Wednesday, November 7, 2012

No-Cry Sleep Solution Log: Day 30--Bad Nights Happen


We made a few more changes in the course of our search for more sleep and this past week or so I've felt like we're actually making progress...though our sleep log for last night won't show it. Last night ended up being one of the worst nights we've had in a the past couple weeks. I almost decided to wait and do a day 31 sleep log update instead but ultimately decided that would be a bit dishonest. Even when there is steady progress, there will still be bad nights.

Our biggest change is a change to our sleeping arrangement. We had been putting Quinn to sleep either in the pack-n-play (in our room) or on our bed. Then when we went to bed, he would start the night out in the pack-n-play and eventually move up to sleep next to me in our bed. This was not working well AT ALL. I could not fall asleep if he was in the pack-n-play but when we brought him to bed with us, he would want to nurse frequently throughout the night and he took up a HUGE amount of space for the size he is.

Aurora, however, inspired a solution. Since around mid-October, she has refused to sleep on her twin bed. We finally set up a little "nest" for her in the corner of her room and the bed has been completely ignored since then. A week ago, we moved the twin bed into our room and wedged it in the corner so that we have one big bed for the three of us to share. (Safety note: We are very, very careful that no gaps develop that Quinn could become stuck in! If you're bed-sharing, you've got to be careful of these things. Quinn is almost 14 months old and I'm not sure I would be comfortable with doing this sort of arrangement with a baby younger than a year.) So now Quinn has his space to sleep in but can easily get to me when he needs to. It's working far better than I could have imagined.


Quinn now is put down to sleep on his bed and stays there for most of the night. He does not need (or want) to be rocked to sleep anymore. He likes to be nursed if he needs it, wants me to sing to him, then he wants a pacifier and the lion lovey with the pacifier sewn onto it. He lays down next to one of us (usually me--he strongly prefers me right now) and quietly falls asleep. Sometimes he needs to be patted on the back, but most of the time he just wants someone laying next to him. It's fun to watch him slowly fall asleep as he plays with the lion/pacifier with his hands. He still takes around 30 minutes to fall asleep, but it's not a huge effort anymore, just time.

In just the past week, he has started indicating he's tired by grabbing one of our hands and pulling us down to the bedroom. Then he'll stand at the door and point at the bed until we take him in. Sometimes he just wants to nurse, but most of the time he'll lay down and rest or actually fall asleep (about half the time he'll actually go to sleep). Then, when he's done resting or sleeping, he pops up and yells until we come to get him. He'll hand us his pacifier and point at the door until we take him out. These "I need to sleep/rest" and "I'm all done sleeping/resting" indicators were initiated by him.

At night, in general, he is only nursing 4-5 times and that's usually only on one side (so a "half" feeding). Just two days ago, I actually woke up feeling rested and I'm pretty sure Quinn only woke up 4 times. It was wonderful. That's becoming close to the norm. I'd love to get down to only 2-3 wakings consistently but I'm happy to at least see progress. Hopefully we won't go backwards....like last night....

Day 30 Sleep Log Summary

Nap: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Last time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Night time sleep: 11 hours, 30 minutes
Last time: 10 hours on the dot
Wakings: 8
Last time: 4

Total sleep per day: 13 hours, 15 minutes
Last time: close to 13 hours

So it wasn't completely backwards. He is sleeping longer and is finally within "normal" range for his age (13-14 hours) and his longest sleep segment was almost 3 hours long. But he woke up 8 times! That's a lot. That means he woke me up at least that many times and more often because he was so restless. There was one time last night he wiggled up the bed and rammed into the headboard. It made me jump but he never appeared to wake up! Hopefully nights like these will become less common and he will start to consolidate his sleep into longer segments.

~Regina

Find all my No-Cry Sleep Solution Logs here!

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