Sleep Science

Hello!  This week has been a monumental week at the Schick house.  Coen has now put himself to sleep in his crib TWICE this week!  We are so proud! 

Last week was a tough one;  Coen had not been sleeping much at night.  Combine this with the fact that he does not really nap and you get a very exhausted little baby at the end of the day.  Sunday night, Matt and I got him to bed early and were praying for a good night of sleep.  Matt had worked about 15 hours on Saturday covering high school girls baskeball and then Coen had a tough day on Sunday.  We were thinking that maybe his teeth were bothering him and gave him some Tylenol before bed that night.  He went to bed but woke-up about two hours later.  He is usually able to go right back to sleep, but he was so wide awake right as we were ready to call it a night.  I held him for quite awhile and then we decided we would put him in his crib and let him cry for a short time.  Matt and I do not want Coen to "cry it out."  I know that method has worked for so many babies, but I just don't think it's the best thing to do for an infant.  Perhaps I've just read too much about infant attachment and brain development, but I really believe there are better ways to teach your child to sleep.  I have also heard that there really are babies that have such persistant personalites that they will continue to cry and cry and never calm down enough to actually fall asleep.  We have one of those babies!  So....we agreed to put him in the crib and see what happened. 

Coen cried a little bit, but he never really got too upset.  We turned on his little aquarium and after about 10 minutes, it was very quiet in his room.  He had done it!  He actually put himself to sleep!!   It was such a relief since I had been crying just thinking about how long we might have to listen to our baby cry.  And then he surprised us both and didn't wake up for a few more hours. 

We have continued to work on helping Coen nap, but it has been a slow process.  He falls asleep fairly easily, but after about 40 minutes he is wide-awake and ready to play!  By the end of the day the poor little guy is exhausted.  This afternoon we tried to get him down for quite awhile but he just didn't want to sleep.  He went back into his bouncer and bounced...and bounced...and bounced!  He absolutely LOVES it!  After about 30 minutes or so I noticed it was pretty quiet and discoved Coen sound asleep in his seat.  What a cute little sight it was.  He woke-up shortly afterward and was cranky and ready for bed.

Tonight we did our usual bedtime routine, but he did not fall asleep with a bottle like he usually does.  Eventually I put him in his crib and yes...you guessed it...he put himself to sleep again!  There were no tears, just a very, very tired baby.

We are hoping this sleeping issue continues to get easier for Coen.  He just loves being awake and must be so worried he's going to miss out on something.  I have read everything about sleep and have tried so many different things.  Who knew it was such a science?  Maybe we should have done this all along. 

Oh well...we're just happy he's doing it now.

Goodnight!



Time for a walk!



A bib from one of Matt's listeners