I realized that I never finished "The Sleep Lady" stuff. For those of you who are interested....I continued to do many of the sleep lady book stuff and the "no cry sleep solution book" ideas, and Connor is finally sleeping soooooo well!! Yippie! And I never had to let him "cry-it-out". For the past few weeks or so, he has been going to bed at 7:20, awake in his crib, and not needing me until about 4-5 AM for a feeding. I nurse him, and he sleeps til 6:30 or so. I'm so happy! And his naps are so much better now because he is sleeping better at night. (one of the books said that good nighttime sleep = good day time naps). So true in our case. After I put him to bed tonight, I went back into his room to get is laundry, and he was still awake, and he stood up and I said, "go night-night Connor." And he laid right back down. This is amazing!!! haha. Some things that I think helped:
1. We introduced a "night-night" or lovey- whatever you call it. Its a bear that he calls bear-bear. We snuggled and nursed with it for a couple of weeks, and now he sleeps with it every night and every nap time.
2. I have a sound machine that plays the ocean in his room. Its not necessarily to drown out noise- I think it has been a great sleep association for him. When I turn on the sound machine, he knows its time for bed.
3. I used the key words "go night-night" every time I laid him down.
4. i made his bedtime earlier so that he isn't overtired when its time to go to bed.
5. He's finally eating more solids!!! Still nursing 6-8 times a day, but I think the solids are helping him sleep.
I am so happy that he is sleeping well finally. I am also happy that I never had to resort to letting him cry. I just had to teach him that he doesn't need me every time he wakes up in the night.
