Sleep Training Night One

So, I decided to try sleep training. Since putting Kayden on formula I thought we should try this since he has had a much more pleasant demeanor, goes a little longer between feedings, and is also 3.5 months old. Everything I read said that you can start sleep training at 3 months so why not.

Unfortunately, it didn't go so well. Kayden screamed, and screamed, and screamed. I can't handle the screaming. After reading other things, I decided to try the "no-cry" approach because I just can't do the "cry it out". With this method, I put him down after our bed time routine, drowsy but awake. I left the room where he was content for a couple minutes. And then the screaming started. I went back in there patted his stomach to try and calm him down. Well, patting my child on his stomach doesn't exactly calm him down.... it actually pisses him off even more. So I left again to regroup and attempt the "calm down but not pick up" routine again. Finally after 30 minutes I picked him up, burped him, and laid him back down. To where we started it all over again. Another 30 minutes pass, I picked him up tried to burp him and put him back down. After an hour and a half I caved, picked him up and he went right to sleep. I rocked him for a little bit and then laid him back down. He slept for 20 minutes where he then again woke up. I tried again for a little while and then gave up. He went into our room where he slept from 11-4.

I am going to try again tonight but start everything a little earlier, at 7:30 rather than 8:30 and see if that helps at all. If not, I'm postponing the sleep training until the weekend. Nick has to get up at 4 in the morning and keeping him up with a screaming baby trying to do sleep training is just not fair to him.

While trying to read other things this morning, I came across this quote from Dr. Sears website that really helped me.

"An important fact for you to remember is that your baby's sleep habits are more a reflection of your baby's temperament rather than your style of nighttime parenting. And keep in mind that other parents usually exaggerate how long their baby sleeps, as if this were a badge of good parenting, which it isn't. It's not your fault baby wakes up."

This really helped because I felt like I was a terrible parent because my child can't put himself to sleep or sleep for long periods of time. It's not for lack of trying. We have tried a lot of different things but nothing is working. We are working on it... he just hasn't gotten it yet.