As Burkley gets older, our sleep habits are evolving.
In order to transition him out of our bed (for at least a part of the night!) before the baby comes in the spring, we decided to set him up in his "new special bed." He helped pick out the sheets and green blanket, put many stuffed animals on the bed, and was eager to watch my dad and husband load the mattress up the stairs and put it into his room.
The first night did not go too well, but admittedly it was not any worse than I expected. ;) He woke up crying around 1:30am, so I went in to lay with him. He fell back asleep, but was up crying again in about an hour. I went back in to nurse him, but I could tell he wasn't settling down, so I just brought him into bed with us.
The second night was much better, around 1:30am, I heard him in there calling, "Mama? Mama?" So I went in and got him and brought him back to bed. By night three, he was able to just get up and walk in our room and climb into bed with us (always at 1:30am exactly!).
Since then, he has been coming into bed with us around 1:30am each night, but he does not nurse. Sometimes he asks for it, but by the time I lift my shirt (or sometimes I just do nothing to see what will happen), he's already fast asleep without even noticing that it's available or that I "ignored" him. So, does this mean we are officially night-weaned!? He hasn't nursed at night now for about two weeks! I'm hesitant to declare us fully night-weaned because I don't want to jinx it! But, it's great! Back in September or so I stopped trying to push him to night-wean because I was just so tired with being in my first trimester and wanted sleep and didn't feel like fighting him on it, so I let him nurse. Now he did it on his own (maybe the move to his bed helped, not sure?) even though he is still sleeping with us for over half the night. It was about a week after his second birthday that this started. The past two nights he's been in our bed the whole time, because Daddy is sick and has been sleeping in Burkley's bed he has slept the whole night through without waking at all and therefore hasn't asked for it at all during the night!
Now if I could just get him to sleep past 6:30am. ;)
In order to transition him out of our bed (for at least a part of the night!) before the baby comes in the spring, we decided to set him up in his "new special bed." He helped pick out the sheets and green blanket, put many stuffed animals on the bed, and was eager to watch my dad and husband load the mattress up the stairs and put it into his room.
He happily jumps on it all the time.
The first night did not go too well, but admittedly it was not any worse than I expected. ;) He woke up crying around 1:30am, so I went in to lay with him. He fell back asleep, but was up crying again in about an hour. I went back in to nurse him, but I could tell he wasn't settling down, so I just brought him into bed with us.
The second night was much better, around 1:30am, I heard him in there calling, "Mama? Mama?" So I went in and got him and brought him back to bed. By night three, he was able to just get up and walk in our room and climb into bed with us (always at 1:30am exactly!).
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| Fast asleep that first night |
Now if I could just get him to sleep past 6:30am. ;)
Congratulations!! I'm also pregnant with #2 right now, also due in the spring, but in my case I have a 10-month old who is co-sleeping with us (and has been since about 7 months--it started out as necessity, not intention--I work full-time and couldn't keep getting up with him every 2 hours or less all night long). He spends the first 2-3 hours on his own, then comes into bed with us. Well, into his sidecarred crib, but by morning, the last few sleep cycles are right next to me in the bed. Nursing. I'm slowly trying to night wean him, but between crawling, teething (AGAIN! yikes), and early walking practice, I've had little success (the moment I pop the latch he shrieks). With all that going on, he is up 1-2 times a night, nursing constantly, sometimes waking me every 15 minutes to nurse (argh!). I want to get him sleeping on his own in his own bed at least 2-3 months before baby 2 arrives. So it is with much eagerness that I follow your journey and your progress! I do love co-sleeping...well, when baby actually SLEEPS! Thanks for sharing your story!
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly how we transitioned our daughter into her own bed. :) Then soon she was sleeping through the night and only coming into my bed in the early morning. Have you tried giving him a worn t-shirt from you and/or daddy to cuddle? That worked for us for a while.
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