Clark gets schooled

Thursday marked the first full day of sleep training for Clark.  He aced it!!  We are using a method by Dr. Marc Weissbluth in his book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child."  He explains three different methods in that book and we are using the "extinction" method.  Basically you teach them to self-soothe by letting them cry themselves to sleep.  As long as it takes, not going back into the nursery at all (unless they are in danger obviously).  The reason I am so comfortable with this method is because we have a video monitor so I can see exactly what's going on as he's crying--is he stuck against the bumper pad, are his eyes open or closed, is his head laying directly on top of his paci and therefore he's crying because he's uncomfortable, etc.  So today was the first day.  And Clark really took to this training.  I made up my own little rule that until he gets the hang of it, I will go comfort him if he's taking over 30 minutes to fall asleep for his daytime naps.  So Thursday morning at 9:00 I put him down and he cried for about 15 minutes then "talked" and rubbed his face with his blanket for 10 minutes until he fell asleep---for a total of exactly 25 minutes!  And he slept 90 minutes!  I thought that was pretty successful.  Then we hopped in the car with Mimi and Aunt Kim to go furniture shopping.  He took his two afternoon naps while we were out.  We went to Applebee's for lunch and he fell asleep in his infant seat there for about 30 minutes.  Then on the ride home he fell asleep again in the car for about 30 minutes.  He did very well!  We stopped by the Martin's Country Market in Ephrata and he sat in the cart like a big boy!  I couldn't believe it!  Little Clark already sitting up in the grocery cart. :)  It's a relief actually because he's heavy in the bjorn, and with the cold weather coming it'll be nice to just scoop him up and take him inside the store instead of the five to ten minute ordeal of putting him in the bjorn by the car.  (I would put him in the bjorn INSIDE the car except...my car was built for an elf.)  

After dinner Clark went down for the night.  Again he fussed for about 15 minutes then "talked" and rubbed his face until he was asleep--in exactly 25 minutes again!  Now the tricky part was managing to keep him asleep.  He stayed asleep from 7:15pm to 10:30pm.  Not too bad but I was hoping he wouldn't wake up until midnight.  Josh went in right away (I didn't want to go in because I didn't want to distract him with the smell of breastmilk) and soothed him back to sleep with the paci.  About 15 minutes later Clark woke up again crying.  So we gave it 45 minutes.  Josh took the monitor upstairs and watched the World Series game during this time.  He came back down at 11:15, told me he was still crying, and at this point I thought maybe he was hungry.  So Josh went in again to see if he would root around.  Well instead he fell asleep almost as soon as Josh popped his paci and picked him up!  After going back to sleep he woke up again at 4am so I fed him (I had to pump around 3am because I woke up and was so engorged!!)  He didn't seem super hungry at 4am, but he did nurse.  I was still super full (my hand pump is soooo slow I don't usually have the patience to totally empty out) so I was hoping he would nurse like crazy!  The good part was he fell asleep nursing and didn't wake up when I put him down.  Then he slept until 7:15am!  Huge improvement from Wednesday night!!  All in all his first night with the training was awesome.  And I couldn't have done it without Josh!!  He is a wonderful Dad, and always willing to help me out.  I love it!!

Today he went down for his first morning nap and fussed (not really crying) for 3 minutes.  Then he slept for 2 1/2 hours!!  I was so thankful for that because I hosted a playdate in the afternoon.  I got the house ready and made an apple crisp during his nap!  How considerate of him. :)  After he woke up we went to get the mail.  I bundled him up and he looked so cute I got some pictures:  

Then we had lunch.  It was a disappointment for Clark because he didn't like the apples and blackberries Gerber combo I gave him.  It wouldn't be a big deal except I had bought about five of them because Martin's is going out of business and they were all 50% off!  Oh well, I will give them to Haley at Thanksgiving!! :)  He went down for his afternoon nap at 1:30pm and didn't even cry.  He rolled onto his side, said a couple words (I think his naptime prayer) then fell asleep.  He only slept for 45 minutes but I left him in his crib for a full hour because I want his body to get used to sleeping for at least an hour in the afternoon.  He didn't fall back to sleep, he just chatted away until I got him, but at least he was resting.  By that time his pals were over for the playdate!  We had Elisha and her son Hunter (14 months), AmyBeth and her daughter Gwen (15 months I think), Holly and her daughter Isabella (17 months) and Aunt Kim also stopped by.  It was fun!

After everyone left Clark and I played for awhile then I tried putting him down for a third nap.  He cried for 30 minutes so I went in and soothed him to sleep and he slept for 40 minutes.  I was reading that by 6 months they usually drop their third nap.  I'm going to keep putting him down for the next week and if he still fights it I will stop.  I will probably do what my sister-in-law Abby does, which is leave the light on dimly, and give him soft toys to play with so he is resting up, but not actually sleeping.  As Abby says, "It helps get some of the grumpies out!"  Haha!

Anyway, he had dinner when Josh got home and he ate a whole jar of pees!  I was happy with that.  He played in his high chair while we ate, then he got his bath.  Josh read his devotions, we prayed, then I fed him a formula bottle (I'm thinking my breastmilk is too thin so I'm trying to boost his calories with formula at night).  He seemed unhappy with the bottle--he kept pushing it out of his mouth then rooting on me.  He had only drunk two ounces so I tried breastfeeding.  He ate for about three minutes, then kept unlatching and complaining.  I tried burping him and he burped pretty big, but when he went back to breastfeeding he kept unlatching and complaining!  It was the strangest behavior!!  I ended up just trying the paci and he relaxed right away.  I sang him his lullaby (thank you Brahms!) and put him down.  Aaaand he didn't cry for about five minutes!  Then he "complained" and talked to himself for an additional 20 minutes before falling asleep--putting us at exactly 25 minutes again!

I'm hoping for a good night tonight, but sometimes the second night can be tough.  Hopefully Josh will be willing to help me out again!  Wish us luck!