Of Sleep Training, Airplanes, and Girls

ibaby

Sleep Training
My suggestions if you will ever try to sleep train your little one:

1. Make sure hubby or wifie is completely on board with the training. The last thing you want is someone suggesting we move to the family bed when it’s 4 AM. The combination of guilt and sleep deprivation will break anyone’s resolve. Hubby or wifie must have also read or studied up on the method rather than relying on you as the resident expert (which is really not too smart seeing as you are both trying this out for the first time).
2. Mattresses on the floor are waaaaaay more comfortable than chairs as suggested in the book. Especially if you are trying to pretend to be sleeping. For an hour and a half.
3. Be as consistent as possible but do realize there will be slip-ups. If baby is crying for longer than usual and it is too early to be up and too early to make a ruckus, make an exception.
4. Keep a good log book. The way we worked it out was that for the first couple of nights, George would be in the other room with the video monitor so that he could take notes on the middle of the night wakenings while I was in Tristan’s room calming him and then pretending to be asleep. Hard to take notes when you’re eyes are closed.
5. As we have painfully found out, naps are very important
6. Try to tweak schedules for early wakers. We are still working on this one.
7. Persevere. It may not be perfect, but it will be better.

When Tristan was smaller, co-sleeping really worked well for our family. It was natural, there was bonding, everyone slept better. I didn’t think I needed to train Tristan to sleep on his own. But then I noticed he was needing me for every little wake-up and I was pretty much hostage from the time when I put the llittle guy down up till he woke up. And the bedtime ritual was driving me crazy. It took about one and a half hours for baby to go to sleep and this was already after bathtime and storytime. At this point (15-16 months), Tristan was taking whole milk although he was still breastfeeding at night. I knew he didn’t need to nurse to sleep but just wanted to. I must admit, it was also very appealing to think I could finally sleep on my back (instead of sideways with an octopus latched on to you). It also helped that I knew Tristan could understand us when we were explaining things to him. Ok, on to the actual training.

First of all, the first night/time will be terrible and it will make you doubt everything. But as with everything baby, he will slowly adjust to the new routine. This does not mean no crying, it means shorter crying and less wakings (maybe). We started out in chairs right in front of the crib, but like I said in #2, probably not the best thing. He cried a maximum of 40 minutes straight and then went down for a nap. For his first night sleep, this was a little worse. I think because since we were on the chairs, baby fell asleep sitting down and would wake up crying everytime his little chin hit his chest. The second day (on mattress) was much, much better. Fast forward to the 7th and 8th night, Tristan woke up once and cried a maximum of ten minutes. Regarding number 5 above, when he missed his afternoon nap, everything went downhill on the 9th night. But we hope to get back on track. I did notice he did learn to put himself back to bed much, much quicker and by himself. Sometimes, he would wake, cry out once or twice, then plop back down. So, do we buy into sleep training? At this age, at this point, yes we do. And I will hopefully not have to eat my words any time soon. But hey, if co-sleeping is working out for your family, by all means co-sleep and enjoy the little warm bundle beside you.

Airplanes

For some reason, planes have been flying overhead a little more than usual and like many loud noises, this catches Tristan’s attention. We’ve managed to see a couple of planes or helicopters zoom by. Now every time we go out, Tristan points to the sky in anticipation. He also learned the airplane sign after being taught once because he was so excited. He’s also been recently “talking” a bit more. I say “talking” because he makes sounds that approximate the word and we’re pretty sure he’s trying to say it. Stuff like “ga-aj” (garage) and “aa-aht” (arrowroot). Anyway, we now use the “Want to see an airplane? Let’s go out and maybe we can see one!” line to distract him or get him to want to go outside and walk around a bit. This brings us to girls.

Girls

George and I have noticed Tristan’s attention is not only drawn to other little kiddies biking or playing but more especially, he likes little girl kiddies, and sometimes older girls. Talaga naman ang anak ko. If he sees a girl, he makes a beeline straight for her and then, once there, becomes really, really shy (“mommy carry me” shy). One time he chased after a girl and stopped right in front of her. She went “aaaw, cute baby” and stroked his cheek. He promptly asked to be carried and hid in the crook of my neck as they went away. This is also a useful thing to use when trying to prevent a potential tantrum (daddy goes “let’s go look for little girls”). And it’s not just our imagination. When I mention the word “girls” to him, he breaks out in a large grin, which makes us equally amused.