Yes, we messed up; we let him nap in his swing till he was ONE! Would I have done it differently? I'm not sure. Should we not have napped together? I wouldn't trade that for ANYTHING! But, here we are. We can get caught up in what we have done wrong and label ourselves as failures... but... I am not going to allow myself to do that anymore. We are choosing to do something that will help Luke for the rest of his life. He is going to learn to sleep.
I had a consult last week for thirty minutes with a pediatric sleep specialist. We have tried everything and felt this was the best choice for our family. We decided to not do a "full package" (with an immense amount of follow up), because of the cost. After the first couple days of sleep training (on our own... with lots of advice from friends and family), we decided we couldn't do it alone. We hired Whitney to support us, tweak his schedule, etc. This may seem CRAZY to people out there. At this point, I feel SO confident we are doing the right thing for him and it will be worth every single penny.
I can count on one hand how many times he has gone to sleep and has woken up happy. This breaks my heart.
This is such a controversial and private decision to sleep train; yet, I want to have a record of our journey...
There are so many tips Whitney has given us... some of them are (this is for a 16 month old health child):
- He needs 11-12 hours of uninterrupted night sleep. (He gets about ten... he needs more)
- Typically kids his age should go to bed between 6pm and 7pm and wake up between 6am and 7am.
- He needs 2-3 hours of sleep during the day. (He currently sleeps thirty minutes)
- No nursing to sleep... (as we have stopped this, he has basically weaned himself. I am only nursing him when he wakes up, AFTER 6am)
- Get the room ready WITH Luke for nap and bed time. We close the curtains together, turn on the sound machine together, and then do the EXACT same, predictable routine each nap time and bed time. (Ours is: 2 books, 1 song, hugs and kisses)
- Do all loving/hugging/kissing outside of the crib. (We were patting him or putting our hand on his chest)
Hopefully only a few days of the crying will happen. Whitney says naps are the hardest, which is Luke's biggest struggle. We are not going ANYWHERE or having any guests stay at our house for two weeks. We are committed to this process!!! :)
