Sleep Drama Continued

Read the post below first. Although it was an "update" post, the end gives you a glimpse of the sleep drama we've been going through. Last night turned out to be not so bad. He woke up once crying at 1 am with a bad dream. He asked if I could rock him, I said no. I stood by the crib railing and hugged him. Then I told him to lay down, I covered him and walked out. He was fine with that, and I was surprised. He woke up at 5:30, ughhhh. A bit early for a Saturday morning. I was following the rules of the book, and I praised him for staying in bed last night. He got the orange bouncy ball, a cereal bar, and watched one episode of Handy Manny and one episode of Little Einsteins.

We had a calm morning, and around 10 am I started talking about the sleep rules and nap time. He asked, "Sleep rules again???" I replied, "Always! Every time we sleep." We established what his rewards were going to be: ice from my soda cup, a movie, and Dad will fix his toy truck that Houston broke. Well, he won't be getting any of that today. I put him down for a nap at 12:15, and had to do FIVE silent returns to sleep. He tried to engage me each time, but I didn't budge. I wouldn't even make eye contact with him. The first time out, he pooped so I had to change his diaper. The second time, he came out and said, "Hi Mom! I had a good nap!" The last time, I went in and he had unscrewed all of the knobs off of his dresser. I picked up all the pieces put them away and then put him back in bed. He protested, "What???? I'm just playing." Finally, at 2:15 he fell asleep. I guess in the grand scheme of things, five times is not as bad as the 146 times I read about in the book (which is what I was prepared for). I definitely think I would have given up sooner if I had not had the book and the plan. I like that Holden gets the idea of the rules. I told him ahead of time about the silent return to sleep, and I think he got that too. Although he did try to engage me when I went in, he never fully blew up when I left the room. I'll need to get Trey on board when he returns from Mexico tonight.

Sleep used to be one of the easiest tasks with Holden. Bath, milk, three books, rock for two minutes, and put him down. That was it - easy schmeasy. I'm feeling jipped - why is it so hard now?? I remember last year around December he went through a similar trend, and we had to sleep train him all over again. Now almost a year later, we're having to again. I wonder if his sleep habits change when he goes through a new development/growth spurt. His mobility and his ability to communicate definitely make it more challenging. I'm feeling like the plan is going to work though - I have hope and am seeing light at the end of the tunnel.