An update on the sleeping

I bet you thought that "a week of videos" meant 7 days. Ha! Not to me, it doesn't.  A week is what goes between weekends, my friend. Also, 5 is all that I could handle.

At the beginning of this week, we were back to the insanity of waking up every few hours at night and not napping during days. I called the pediatrician and begged them to tell me what was up. All they could think of was for me to read the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, which I had actually already checked out from the library but hadn't got a chance to read yet because I was wasting my time reading this book which I had checked out at the same time (and was completely not helpful).

The other suggestion from the pediatrician, as well as from the book, was to go ahead and move Little Sir's bedtime up to 8PM (he had been maintaining a 10PM bedtime) so that he can get more night sleep and therefore be less overtired during the day (which could be making it difficult for him to settle down and nap).

I made out this fabulous schedule where we would move the bedtime by 20 minutes every night and by something like 10 days we would be up to 8 PM. However the first two nights of that plan, Little Sir was waking up every single hour. By the second night, I was thinking we might as well just move it to 8PM and have it over with. The whole point of doing it gradually was so that this constant waking wouldn't happen, but if it was going to happen either way...let's just get this thing over with instead of stretching it out 10 days!

I wasn't sure if this was a good idea so I emailed all the moms I know to ask their opinion. I have a list of 36 moms who I know personally and they were kind enough to answer back with all kinds of great ideas and advice. You would think out of that many moms, there would be conflicting advice, but for the most part everyone agreed that moving the bedtime to 8PM right away was probably fine. Of course there were differences between everyone regarding whether to Cry It Out or soothe when he wakes up, but that is normal.

I just wanted to say a big "thank you" to everyone who emailed back. I am sure it was a combination of your advice and your prayers that has helped us sleep better the last few nights! We are really looking forward to seeing how well Little Sir does with more sleep!