Sleep Training Update–7 months

For the first time since Calvin’s birth, the 3 of us live in our own place.  Just the three of us.  We don’t have to worry about disturbing others in the middle of the night with a crying baby.  We still share a room with him, because this apartment is basically 2 rooms: the bedroom/bathroom, and everything else. But, we feel so much more liberated to get this kid trained out of night time feedings by letting him cry it out.  Oh, and we also have air conditioning on hot nights.  That’s a huge bonus.  HUGE!

So, in the one week we’ve been living in Charlottesville, we’ve noticed that Calvin tends to wake up at the same 3 times every night: ~11pm, ~2am, and ~5am.  There is no reason our 20-pound, 7 month-old son needs to be fed that often when he gets plenty of solids and breastmilk during the day.  I did accommodate him one night when he had a particularly bad day due to the intolerable discomfort of 4 top teeth emerging all at once, but that was one night.

I’m happy to announce progress.  Last night, he woke at 11pm.  Instead of trying to shush him, offer a pacifier or water, we just stayed out of the room and let him cry . . . for 45 long and dreadful minutes.  But, he eventually went to sleep.  At 2 am when he awoke, I fed him.  He’d done a 6 hour stretch between feedings.  That was alright.

Tonight, he woke up at 10:17pm.  We could hear him slamming his ankles down on the mattress for a few minutes.  Then, he did his sleepy cry thing . . . for only 12 minutes.  Then, he fell asleep.  Definite improvement.  I expect his early waking period should be eliminated by the end of the week.

My goal is for all night feedings to be eliminated completely by the end of this month.  He’s going to be 8 months old.  And, although 1 to 2 night feedings is still ok at this age, if we allow it to continue, we’re only allowing habits to continue that can get even tougher to stop down the road.  We’ll all sleep better if he can go longer stretches.  I’m talking 8-10-12 hours at a time, preferrably the latter.

Speaking of sleep . . . it’s past my bedtime.  G’nite!