Sleep Tome II

Picking up where I left off yesterday.

Dear Taylor, mother of two,

Getting them down doesn't mean they'll stay down.

There are all kinds of sleep training methods. Ferberize, Gerberize, Bieberize (wait, that's for tweens). They're all hard, but it helps to have a husband do it--much less painful that way. We chose a middle of the road method at four months. We'd get him drowsy, lay him down, and let him cry for five minutes. Enter Dad, restore pacifier, kiss to the forehead, exit Dad. Ten minutes, still crying. Enter Dad, restore pacifier, kiss to the forehead, exit Dad. Fifteen minutes, still crying. Enter Dad, restore pacifier, kiss to the forehead, exit Dad. From then on, we'd go no longer than fifteen minutes. It never exceeded forty five minutes, which is handy b/c my pediatrician suggested no more than an hour, though I think that applied more to the cold turkey method than our staggered visits.

I wussed out for naps. I held him during naps until six months, though we began sleep training at four months. Not only was this due to my wussiness (see above--Dad did the check ups during the crying), but it was also due to the fact that I still had several seasons of Lost on Netflix to catch up on. What better excuse to not do anything else all day but watch Lost while my son slept?

At six months, I'd caught up on Lost. Eliot was now sleeping through the night--until he started teething, then caught a cold, then started teething again. It was time to sleep train for naps. He cried for one nap, and then it caught on. Not too shabby.

Anytime teething enters or a cold or a throat infection, or whatever, I'd feel sorry for Eliot and rationalize holding him longer or nursing him in the middle of the night. Then we'd start the whole process again. Dear Future Taylor, mother-of-two, do not do this. If you do, sleep training will begin ALL over again. I, Present Taylor, don't know what you should do instead, but maybe Middle of the Road Future Taylor will be able to help you out.