No, it's really not THAT bad. But my poor little man is sooooo inconsistent with his sleep. I imagine I'm driving my blog readers away with all my sleep rant, but really it's all I have....is to rant! Last night Braden was bathed, changed into a fresh, clean diaper and jammies, fed and burped. I sang to him and snuggled and he was drowsy so I put him down. And then came the crying. I decided to try out a night of the sleep training program to see what it was like, because I felt like I had nothing to lose. It involved letting him cry, but checking in on him at intervals and reassuring but not touching him. He cried for 36 minutes in total and drifted off into sleep. I hated hearing him cry, but I had tried everything else. I then dreamfed him, which involves slightly rousing him just enough to feed and then putting him back down to sleep in hopes of avoiding him waking up for the purpose of feeding. In doing this I did get a 4 hour stretch out of him. He woke up on his own, and according to the training I did let him cry some more. Another 34 torturous minutes. He settled and I dreamfed him two more times in the night and he woke up again at 6:30. I'd had enough of the crying, and even though I know I "erased" all of what I was teaching him in the night, I picked him up, cuddled and fed him and he slept until 9AM.
BUT...
I will not be continuing on with the training until at least a couple of weeks for a few reasons. Firstly, he doesn't weigh enough surprisingly. He needs to weigh 14 lbs and he's not quite there. Secondly, he just got his 4 month vaccinations today and I'm not going to put him through a crying night when I know he's sore and will need me. Thirdly, we're going to Edmonton this weekend and I'm just not going to trying something new on top of traveling. Lastly, he did just learn to roll over and I'm not supposed to start this training within 10 days of a new milestone! I'm glad I did it last night, and actually...I felt more rested getting up on my own schedule (I set my alarm for dreamfeeding). I know it will work for Braden, but the timing is just not right.
Naps suck too. The 45 minute napper has decreased to the 30 minute napper today. I'm really hoping it's because of his shots...because I really don't want to deal with 30 minute naps now...but what other choice do I have, really!? Hmmmmmmph. Oh well, the guys are almost done seeding, we're heading to Edmonton, and the drywalling is going well at our house. That's all!