So, Zayd's sleep patterns went from horrible, to pretty good, to horrible again. For the past few weeks, he has been waking every hour at night and nap time has just disappeared. I can really only blame myself because I am the one who galavanted across the state and then the country with my little lentil in tow (and, in most cases, literally strapped to my body with a wrap).
I will begin this post with a spoiler: Zayd is still bounced to sleep on the yoga ball, or nursed to sleep, or snuggled to sleep - whatever he prefers. :/
In an effort to provide this sweet baby with the sleep he deserves, I made a Thursday night run to the library and picked up a few things:
- The Baby Whisperer
- The Baby Whisperer Solves All of Your Problems
- Raffi Quiet Time Music CD
- International Lullabies CD
By Friday morning, I had read the Baby Whisperer, made notes, and devised a plan. Operation: Sleeping (like a) Baby would commence with naptime on Saturday.
So, naptime Saturday, I took Zayd into his room with all of the tools and techniques Tracy Hogg (BW author) provides. We dimmed the lights, turned on the noise machine, I gave Zayd a binky (which he took - surprising), kissed him on the head, told him it was naptime, and layed him in his crib. He lasted about 15 minutes while he rolled around and played before he started whining. I let him whine a little and then came to him. Without looking him in the eye, I picked him up, shushed him, patted his little bottom, and put him back down. Quiet...whining. Back up, shush, pat, down. It was so short between whines that I never left the room, and most of the time just crouched down beside the crib. (Alternate title: Crouching Mother, Crying Baby.) Back up, shush, pat, down. 23 times. I lost faith around 17, I remember those being particularly hard. But it worked, the baby put himself to sleep - a first. I was super proud. What a good tiger mom I am! (Yes, hippy dippy me thinks that tiger mom has some very valid points. I may be a hippy but I am also half first-gen american!) Zayd slept for thirty minutes and we called that a win.
The second naptime was a breeze. It took six shush-pats to get him to sleep. I ran out to the grocery store. When I returned, Zayd was STILL SLEEPING, a full two hours after he'd gone down. This was unheard of. I demanded that Sam refer to me as the Baby Whisperer. He refused but Ella obliged me. :)
Two more whispering events for the day, the third was tricky but bedtime was a breeze. I couldn't wait to finish my three days of training and have a baby who could self soothe!
Day two, nap one - easy. It took just a few shush-pats and I felt like we might be in the clear.
Nap two is where the whispering was overcome by the screaming. I left Sam to put the baby down and went with my mom for a much needed pedicure. Now, Zayd and Sam have a hysterical relationship. Zayd becomes overly excited by Sam, in a good way. While he coos at me, he shrieks in delight at his daddy. While he babbles with me, he makes smiley loud dolphin-pitched yells with his pops. So, I should've known that though I can just shush-pat this wasn't going to work for Sam. I left them to their own devices and texted to see how it was going. Zayd was playing in his bouncy seat. Hmmm, I told Sam he had to sleep and that Sam had to stick it out. He made an earnest second attempt but it all went to heck pretty quickly.
I can now report that Zayd now knows how to let out blood curdling screams. Mind you, we are not Crying It Out, we are HOLDING THIS BABY WHILE HE SCREAMS AT US. It turns out the lentil is pretty demanding. For subsequent naps I went back to being the boss. It took two hours on Sunday afternoon and only resulted in a 40 minute nap. Monday morning wasn't looking much better. After an hour of shush-patting and my angel-faced baby was still making demonic screams and I called the whole thing off. I think he had learned how to get his way and he was going to use it. He screamed so much that he got worked up to the point where you would think this wild-eyed monster wasn't going to sleep for days.
When Zayd and I emerged from his bedroom after that trying hour, Sam greeted baby Zayd with triumphant pumping fists, "You won, baby Zayd!" (Another alternate title.)
I still believe in Baby Whispering, and I will go back to this exact same method. But I am going to wait a month down the road. Hopefully by then, Zayd will have forgotten all of this and we can just start new.
I am hoping for a 23 shush-pat initiation into Baby Whispering for my second go round. More on that in Mid-October.