Sleeping Like a Baby Day One

Tonight we teach Ian how to sleep.  Of course he knows how to sleep on his terms.  But tonight we try to coax him into sleeping on our terms.  Namely, with a bedtime.  In his own bed. We comfort him every ten minutes.  Forty minutes later, he's quiet.  He'll probably wake up wailing in another hour.  And I'll let myself comfort him then.  It's a tough tough thing, for me to let him cry.  I want to snuggle him up and love him and lull him into dreamland.  And why not?

For one thing, it doesn't always work.  Some nights we dance for hours with play and snuggle and play and climb all over Mama and bite her a bit and eventually fall asleep.  And that doesn't work.

And we held Anika asleep until she was two, when her bed-time dance turned into hours of play-snuggle-play some more.  At that time, we tried the no-cry sleep thing sitting beside her for hours and that didn't work.  She sensed us leaving and woke up wailing.  We tried the scoot the chair a little away each night and that didn't work.  Nothing worked until we tried the ten minute comfort thing and she fell asleep leaning on the door jamb because she knew that crossing it meant we carried her back to bed.  We found her curled up sleeping on the dog bed near the bedroom door.

I'm not waiting two years this time.  And Ian's having a tough time at daycare because he depends on mama-cuddling to sleep.  I don't want him miserable there.

I'm going to check on him.  He'll figure it out.  And we're still cosleeping.  He'll get lots and lots of cuddle time with Mama.  Lots and lots and lots :)