DS (17 mos) has nursed to sleep pretty much forever. As an experiment, since he's been pretty jovial lately, we've switched up our nighttime routine from bath-jammies-brushteeth-telldaddynightnight-book/song-nurse to bath-jammies-nurse-brushteeth-telldaddynightnight-book/song. Basically, I was wanting to get the tooth-brushing AFTER the nursing because... um... I'm a little anal about tooth brushing. And I'm OK with that.
And... he's falling asleep!
I still have to be in the room with him, and on the rougher nights he cries unless I pat his back and hum, but on good nights I can just sit next to his bed and play Nintendo DS while he lies there and chatters and eventually falls asleep. Last night, he picked his head up, grinned, and said, "Bye-bye!" and then snuggled into his bed and fell asleep.
He's been such an AWFUL sleeper for much of his life. Even though he often still wakes up and needs to be resettled once per night, I feel like we've reached a point where our sleep situation is SUSTAINABLE. I'm not waking up angry. I'm not muttering swear words under my breath. My back doesn't hurt from sleeping in awkward positions because the slightest movement away from DS would wake him up. People at work aren't asking me if I'm sick because I don't look perpetually tired.
After being one of those "We've tried EVERYTHING!" parents, it is nice to have finally had some success, even if the magic button turned out to be waiting-him-out.
I just wanted to share with people who won't be shocked that it's taken "this long."
And... he's falling asleep!
I still have to be in the room with him, and on the rougher nights he cries unless I pat his back and hum, but on good nights I can just sit next to his bed and play Nintendo DS while he lies there and chatters and eventually falls asleep. Last night, he picked his head up, grinned, and said, "Bye-bye!" and then snuggled into his bed and fell asleep.He's been such an AWFUL sleeper for much of his life. Even though he often still wakes up and needs to be resettled once per night, I feel like we've reached a point where our sleep situation is SUSTAINABLE. I'm not waking up angry. I'm not muttering swear words under my breath. My back doesn't hurt from sleeping in awkward positions because the slightest movement away from DS would wake him up. People at work aren't asking me if I'm sick because I don't look perpetually tired.
After being one of those "We've tried EVERYTHING!" parents, it is nice to have finally had some success, even if the magic button turned out to be waiting-him-out.
I just wanted to share with people who won't be shocked that it's taken "this long."
I'm sure your story will resonate with a LOT of other moms...
