I’m going to start another series (because I’m realizing this will be a long process) on getting Caleb into good sleep habits. While it may put many of you to sleep (no pun intended) to read these, It will help organize my thoughts and hopefully get some feedback from those more experienced.

Until now, Caleb has been an adequate sleeper. In the beginning, he slept in his Pack ‘n Play in our room at night and took naps wherever he passed out; usual stuff for a newborn. It was a little too tiring for me though. Our night routine went something like this: Caleb wakes/makes cute little hungry noises, Andy gets him out of the PnP, and changes his diaper while I get up, set up my mountain of supportive pillows, Andy hands him to me who feeds him and holds him until he falls back to sleep, I put him back to bed, throw the mountain of pillows to the floor, and return to bed. After about a month and a half of this, I started bringing him to bed with me out of utter exhaustion. It worked out wonderfully. So now we’re happily co-sleeping. We get plenty of rest and I get to wake up next to a stretching, smiley baby. It can’t get any better than that.

Since nights are going great, my only problem now is naptimes. Since the beginning, Caleb has never really had a good daytime schedule. Basically, he would get tired after an hour of being awake (which is normal for his age). But getting him to sleep was an entire workout. I would have to either dance with him, or wear him in a baby carrier (which is what I am doing as I write this). This did wonders for loosing the baby weight but is tiring me out rather quickly. And if he fell asleep in the wrap, I would be stuck wearing him for the entire length of the nap.

Don’t get me wrong, I really love spending that special time putting him down and when he does nap all snuggled up next to me in the wrap, my heart just melts. But recently, he’s been taking shorter naps and has been harder to get down. He’s reaching the age where he can soothe himself to sleep with proper training. I really want him to be able to fall asleep on his own without the constant motion. I’ve titled this post “Reality Check” because I’ve kind of avoided telling myself there could be another way to put him down and now, I feel that it’s time for a change. I am definitely not one to practice the “cry-it-out” method, but am willing to try some sort of training; even if it has to involve a few tears. I figure every developmental period in his life will involve some sort of difficulty. I can’t mislead myself into thinking this is any different.

So after much discussion last night, Andy and I have decided it’s time to start transitioning him to a nap time schedule. Sadly, Caleb’s crib has been used as a toy box for the past three months so he is not in the least bit used to it. We’ve got some tweaking to do in his room, like setting up a white noise device and probably washing the now dusty sheets. But we’ve started introducing him to his new bed. Last night, Andy laid him in it while he played some guitar. We also have this little seahorse that glows and plays soothing bedtime lullabies. Caleb loved his crib, or at least all the new toys and daddy’s singing. He didn’t get the least bit sleepy though, and by 2 hours post-bedtime, we gave up and I took him to bed with me. But it was a start; at least he didn’t scream his face off.

Today was another story. I spent a good three hours rocking him to drowsiness and putting him in his crib only for him to wake up and start fussing. I would then pick him back up (because there was no way he was going to sleep like that) and rock him back to sleep. Needless to say, he didn’t get a morning nap at all and has turned into Mr. Cranky-face today. Now do you see how this is going to be a long process? I bought a couple of “get your kid to sleep” books in hopes of revealing some secret I have not already read/heard about. I’ll see what I can glean from them. I pray that he doesn’t start teething in the midst of this. I don’t think I can handle two challenges right now. Wish us luck. We’ll keep you posted.

P.S. For those of you still awake after reading this… join the club, haha.