11 May 2009

The Sleep Week Conclusion

WARNING: This is another long post about Asher's sleep habits. If you don't care about this then just enjoy these pictures of our sweet boy taking a good, long nap.



Sleep Week was a success! Asher sleeps without a swaddle blanket at night, he falls asleep by himself most of the time and he has been taking longer naps. I kept trying to do exactly what Baby Wise said to do or exactly what the book by Dr. Ferber said to do, but in the end I think Asher started sleeping better because we were consistent and we did it all in moderation.

Here are my conclusions from Sleep Week:

- We quickly realized that Asher will fuss until he falls asleep, but he will not cry himself to sleep. Once he starts to scream and get really upset it is best to go and pick him up and calm him down and try again.
- He still takes short naps, but now they are closer to an hour long and when he wakes up he looks like he is well rested. He will sometimes take longer naps, but I have stopped being stressed out by his short naps.
- Asher goes to bed earlier (7:30 pm) and sleeps much more soundly, although he usually wiggles from one end of the bed to the other during the night. He is still waking up earlier than he was a few months ago (6:30 am instead of 7:15 am), but maybe that's just part of him getting bigger.
- He has a special blanket he sleeps with at night. I know I will probably regret this later, but I feel like it has helped him learn to lay in the bed and fall asleep easier.
- Asher goes down for his first nap and bedtime with no problems at all, we still have a little trouble getting him to go to sleep for his afternoon naps. I figure this will just continue to improve.

2 comments:

Brittney said...

Hola Asher Momma. Your sleep story with Asher and his current sleep habits are similar to my Anna's. We've done scheduling since she's been a few months old and she sleeps from 7:30 or 8pm till 6:30am and the morning nap is always the best at 2 hours and the rest are 1-2 hours long depending on what we are doing during the day (being out of the house) or whatnot. Sounds like things went really well. Great job persevering. . . I had to do that with the 45 min. nap junk when she was like 3 months old but it paid off!! I wish our kiddos could meet. They sound a lot alike :)

Anthony and Sharon said...

YAY! I'm glad things are going well and I think you're exactly right about the whole consistency thing...I think for Isaac's habits that was the final missing key. He as well is waking up closer to 6:30 instead of 7:15 or so...so I feel your pain (unless you're a morning person, to which I say, "Ugh!" :)

Yay for naps!