We did so well with baby one! When he was about eight weeks old we started trying to get him on a nap schedule and let him "cry it out" to some extent. When he was twelve weeks old I went back to work, full-time, and Hubby continued the nap scheduling. When he was about six months old I transitioned him from my arms to his crib at night. I slept on an air mattress in the floor of his room for months. But here we are, nearly two years after he was born and he asks to go "night-night" when he's tired - even if it's an hour before bed time. We have no bedtime struggles. He goes right to bed and plays or sings himself to sleep. He typically wakes up happy and singing... loudly. He naps from 12:30pm to 3 or 3:30. At night he sleeps from 7:30pm to a reasonable 7am or so. It's fantastic!
And here we are with baby two... seven months old and he doesn't want to sleep anywhere but in my arms. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy holding my baby, but I'm ready to have my bed and my sleep back to myself. I've always just felt like he was too little. At three months old I felt like he was too little to "cry it out." It doesn't make sense, really. His older brother was younger than that when we let him cry it out. What is the difference?
Necessity.
With baby one I knew that I would be going back to work. He wasn't going to be able to sleep with me for much longer and I wanted to get him used to that while I could still be around to greet him when he woke up. With baby two there was no such necessity. I wasn't going back to work and there was no hurry to get him used to sleeping on his own. It almost feels like baby two is baby one. This is the baby that I get to enjoy spending time with during this first year.
What bothers me is this: After baby two was born he was content to sleep in his own bed/bassinet. He has been content to do so up until about two weeks ago. I figured it would be easy to transition him to sleeping through the night in his own crib. Now I'm not so sure.
Oh well. So goes life I suppose. We'll get the hang of it by the time we have grandchildren. Then I guess we'll be able to give our children all kinds of advice that they probably won't take.
I just went through the same with my youngest who is 10 months old. I thought I was the master at sleep training after my older children and then he threw me for a loop. Ultimately I had to let him CIO for a few days because his sister was having health problems and now he is a perfect sleeper and I am FINALLY sleeping. Good luck to you! Thanks for stopping at my blog and happy SITS Saturday.
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