Sleep Situation Update

Benjamin's been doing great at falling asleep without the breast...he feeds, I tell him it's "all done" and cover myself up.  Then we snuggle, sometimes he plays a bit and eventually he settles down on his crib mattress half-draped on me or snug up beside me and drifts off to sleep.

But guess what...Benjamin is now sleeping at least half the night IN his crib, with my bed about 2 ft away.  We started this on the 4th or 5th.  We put the crib railing back on and had a game plan of following Elizabeth Pantley's idea of moving him into the crib sleepy, but still awake, so he'd learn to fall asleep there on his own.  Matthew even moved upstairs to be with us to help me out.  It took us a few tries of him drifting off to sleep beside me, moving him, he'd get upset and stand up in the crib and cry.  We took him out and snuggled back in bed with him until he settled again and we tried to move him again.  After about an hour of this, I mentioned Pantley's "Sneaky Way", where you wait until baby is sound asleep before moving him to the crib.  We did this, waited about 20 minutes, moved him and he slept as usual, a couple hours before waking up crying and mad that he was alone in his crib.  We answered him right away (we were both sleeping 2 ft away) and brought him to bed with us for nursing and snuggles.  We repeated this throughout the night, each time he woke up, nursed, and waited for him to be asleep before moving him.

This method has been working for the last few nights...and a surprising discovery...Benjamin has stopped crying when he wakes up in his crib, he just stands up and "babbles" enough to wake me up, and with a happy, delighted tone of voice I congratulate him for good sleeping in his bed and immediately go get him and bring him into my bed.  I'm now waiting about 15 minutes before moving him back into the crib.  He barely rouses, tucks his knees under his tummy, sticking his little bum in the air and peacefully sleeps. 

I have also started putting a blanket on him; I wondered if he is waking because he is cold, since he is used to being warm beside me.  Last night was a great night...he slept in his crib for hours at a time and woke up content.  At 4am I woke him up from all my coughing, so I brought him to bed with me and kept him there for the rest of the night.  Poor guy, I hate disturbing him...that will be one bonus of being able to let him sleep alone - I won't bug him!