Sleep Training

Well, we decided it was high time our baby boy learned how to go to sleep at nap time on his own. He does pretty good at bed time, but he still has to be rocked/jiggled to sleep for naps. He is getting heavier, so that process is getting more difficult for us. The reading I have been doing says that between 4-5 months is a great time for sleep training and we decided to go ahead and take the plunge. We feel Ian is old enough to understand what is going on and to figure out that we aren't leaving him and/or traumatizing him.


Ian usually takes three naps a day. The first is about an hour and a half after he wakes up in the morning. The second is anywhere between 1-3pm and the third is usually around 5 or 6pm. Most of his naps are just 30 minutes. However, if we are in the car or he is cuddling with me, he will take a two hour nap in the afternoons.

So yesterday we (well, me - James was sleeping) started sleep training with his second nap. (I was too tired to start on his first nap.) I gave him his pacifier and little frog blankie, swaddled him, and laid him in his crib. I sang him a song too and then left the room. It wasn't long before my little one was wailing up a storm. I went in several times and talked to him, patted his arm, gave him his paci (it kept falling out), etc. Twice he really worked himself up into a fit, so I picked him up to calm him down. The first time was after twenty-five minutes and of course he started crying as soon as I put him down. The second time was after forty-five minutes and he fell asleep almost as soon as I picked him up. I tried to put him back down quickly so he would be semi-awake as he drifted off to sleep. The third nap of the day he fell asleep in the car on the way back from errands, so we didn't get to practice then.

So, today was a new day and I knew I wanted to try a bit different of a method. I remembered that my friend Tash had told me about the book, The Baby Whisperer. I hadn't gotten the book yet, but I knew it said something about staying in the room with the child. This time, when he started crying, I went ahead and picked him up to call him down. This seemed to work well and within 25 minutes he was asleep!

Totally a God thing - Tash actually called later that morning and read The Baby Whisperer method to me over the phone. It was kind of cool to hear it say what I had done that morning - pick up the child when he cries and then put him back down. (You don't want him to fall asleep in your arms.) Ian is such a touchy-feely baby that this works wonders for him. If we just pat his back without picking him up, he doesn't calm down. The rest of the day went well - his second nap took him just twenty minutes to fall asleep. For his third nap, it took longer (35 minutes), BUT he stayed calm the WHOLE time! It was amazing! We are totally thrilled with the results!