Naptime Battle - Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Training

This right here is a miracle. Some of you know that we have had terrible sleep issues since day one. He co-slept with us. If he wasn't in the bed with us he was in the pack n play right next to our bed. On a good night, he'd be up 1-3 times and almost always end up in our bed. Naptimes, he would only sleep if someone was holding him. He's never been a fan of his crib and I don't think he has ever slept a night in it.



Then the miracle happened. One glorious May weekend, the boy and I had a meeting of the minds. I was getting ready for him to nap, he was throwing a terrible fit. Didn't want to be held, didn't want to sit by himself. He didn't want his Sippy cup, only his bottle (which we are trying to get ween off of). So things were bad for the River Boy. Nap time needed to commence but he was putting up a valiant fight.

I have talked to several friends who have children with sleep issues. Lots of advice has been thrown around.  I've read blog after blog on sleep training. Some of it was helpful. Some of it may have worked with their children but wasn't going to happen with the River Boy. We were just going to have to find our sleep happy the hard way.

A good friend would constantly say, "If it works for you." She was a big fan of the cry it out method. Not something that I was a fan of.  I just don't see what good would come of making my child sit in his crib for hours by himself, alone, screaming for momma. Oh tear out my heart. So yes. It was working for us. The co-sleeping, the numerous night wakings, snuggling for nap time. We weren't getting great sleep but by-god River boy had his momma.

So back to this glorious May Day.... The meltdown was in full swing. There were tears, foot stomping, hair pulling and that was just me. So being the momma in the situation, I decided to use my authority and put him in his crib. If you don't want me to snuggle then you can just sit and yell at yourself for awhile. I kissed him on his head and walked out of the room. 15 minutes later, I was sitting outside his room listening to him snore over the monitor.

The skies parted, a ray of sunshine shone down on me. It was a miracle! He was asleep in his crib. Not only that he slept for 2 whole hrs!! Later that night I threw caution to the wind and decided to try to put him in his crib for the night. Low and behold, 10 min of fussing and he was snoring away. He woke up a couple of times, only to turn on his music machine for some cool rainforest noise and fell back asleep.

Fast forward to now. River boy is sleeping 11hrs a night, not waking up at all. He hasn't been back in our bed in a month. Nap times are going swimmingly. He puts himself to sleep without any fussing. Just lays down, grabs Snoopy and panda bear and snuggles in to slumber.

It may have taken us 15 months of sleep deprivation but I can finally say we have a sleeping toddler!