Sleep

We are struggling with sleep around here. Little dude is such a sweet little angel, but he is really not into sleeping. We blame ourselves...

For a few months (from age 2-4 months), Cohen slept like a pro from 11-7 every night. He was swaddled and in his crib at the end of our bed. It was awesome.  But then somewhere around four months, he got too big to be swaddled, and he suddenly needed to be comforted every few hours at night. And we started using the pacifier at night because it was easy.

Then we went away for a few weeks at Christmas. We decided to co-sleep during the trip to save ourselves from lugging the travel crib around. It was awesome at first. He would wake up a few times in the night, I would nurse while laying in bed, then we would all fall back to sleep. But then eventually it got to the point where he needed to be held to fall asleep, and he needed to be comforted every hour or so, even when he was sleeping with us.

By the time we got home from our holiday, he was officially a co-sleeper. And he needed to be nursed to sleep. And he needed his pacifier all night. He could be sound asleep, and we would try to gently transfer him to his crib, and he would wake up and flip out as if something terrible were happening. So we accepted it, and we would get into bed with him at 8 pm, and I would nurse him or Jon would replace his pacifier every half hour or so all night long.

And during the day time, he basically needed to be held at all times. His daytime naps were about 5 minutes long, and he needed one every hour, or he would be super irritable.

We are in the process of a little sleep learning. For us, I think it was necessary. I really feel that Cohen was not getting enough sleep to learn and develop skills, let alone just function. I am already seeing an improvement. I will update again next week.Wish us luck!