Sleeping on His Own

Little man C is now 6 months and mommy decided(with the doctors suggestion) that it is time to start getting him to sleep through the night. The first few months he was really good about sleeping and would only wake up one time in the middle of the night to eat. Now that he is in in a really bad habit of getting up 4 times in the middle of the night. He eats maybe 2 ounces and then goes back to sleep. There are times that he will eat 3 full 4 ounce bottles in the middle of the night but the doctor says if he is fine and doesn't need the food. I love my doctor and do everything he suggests as he is one of the most sought after doctors in our area. He said right now C is forming bad habits of waking up too much and if we don't fix it now it will be really hard to fix it.
So on to the fix.
The suggestion was to go in tell him it was ok and let him cry himself back to sleep while just checking to make sure that there was nothing wrong that was not him being just upset (example: in throw up). The first time we tried it he screamed for 3 hours! NO JOKE! It was so hard for me to just let him cry and cry and at that point I gave in and gave him a bottle. I waited a few weeks so that he was not cutting a tooth and then I tried it again. The first night was not terrible but he did cry for about an hour (I think, I was really out of it). Then I decided to bite the bullet with the support of my hubby and go pick out a crib soother.


We picked out the Baby Einstein mobile sea dreams at Buy Buy Baby for $50. I picked it for the fact that it stays on longer than the other options and it has a remote that allows me to turn it on and off without my son seeing me. I might have been able to find this for cheaper but I needed it right then as I was desperate for sleep.

The first night we used it was magical. I put C in awake and he feel asleep to it, after of course being so excited and making his happy noises. In the middle of the night I would go and turn it on and tell him it was ok and he would take about 15 minutes and then fall asleep to it. He would still cry and be fussy but it never grew to him being extremely upset and he still fell asleep without me or a bottle.

The morning of the second night I went in to get him ready for church and was surprised that he was awake and happy (usually he lets me know to come get him) and was kicking it on and off.

I am happy that he figured that out so fast. Maybe when he wakes up in the middle of the night he can turn it on himself... wishful thinking! As far as right now it is well worth the money.

We were nervous that it would scratch the finish on our pricey crib so we put a burp rag around the strap in hops that it will help.

After using it for a few weeks I find that there are nights were he will have nights were he will still cry until he gets a bottle but after that the soother works like normal. I am guessing he is a growing boy and sometimes he just needs a little food :)