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I didn't want to do it. I LOVED holding my baby while he slept for naps. I LOVED sleeping next to him at night. The only bad part was that my baby loved my company so much that he wasn't sleeping. He would only sleep in 20-30 minutes stretches around the clock for the last couple of weeks. His doctor said we should let him cry. I had to start gradual, so we started with naps. The picture below shows him in his crib for a nap for the first day of sleep training. It actually was a lot easier than I thought. He NEEDED to sleep. His naps were still only 20-30 minutes, but at least they were in his own bed. I can't even begin to explain how liberating it was to have those 20-30 minutes several times a day to spend with Oliver, or do whatever I needed to do. And bonus, I was actually happier to hold him when he awoke!
We started night training the following Saturday, four days after starting the naps. The first night there was two hours of crying, and more crying throughout the night. The third night was the absolute worst: It seemed like a success when he went to sleep after only a few minutes of fussing, then I fed him around 1:00 and put him back to sleep. He woke up only a few minutes later and cried for three hours! Staying out of his room was the HARDEST thing I have ever done. I have spent almost every minute of my babies life with him and believe me, having him cry it out was something I never wanted to do. But he NEEDED sleep, and we were desperate. So I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby and did our best. Tonight is night six. I bought some bigger sized swaddling sleep sacks tried them out for naps today. He slept for one hour for the first nap, and two hours for the second nap; both naps were records! I was hesitant to swaddle him for night time, because I assume he has been sucking on his hands to comfort himself through his crying at night, but we decided to try it anyway. So I placed him in the swaddled sleepsack and nursed him and put him in his bed like we have been for the last six nights and he has been asleep for four hours with absolutely NO crying, no whimpering, no disturbed sleep. There have been a lot of tears from both me and my baby this past week, but we finally have SUCCESS!!!! I LOVE the Halo Sleepsack!
