31 Weeks

Look at those toes!

Your regularly scheduled programming is now in progress...I took this photo yesterday but didn't get this post done until today.

I'm not gonna lie...last week had it's ups and downs with the sleep training. As I mentioned in my last post, Rob was gone on business for a week, so I figured it would be the best time to start it.

There were some days that were easier than others. And tears...yes...there were tears. I'd put Santino down, tell him "night night, it's time to go to sleep" and then leave the room. Almost as soon as I put him down he would start crying. I'd come back at timed intervals if the crying continued or got worse. When I'd go in to console him, I would talk, sing, make shushing noises, and pat/rub him; however, sometimes this only made the cries escalate after I left. He wanted me to pick him up, but I tried to avoid doing that, because I didn't want all of my efforts going bye bye.

A few times I did cave in and pick him up. There were also times that I let him cry it out and I wouldn't go back in the room until he either fell asleep or the attempt had been futile. Eventually I switched to a different method - The Sleep Lady Shuffle. Basically, you comfort and soothe and then instead of leaving the room, you stay in the room until they fall asleep. You sit close to their bed at first for a few days and then gradually go further away so you're out the door.

I haven't stuck to any one particular sleep training method, but have used a combination of a few. I'm sure as time goes on, I will tweak things more. The challenge in all of this was keeping Maximus occupied in the process. Of course I couldn't spend limitless time waiting for Santino to always fall asleep, so I just adjusted to what worked for us. Needless to say, M was and has been amazing. He was able to entertain himself...and yes, I did resort to videos and TV. (He's REALLY into Curious George right now).

In order to make sure that Santino only slept in his bed for this process, we stayed home the entire week, to avoid him falling asleep in the car. Plus, he's been sick...actually all of us have been, so it was best to just stay home. My parents helped out. They live only 2 1/2 miles away, so they were able to run errands, brought food over, went grocery shopping and came over for dinner one night. Rob's Mom was in contact with me too, so it was nice having her support as well.

My goal through all of this was to get Santino to self soothe and go to sleep on his own without me holding, rocking or nursing him. Believe me, this wasn't and isn't easy for me to do. BUT, I know we will ALL be sleeping a lot better. Last night was the first night that Santino EVER slept through the entire night. He slept almost 12 hours, which resulted in the most sleep that I've had in over 7 months. He didn't do so well with his afternoon naps today. One of them he refused to nap. I think it's going to take another week or so to really get this pattern set for him, but he's adapted well, all things considered. Now, I just need to adjust to this new set up.

Yesterday I changed Santino's sheets to the owl print seen in this photo. When I put him down for his nap, he kept looking at them. He knew they weren't the solid grey sheets that were on his bed before. Observant little fellow.

Besides sleep, Santino continues to be on the move. Yesterday he got into a sitting position all by himself. He's into everything. He loves being on the floor surrounded by a bunch of toys. You put him down and he doesn't cry unless he's stuck, wants a toy he can't get, or he's tired or hungry.

His second tooth is starting to come in. It's the lower right front tooth. Soon he'll be ready for a big T-bone steak. LOL...

Well, I hope I didn't bore you "to sleep" with all of this talk. :)

Sweet dreams!