Breakthrough!!

So Nathan's sleeping problems aren't solved, but we experienced a major breakthrough last night.  But let me start from Wednesday night and record a play-by-play account...
 
We put Nathan to bed around 8:00 Wednesday night, going to bed ourselves around 9:30 because Brian and I were both exhausted.  Nathan woke up at 11:00 and was up and down for 2 hours before I decided to feed him and realized that he really was hungry! After that, he slept until 4:30, when he woke up again hungry.  And when he woke up in the morning around 7:30, he was hungry again!  So that made me realize that he is either going through a growth spurt and needs more to eat, or I'm just not feeding him enough before bed. 

We're also moving on to step 2 of the plan to get him to sleep better (by himself) in his crib.  I wasn't sure what step 2 was until yesterday, when I checked yet another baby sleep book out of the library.  This book suggested having a bedtime and nap ritual, then putting the baby down in the crib whether or not he was super drowsy.  If he starts crying, try to comfort him in the crib, but if that doesn't work, pick him up and comfort him just until he calms down, then put him back down in the crib (called pick up/put down method).  The point is to make sure the baby doesn't get so worked up and upset that they can't put themselves to sleep, but also not hold them long enough for them to fall asleep in your arms.  So, armed with this new technique and the realization about Nathan being hungry at night...

Thursday I made sure that he had lots of good feedings, and in the evening I fed him at 6 and 8 then dreamfed him at 10 before I went to bed (fed him without waking him up).  I put him to bed after the 8:00 feeding with the pick up/put down method, which worked fairly well (maybe took 15 minutes to get him down).  He woke briefly at 9ish, but I was able to pat him back to sleep in his crib easily.  Then, he woke up at 2:15, and I tried to "shhh" him in his crib, then I tried pick up/put down, but he was really starting to cry loudly and I was worried about keeping Brian up.  So rocked Nathan for a while, but he was wide awake.  Then I tried feeding him, just in case he was still hungry (he wasn't really hungry), so I took him back into his room and put him back in his crib.  This time he didn't cry or fuss, he just kicked his legs happily and smiled at me.  At 3:00 in the morning, I didn't feel like smiling back.  Then he made a present for me in his diaper, so we changed that, ensuring that Nathan was WIDE awake.  Since Nathan had seemed somewhat content in his crib, I put him back in there, patted him a little, then lay down on the floor (using a stuffed soccer ball as a pillow and a baby blanket over me) and just waited to see what would happen.  Nathan started talking to himself, then he fussed for a minute, but after about 5 minutes, it was quiet.  I stayed on the floor for another probably 5 minutes - not a peep!  I crept back into my room and went back to bed, but couldn't go to sleep because I couldn't believe what just happened - Nathan put himself back to sleep, alone in his crib!!  Or maybe he was dead (at 3:00 in the morning, my imagination runs away with me sometimes!).  So after a while, just to reassure myself, I crept back into his room and yes, he was sleeping so peacefully in his crib.  I was THRILLED!  He woke up again this morning around 6:10 and I fed him (he was only kind of hungry) and he went straight back to sleep in his crib around 6:30 and then got up at 7:30. 

So, another huge win for him to be able to put himself back to sleep without needing to be rocked or patted or even know that someone is there!  While I'm realistic that this won't happen all the time just yet, it does make me encouraged that we are doing something right with this sleep training!  Plus, I know that we're going to have to stop swaddling sometime soon, and who knows how that will impact his sleep.  So keep the prayers coming and there is definitely a light at the end of this long, tiring tunnel!