Sleep Update: CIO Night #2

If you're tuning in to this blog today, you're probably one of the people thinking, "What happened during the second night? Did he cry more, less, or did everything come to a crashing halt as Mike caved in to Holden's crying?" If you're thinking that last part ... come on, give me some credit here. I'm going to stick this one out, if only due to the pressure of having people checking-in on our blog ; )

First of all, a quick nap update. We're not doing the Mindell sleep method with naps yet, since her book recommends that parents fix sleep problems by working in this order: bedtime routine, bedtime, naptime routine, naptime. We're at the bedtime stage of the project, and naps will come next. But Holden is having real trouble with napping, and we're just doing whatever it takes to get him to nap at all during the day (car rides, rocking, etc.). You'd think this would completely contradict our efforts with sleep training at bedtime, but several sleep experts claim that babies nighttime sleep patterns/behaviors and daytime nap patterns/behaviors are actually processed separately in their brain, so messing with one does not necessarily mean that the infant makes a connection with the other. I'm not sure I'm 100% convinced of this, but I'm giving these "specialists" the benefit of the doubt. The photo to the right is taken during one of yesterday's car rides to get Holden to nap (which failed -- as you can tell in the photo, which was taken by me reaching my iPhone over the seat at a stop light and taking a snapshot to check on him ... a hint we got from our friend Elissa).

OK, now on the main event -- Night #2 of the Mindell sleep training. Holden got tired pretty early in the evening, and so I started the bedtime routine a bit early (about 6:45pm-ish). Holden got fed, and then we went through the standard diaper changing, pajamas, reading a book (we actually read 3 last night), and then singing before going to the crib. I swaddled him, laid him down, and simply said "It's time to go to sleep. Good night, Holden," and left the room. He did not cry for about 2 minutes, but then it began. The experts all say that the second night is the worst, so I was prepared for quite the evening. I did the incremental check-ins at 5 min., 15 min., and 30 min., and Holden cried for just about 40 minutes until he was able to sooth himself (so only about 10 minutes longer than last night, which is not too bad). While the duration of his crying wasn't terrible, Holden made it into a whole series of cries and screams that I will not describe here. But after he stopped, it sounded like he was able to calm himself by sucking on his hand or thumb, and then go to sleep. Unfortunately, after an hour, we woke up again, but miraculously was able to sooth himself back to sleep (which was a big moment for my little buddy!). After about 2 hours of sitting upstairs and standing-by, I went downstairs to text Bryna about the evening's events (and had a "reward" glass of vino). All in all, Night #2 was not that bad, considering that some infants can cry for 2 to 3 hours on the second night (I would have never been able to make it through that).

After he went to sleep, Holden was able to stay asleep until 4am (which is actually what we want -- not necessarily to sleep through the entire night until morning at this point, since he is still needing that nighttime feeding). And then after a quick feeding, he slept until a little after 7am. So he was able to sleep for about 11-11.5 hours last night, which is great since he's still not napping great during the day (although he's been already doing better on that front today, with 2 decent naps under his belt and one more to go).

We're hanging in there, with Night #3 coming up tonight. I'll try to provide another update tomorrow if I can find the time.