ZZZzzzz...

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Originally uploaded by dbussert

It seems like with the 10th month, tons of things have happened with Benjamin. Walking, refusing to be spoon fed, chewing bites of adult food, sleeping through the night, establishing a great bedtime routine and learning to fall asleep on his own. We are very proud!

You're probably tired of reading about how Benjamin doesn't sleep, but to close out the record (and so I remember in case one of the next ones has the same problem) here's what we did:

0-5 months: Mom got up at all wakings and fed or rocked Benj back to sleep
5-9 months: Benjamin would require rocking to sleep with relatively loud, rhythmic music, then the same at each of his 3-4 night wakings. He usually woke at 10pm, 1am, 3am and 5am, then got up at 7 for the day.
9 months: Daddy would take Benj to basement couches and lay with him until he cried to sleep. At nightwakings, Dad would lay and arm on Benj and he'd go back to sleep with minimal fussing. Sometimes Mommy would nurse him back to sleep. Sometimes we all slept in his nursery or in the living room. Sleeping on the floor is surprizingly good for your back.
Interspersed from 6-9 months: We'd try a few nights of letting him cry but worry that he was hungry or teething would set in and we'd give in.
10 months: The incessant wakeups had to stop because he wasn't allowing us to put him down and would just take too long to put back to sleep. Got frustrated and put him in crib crying and called cousin (supermom!) Judy for advice. We decided to call a sleep consultant/center and also let him cry and visit him at 3, 5, 7, 10, 12,and then 15 minute intervals.

Night 1: Put him to bed with assistance, but at the first wakeup, let him cry with visits. 2hours of crying. Woke 4 times and we visited him each time. Cried about 45 mins at each wakeup. Super tired the next day.
Night 2: Did a bedtime routine and put him in crib awake, but sleepy. Mom stayed and laid in the room and told him it was bedtime and had earplugs in. 1.5 hrs of crying. Still woke up 3 or 4 times.... less visits needed.
Night 3: Bath, Stories, PJs...I think 20 mins of crying. No visits needed because there was only stage 2 crying (whimpering and whining, not screaming).
Night 4: Asleep after put in crib in less than 5 minutes. Two stirrings at night but he got himself back to sleep. Two nights in bed without getting up for mommy and daddy.
Night 5: Asleep in less than 3 mins.
Night 6: Asleep in 30 seconds. Sweet!

Naps are another story, but we are working on it. The sleep plan suggests waiting until he is peacefully sleeping through the night. The only thing is that I miss being able to rock him to sleep sometimes (we cant even for naps yet because it will break the training). But, we work in other quality time and snuggles.

Although I wish I'd tried this earlier, I just wasn't mentally or emotionally ready for it until now. With him starting to walk, it kinda made sense that he needed to learn how to fall asleep on his own. He'd never fallen asleep without being held in his whole 10 months (except few occasions and in the car/stroller). He is smart and he learned so fast.

It's resulted in a better daytime appetite (no more sneaky night feedings) - he downed half a pear, two mini corn muffins and some other finger foods the other night for dinner.

Future news--- he'll probably be going to a home daycare one day a week to give grandpa a break and he's pretty much fully weaned. He doesn't have a lovey yet and is very adept at drinking from a straw and sippy!