Sleeping Like a Baby

Ever since having Hudson the phrase "sleeping like a baby" baffles me because it's usually used in reference to sleeping well, and from my experience babies sleep habits are highly unpredictable. At least Hudson's are. About a month ago I began what I would call a modified Ferber method for sleep training. Hudson had been waking at 3am to eat for all of May and into June, when he had previously slept from about 10pm-6am, and I knew he was healthy enough and of the age and weight where he didn't need a nighttime feeding. I let these night feeding continue on for some time, but in June we started sleep training by letting him CIO (I know some don't agree with this method). The very first night I did it Hudson slept through the night! Progressively he cried for shorter lengths of time and one night he didn't even cry at all. Some nights he still awoke, but most nights he slept through. One night he even slept a solid twelve hours. Soon family came to visit and because we only have two bedrooms Hudson had to sleep in with us. This threw everything off I feel. We are now trying to get back on track. Right now the hardest thing for me to figure out is his daytime naps. This week I can't seem to get him to sleep for more than an hour at a time when he used to take at least one good 2-3 hour nap during the day in addition to a few shorter naps.

He usually wakes around 7:30am. I'll feed him, we'll do rice cereal, play a bit and he's pretty much ready to go down for his first nap about an hour and a half to two hours after he wakes up. His morning naps seem to go over the best. It's the afternoon naps that are tough. He just won't stay asleep so then he becomes ultra crabby come five, six, seven o'clock. I usually start bedtime routine around 7:45 and he's asleep between 8:30 or 9:00. Tonight I tired something different. I started bedtime routine at 5:45 and he was asleep by 6:15, until a blasted fire truck drove by and woke him. I would have liked to see how long he would have slept had he not been awoken. Now I'm trying to get him back to sleep...

This is what Hudson was doing by 8:45pm. He finally was in his 
crib and asleep by 9:40pm. Tonight was a doozie.

Half hour later...

I'm pretty sure these sleep issues are due to one, if not all, of the following: teething, his first diaper rash, or a growth spurt. It is all highly frustrating. I usually rock him to sleep for naps, but can't figure out if he wants to be swaddled or not, sleep on his side, back, stomach or what. We can't seem to win no matter what we do. Often times he'll be asleep in our arms, but once we put him down he wakes up and won't go back to sleep. I've tried letting him CIO for naps but he'll just go on and on for what feels like the entirety of his nap, so I stopped doing that. I don't know. I don't even know why I wrote this post. Venting I guess. If it's teething I hope he just cuts a dang tooth already. This teething thing has been going on FOREVER!

On a brighter note, Nathan and I have started taking turns monitoring him at night. So for those three nights that Nathan's on baby watch, I get to sleep. The first few nights I woke up along with them (Hudson's been waking at night this last week with bad poopy diapers), but it's nice to not have to get out of bed. Daddies are wonderful! So is sleep.