Sleeping through the night!!!

Time has really flown by this month. I bought the book "Solve your Child's Sleep Problems" by Dr. Ferber because Jim and I were plain old exhausted. Josh was still getting up 3-4 times a night screaming. The book came right as we left for MN for Thanksgiving... so I spent most of that vacation reading up on infant sleep habits.

We started keeping a log of when Josh went to sleep and when he woke up. The first 2 nights we did this it confirmed that Jim and I were both up with Josh at different times... and it went on all night long. The third night we really tried to keep things consistent (lullaby CD on all night real low, humidifier on, night light on, give him a pacifier and blanket, and leave while he is still awake). And we stopped offering him a bottle at night. Surprisingly the first night he didn't wake us up until 3. Jim and I laid awake waiting to see if he would calm himself down. After 2 minutes he started calming down. We never went in there.

The naps during the day were key. Since Thanksgiving we have noticed that if he gets 2 solid naps during the day and goes to bed between 7:45-8:30pm... he typically will sleep until 7am. If he doesn't get a good nap in... we struggle to get him to sleep well at night.

So - to sum it up... Josh is sleeping through the night. Which means Jim and I are sleeping through the night. It is AWESOME! It is amazing how much more productive I am at work off of 6 continuous hours of sleep. And Josh is SO much happier too! Which is very very important! I am not sure that the book told me anything I hadn't heard or tried, but it did help highlight things that can be counterproductive... like offering a bottle to speed up the going back to sleep process and going in to give him his pacifier. I am wondering how much I will use it in the future cause it has a bunch of sections on the toddler who won't stay in bed for naps, or wants to sleep with mom and dad.