Sunday, July 22, 2012

Getting the Oldest to Sleep... Part 5

We continue the journey of getting our oldest son, Cael, to sleep through the night.  He has done much better.  My husband, who is sleeping in the room next to our son's, makes it 4 nights in a row of our son sleeping through the night, but it never seems to fail that on the 5th, Cael has a wakeful night.  Very discouraging for my husband, who would like to come back and sleep in our bed.  I would love for him to come back into our bed as well, but I am also working on getting our youngest, Cason, to sleep more comfortably, which often results in him taking over my spot in the bed and I move over to my husband's spot.  (We are dealing with some back discomforts with him, and frequently making trips to the chiropractor). 

Anyways... 
In our efforts to help Cael sleep through the night, I've had an idea in the back of my head to try a 2-way monitor that would allow us to talk to him to comfort him.  He will typically wake and require reassurance that we are near-by and then can usually go back to sleep.  I thought this would be a great idea.  When I looked for a monitor of this type a month or so ago, I didn't find one (although, I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for and if they made one).  I had a little extra time (between feedings, playing, lunch, and getting everyone down for naps) to look again the other day. I found exactly what I was looking for!!!  So EXCITED!!  Just the thing we need.  My husband was excited too (he was all ready to come and sleep in our bed)!! 

But not so fast...
I asked my husband to sleep in the other room one more night just to make sure the plan worked.  It was a good thing he did!  I tried out the monitor and demonstrated it with our son before going to bed and reassured him that if he needed anything we would be able to talk to him and get him what he wanted!!  Cael woke up in the middle of the night, my husband talked to him through the 2-way monitor, and screams ensued.  My husband had to go into Cael's room and reassure him that he was right there, spread out his blanket, and tuck him in!  OK, we thought.  He just needs to get used to it.  I tried using it at nap time and when we were trying to get him to sleep the next night.  Each time I used it, he got out of bed panicked.  I even made sure to let him see me as I was talking through the monitor so he could try to make the connection that I'm right there.  He needed some hugs and squeezes, blanket spread back out, and tucked in again.  He even needed another round of milk and a book read to him at one point.  Finally he was to sleep.  But not for long.  At 9:30, just after my husband and I went to bed, Cael woke up.  My husband attempted to calm him by reassuring him through the monitor that he was right there.  Cael just began to scream bloody murder!  Loud enough that I heard him down the hall and through 2 closed doors.  My husband went in to console him.  I got out of bed to help,but he seemed to be calming down, so I went back to bed.  A little premature.  Screams came again.  Cael and I had milk and a book for a third time.  He finally calmed and went to sleep.  We decided we probably shouldn't use the 2-way monitor again.  I think it is scaring him because he knows we aren't in there, but our voices are. 

Well so much for that idea!  We were really hoping this would be our fix to be back in the same bed, but it was not meant to be.  Our saga of bedtime continues, but hoping not for much longer.

2 comments:

  1. hi! No...put this monitor on ebay and forget about it! The only way I would imagine a boy Cael's age learning to be ok with waking up at night and falling asleep again is by letting him fall asleep on his own in the first place...that's the only advice I've heard worked, does it fall asleep on his own? Every little baby or kid will at some point wake up slightly at night but if they've been through that and they know how to fall asleep again then after a while it would just be automatic...ever seen those programs on tv when the supernanny 'sleep trains' kids? The idea is that after the original bedtime has past, if they wake up again or ask for you you just go in but no bright lights, no chatting, maybe just a quick cuddle and back to bed with a short instruction that it's time to sleep...if you repeat this again and again, night after night they just give up, they do! And they learn to be ok with being alone in their bed awake. Sounds tough but it's for own good, poor little things... :-)

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  2. Thanks for the comment!! When he was in his crib, he fell asleep on his own and if he woke up, was able to fall back to sleep. But since transitioning to his big bed, when he wakes he needs the reassurance we are there. Anymore, just a hollar will be enough to get him to go back to sleep. We just thought we'd try the monitor to do that so we could be in our room down the hall to let him know we were here rather than have to get out of bed. But, that won't be happening. I have seen super nanny, and I do basically use those principals, but some nights he's better than others!!

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