Sleep Transition Step 1 - 1st Night

Last night was our first night in the transition from co-sleeping to independent sleeping for our little Mister (although he hasn't a clue).

The Setup
We removed the front panel of railings from the crib and snugged the back of the crib against the wall. Then we moved my bed into his room and squished it up tightly in front of the crib.  Unfortunately we could not get the crib mattress to be the same height as my mattress (~4" difference).  This will require that I nurse him in my bed and then move him down onto the crib after each feed. (Maybe not a bad thing, since he has to get used to being moved).

The Goal
We want Mister to get used to his room and his crib; the look, feel, smell and sound of it and sleeping with a little distance between him and I.

The Plan
Because of the difference in height of the mattresses, we thought we'd let him just co-sleep with me as usual for a couple of nights to get used to the new room. Then I'd start to try moving him down onto the crib mattress after each nursing.

The 1st Night:
...but while we were nursing at bedtime, I thought, what have I got to lose if I try to move him into the crib? Let's see what he does, if he protests, I'll just bring him back to my side. So, I did the Pantley Pull Off (PPO - we've been working on this for about 10 days now) and kind of awkwardly picked him up/pushed him over into the crib. He barely stirred! Success! That was 10pm.

• 1am - 15 mins nursing and moved him back to crib. He moved around to bit, got comfortable and slept soundly.
• 3:20am - 15 mins nursing and back to crib.
• 5:15am - This is his tricky time of night, as of late. He has a tougher time getting back to sleep at this point, and likes to suckle longer...to a point of causing me pain...so he was upset when I pulled him off and hid myself away. I sang, touched, cuddled, first with me, and then with him on his own crib mattress. Eventually I did nurse him again at 5:45am and he drifted right back to sleep in his crib
  
• Daddy came to wake us both up at 7:15am!
  

Overall, it was a totally normal night for us as far as his frequency of waking to feed and settling back to sleep. I was amazed that he didn't really react to being moved to the crib (it's not a smooth motion, as the crib mattress is about 4 inches lower then my bed). So, I'll repeat this process again tonight and maybe a few more nights and see how he does. My goal will be to try to do the PPO earlier and earlier so he is more awake and more aware of being moved away from me and gets comfortable falling the rest of the way to sleep without suckling and with a little distance between us.

Pantley Pull Off (PPO) - to wean babies from dependent suckling

Pantley detailed my son to a tee when she discusses a baby who requires the action of suckling to fall asleep.  His dependence on the breast to fall asleep and stay asleep was going to have to change if we wanted him to go to sleep on his own.  If I pulled away while Mister was still not fully asleep, he would just root around until he found the breast again...or wake up trying.  The thing that struck me is Pantley's gentle and flexible approach.  She advises that if you do a PPO and baby roots, go ahead and give him back the breast right away (don't let him wake fully in his hunt).  Count to 10 or so and try another PPO.  Repeat this process until baby is content when you pull away.  I wondered if I'd get anywhere with this, but I needed to try so I began to implement Pantley's Gentle Removal Plan (a.k.a. Pantley Pull Off - PPO) that night.   

It took five or six PPOs before Mister gave up the breast the first time I tried the technique.  During the first night, this reduced to three or four PPOs each nursing.  Within a matter of nights we were down to one or two PPOs and he would no longer root, just roll over and settle on his own.  So, after months and months of dependency on suckling to fall asleep, he is learning to put himself to sleep without it! WOW!  Awesome technique!  This is going to help us out immensely when we start transitioning him to sleep on his own.