Well, it's been 50 days since I last updated you on the No-Cry Sleep Solution journey. During that time, Quinn has cut two upper molars, cut two lower front teeth, almost cut the two lower molars, and has white pressure spots from two more upper teeth (and maybe from two more lower teeth--I'm not as certain about that). Poor kiddo. That's at least 8 different teeth that have been bothering him. No wonder we're having sleep trouble!
Our night last night went like this...
Day 100 Sleep Log Summary
Nap: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Last time: 2 hour, 45 minutes
Night time sleep: I have no idea, I'm going to guess between 7-8 hours
Last time: 7 hours, 40 minutes
Wakings: too many to count
Last time: too many to count
Total sleep per day: 9 hours, 55 minutes at best
Last time: 10 hours, 25 minutes
Recommended amount of sleep: 13-14 hours
Yeah, not good. At one point, he was awake for 1.5 hrs just whining and crying, despite us giving him painkiller and some natural pain remedies. He finally fell back asleep, but was very restless and woke frequently to nurse for a short time before falling back asleep. It was a very bad night. I actually have no idea when he woke up for the day and I stopped recording wakings after he woke up 3 times in the space of 20 minutes at about 3am.
We've had a few good nights, too, but mostly we've had bad nights. However, even in all of this teething trouble, there has been some good stuff.
Successes!
1. Quinn is now consistently putting himself to sleep for naps and bedtime (all accomplished without crying!!). However, it absolutely has to be Mommy (me) who puts him to bed. Daddy is not an acceptable substitute. We'll have to work on that, but I'm guessing it might ease once the teething is past.
2. Quinn is not consistently nursing before sleep times anymore. Most naps, he refuses to nurse beforehand (I do offer). Bedtimes are hit and miss in that area, but he nurses before bed probably 60-70% of the time. This is a good start for breaking that nursing-sleepytime connection. In fact, he actually isn't nursing much during the day at all anymore...but at night...*sigh* I'm hoping things will change once teething pain stops waking him during the night.
3. His sleep schedule is more predictable and regular. He normally asked to go to sleep at about the same times every day, but even if he forgets to ask, I can take him into our room, sing to him, and put him down and he'll go to sleep. This doesn't always work, but it does more often than not.
4. We now know that he sleeps better without other people in the room. His first stretch of sleep is always the best. The longer we (Wil and I) delay going to bed, the longer he will sleep. When we go to bed, no matter the time, he will usually wake up within 20 minutes. We're working on figuring out how to get him his own room or place to sleep once we get back to Tennessee. We don't have any options that will work in our apartment here in California, unfortunately. Only a month left!
5. He is sleeping in the packnplay when he's in the room by himself. When we go to bed, he won't stay asleep there so he joins us in the bed, but as long as he's alone in the room, he will sleep in the packnplay, wake up to nurse, and go back to sleep in the packnplay just fine.
6. We have learned the effectiveness of a calming routine with low lights and low sound levels. We've worked it to our advantage when Quinn decided that he didn't want to stay asleep every night, just take naps and then play (he did this for 2 weeks before we figured out what to do). As a result, our bedtime routine for the kids is much calmer than it used to be and the post-bedtime house is completely cleaned up and ready to be darkened should a certain 16 month old decide he wants to see what after bedtime in our house is like. As far as he knows now, it's plain boring. ;)
Yay for successes despite teething!
What would I still like to see accomplished?
Short-term goals:
1. I'd love for Quinn to sleep through the night! I think he can do it but the teething pain is getting in the way right now.
2. Once we are back in Tennessee with a new rooming set-up, Quinn will be graduating to a mattress on the floor. He just climbed out of his packnplay today with the aid of of some furniture near it, but I think he's very close to being able to do it by himself. The crib we have in Tennessee was taken apart for storage and if Quinn is already starting to climb out of cribs, then why put it back together?
Long-term goal:
Get rid of the pacifiers! We have made progress in this area, actually. He now voluntarily gives me all of his pacifier/pacifiers before I take him out of the packnplay after naptime. He only gets pacifiers in the car and during sleep times. He also is growing more attached to the lion lovey. In a couple months, I plan to change the pacifier that's attached to the lovey to a smaller sized pacifier so that it's more difficult to suck on. A few months after that, I will switch it to a completely different style of pacifier that Quinn isn't accustomed to. Eventually, we'll get rid of the pacifier on the lovey. Those are all the plans I have right now. I want him to have a lovey that ISN'T associated with a pacifier, so working on the lion lovey's pacifier seems like the logical first step. Eventually we'll work on weaning Quinn off of his pacifiers, but I'm not going to worry about that until he's around 2 or seems more ready (whichever comes first--and this is subject to change!).
So that's where we are after 100 days of using Elizabeth Pantley's ideas for helping our little guy sleep. We would probably have made a lot more obvious progress if Quinn hadn't started cutting his molars (and a bunch of other teeth!) right about now, but that's just how it goes. Once those teeth are in, I think we'll all be much more well-rested. Yay!
~Regina
Find all my No-Cry Sleep Solution Logs here!
1 comment:
So glad it's going more smoothly in several areas!
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