We’ve been struggling for the past few weeks (or should I say months?) getting Kyle to sleep through the night – or at least to limit his wake ups. I am not the type of person to fixate on my lack of sleep. But, yeah, I’d like more sleep. What Mom with toddlers or babies would not? This week we’ve reached our breaking point. And as Kyle is nearly 6 months, I’m dying to help him learn to fall asleep all by himself. If possible….. as I know this might be a bit of a pipedream!
Kyle has been totally inconsistent in his sleep patterns. He’s had some curveballs with the RSV and sleeping in a car seat for 6 weeks and then re-adjusting to a crib. A bunch of random fevers that I think make him feel Blah! and cry for us at night. Yet, he is so sweet and goes right back to bed…. but like I said we really would like for him to learn to fall back asleep all by himself!
The pediatrician whom we adore thinks the way I describe his inconsistent patterns – that sometimes Kyle is probably hungry – partially due to my inconsistent milk supply. I can not keep up with the calories and the hydration.
But lately, I think the teething is really causing a crazy amount of waking – last week the teeth started cutting through the gums and it has been all downhill from there. Causing me to want to ditch the binky as I find him battling with it and taking it in and out. Yet, he seems to totally need it to soothe himself to sleep. (He never uses it during the day) I’d be fine if he only did the binky when he fell asleep, but he wants it when he wakes up multiple times during the night.
Some Moms are telling me to scatter binks throughout the crib and that soon he’ll be able to find them and put them in his mouth himself. Sounds like a good strategy – but I can’t be bothered setting him up to rely on the binky when I know I’ll be taking it away for good at 12 months. This seems a little extreme to me. But I know if I’m desperate and nothing else works, I guess this is what I’ll do!
To cry or not to cry. To bink or not to bink. That is the question. What would you do? What do you think? Do we just cry it all out (of course checking on him every few minutes) and ditch the binky all together….. so we don’t have to go through taking away his binky when he is 1 year old and we are ready to be done with a pacifier. Or do we keep on giving him the binky when he wakes up?
I loved the cry/soothe method my pediatrician had me use with my daughter when teething disrupted her sleep. It worked like a total charm and I think my doctor is a saint ever since. He said it would work in 3 days. I think it worked in 3 sessions of crying (1 day!)
So we took the plunge last night. Ditched the binky at bedtime. And made cute Kyle cry it out when he woke up. Heartbreaking right? Mike and I went back and forth in his room every 5 mins for a 1 minute visit. No binky. He cried for about 35-40 minutes. We felt terrible but then he totally fell asleep and didn’t wake up till 630 when Kenzie was making a racket. So he never even ate 1 x during the night…..
Promising results…. And this photo today shows his little finger soothing him. Let’s hope he finds it tonight! Feel free to offer advice if you are inspired!