!!!
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