Enter Sandman

Zach is over 10 months old. He has been walking all over the place, dancing, eating solids, and a variety of other milestones, but, as of last week, had not yet to fallen asleep on his own and/or slept through the night. He would wake up several times through the night and cry until I came in and fed him. I have not slept more than 4 hours straight since I was about 6 months pregnant!

We tried to follow the "Babywise" routine early on, but it did not work at all. He would just scream and wail when I would try to get him to fall asleep on his own. I was really consistent, but Zach was just not ready. I regretted trying to make him fit into "the box" that so many people swear by. I wish I would have just held him and snuggled him during all those hours that I was trying to "sleep train" him. I think part of it was that he was a bit colicky, and partly that he was just strong willed. Not all babies fit into that mold of being great sleepers, or being ready to sleep through the night early on. I read all the books, and found that there is a little good in all of them, but none of them could work on every baby--especially mine. Plus, being a working mom, I wanted my baby to know that I was there for him during the night when he needed me since I am gone during the day.

But last week, in complete exhaustion, I decided it was time to try again. I read through the book "Sleeping Through the Night," which quoted many studies that showed that putting the baby into its crib before he falls asleep in your arms is the best way to help them learn to soothe themselves into falling asleep. We were worried about letting Zach cry himself to sleep that first night. The book says to expect the crying to last 45-60 minutes the first night, 60-75 minutes the next night, and that it will get progressively shorter, until the baby is not crying at all and is sleeping through the night within 2 weeks. We were skeptical, but desperate for some sleep.

Tuesday night I fed him, rocked him, prayed with him, and sang to him before setting him in the crib at about 9:15. His angry screams lasted 35 minutes, and caused Corey and I as much anguish as it did Zach. I had to awaken him at 4am to feed him, which is what time he usually awakens. Then he slept until 7:30. We were worried about those screams lasting longer for Night 2, but were pleasantly surprised that he tuckered out after just 15 minutes of crying. He awoke around 5 again to eat. On Night 3, I laid him down and didn't hear a sound for ten minutes. At that point, he whimpered for about one minute, and then was silent. Wow! He slept until 6:30 am before awaking to eat. HEAVEN!! Last night he went down without a whimper, and he didn't wake up when I went in to take these photos an hour later. Before, he would wake up at the slightest sound. We kind of miss rocking him to sleep, but we still snuggle him plenty during the waking hours. We love this boy more than anything!!! And we don't mind all of us getting some longer stretches of sleep, too!!

He loves to crawl under the fabric cover of this chair and play peek-a-boo or just hide out.

Corey got him this hat to match his BYU shirt

Zach likes to rock out to music these days. Check out his sweet moves!