sleep lady shuffle

We decided to try the whole teaching Jonathan to sleep through the night thing again. It didn't go well before, but I am convinced that he won't pick this one up on his own if he hasn't done so already and I am dying to sleep for more than a 4 hour stretch. I am hopeful that this attempt will be more successful than our last wildly unsuccessful attempt. For starters, we have a good plan. Last time the plan was mainly pieced together tidbits from the random advice I'd received from who knows where combined with guilt, exhaustion, and frustration.

THIS time, we are following the advice of the "Sleep Lady". She advocates a gentler version of the "let them cry it out" method called the "sleep lady shuffle" were you are present (not letting the baby sob alone in the dark), but not allowing yourself to be a crutch for the baby to learn to fall back asleep. Her keys are consistency and eliminating intermittent reinforcement of all the ways we enable Jonathan not learning to sleep on his own. It is based on research, psychology and sleep science and makes a lot of sense to me. PLUS I can tolerate crying for longer if I know he isn't alone in the dark. I am excited for this to work, but admittedly it is getting worse before better.

Last night was our first night trying her system and Jonathan was NOT a fan of having to fall asleep on his own and not getting to nurse at night. We went up to his room at 8:25, 10:20, 11:15, 11:40, 12:15, 12:55, 2:50, 3:30, and 5:15 and spent a total of 2hrs and 10 min sitting on the floor next to his crib as he cried. But we followed the plan and I am still hopeful that it will work.

So, Jonathan, if you are reading this, tonight we are looking for more of this

and less of this