Learning to Sleep

If you told me the most frustrating part of raising Dylan would be getting him to take naps, I would've said you were crazy...

Sleeping at night? Not a problem for our little guy. Actually, I'm happy to report (although I'm sure I'm jinxing myself by publishing this on the blog) that our little boy has slept through the night (as in 9 PM to at least 6:30 AM) for 7 of the last 8 nights! Woohoo!! But aside from that, he's never had a problem sleeping at night. Sure, he'd wake up to eat but he'd always go right back to sleep (thank goodness).

Napping, however, is a bit of a struggle in our house. Actually, I should qualify that statement...napping anywhere but in someone's arms has been a bit of a struggle, and really only since he got sick.

Anyway, this week was hard on both of us, but I feel like we're making progress. Because we had reached the point where Dylan would cry if I put him down to sleep anywhere but in my arms, the only solution was to let him cry a little (I know, I know, curse me if you want to). I would rock him for one song, where he would gladly close his eyes and begin relaxing...but as soon as he was in his crib those eyes were WIDE OPEN and as soon as I was out of his view, the crying began. Interestingly enough, if I picked him up, he would close his eyes and start drifting off to sleep...so obviously this wasn't a matter of not being tired.

Anyway, I digress. The first day it only took about 20 minutes for him to fall asleep (yes, he cried for 20 minutes...). In the end the falling asleep part was actually really easy for him to grasp. It was the staying asleep part that's been so hard. You see, after a week of our learning process, Dylan is still only taking 40 minute naps (at most) in his crib, which leaves me with a very tired, grumpy baby which makes me very sad.

He has, however, taken two 2+ hour naps like this:

I'm realizing that the picture is no good...the key factor is his boppy pillow. In this pillow, he will sleep for hours...unswaddled even (which doesn't happen in his crib because he startles a lot when he's first falling asleep). Today he was even bothered by sounds of Shane coming in and out of the house, the Olympics on TV, and construction next door and he was able to get himself back to sleep each time.

The only problem with this picture is the pillow is on the couch... After his first 2+ hour nap in the pillow, I decided to see what would happen if I put him in the pillow, in his crib. The result: a 20 minute nap!

Oh well, at least he's getting the sleep he needs. We'll deal with his attachment to the pillow someday...