$h*ts and Giggles: Update on Mr. Man's sleep

Well, I had finally had enough. I couldn't deal with Mr. Man getting up all night long. I was also tired of him eating so much at night that he wasn't hungry in the morning. I was tired of a lot of things so we took drastic measures in our house.

Andrew and I decided we would sleep train Mr. Man and let him cry it out so he would learn how to sleep without the aid of a bottle all night long.

The first night was miserable. It made me anxious. It was not something I would wish for anyone to ever live through. He cried for a long time. He cried so long I can't tell you because I don't need any of you judging me! It was painful. He eventually woke Miss M up but she went back to sleep.

But it was not all for nothing because the next night he cried for two 15 minute periods. 15 minutes. A-MAZ-ING. He cried the night before for possibly 8 times longer. He now occasionally wakes up but puts himself back to sleep usually within 15 minutes. 15 minutes is manageable. I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel where life starts to feel a little normal again instead of just out of control.

We feed him between 6:30 and 7:00 pm and then put him to bed. He goes to sleep well from this point. The problem was the middle of the night wakings. We (as in the me and the mouse in my pocket) go in to his room between 10:00 and 10:30 pm and "dream feed" him. Dream feeding is feeding the baby four hours after their last feed while asleep. The goal here is to pick up the child, feed them, and put them back in bed while keeping them asleep. He stays asleep without any problem. The purpose is to give him just a little more food to make it through until he's supposed to wake up for the day. He's been waking between 6:15 and 7:00 am. Not too shabby. This means I am sleeping approximately 7.5 hours pending minimal or no wake-ups. It's glorious.

His naps are pretty good. They aren't really predictable but they are working for us. The problem I have found is that they say babies shouldn't really be awake for more than 2 hours and if you keep Mr. Man up past the 2 hour time period he's really tough to get to sleep and he doesn't sleep for very long. He then wakes up upset and so on. It makes for a tough day. I have found that we live life by the clock around here. He eats 4 hours after his last feed and goes to sleep 2 hours after he wakes up.

Here are both kids standing at the music table. I remember when Miss M was barely able to stand up next to it. Mr. Man doesn't stand. I am holding him since he's too lazy to even roll over.