The art of slumber, part 2

First off, a shout out to our reader of the week, Aunt Mary, who told me that she checks the blog BEFORE she checks facebook!!!

Over the past 10 days we've been making a real effort to begin gradually weaning Caleb off the night feedings. We are starting with no feedings between 12-4 am. Instead of me going to him when he wakes up during those hours, Alan goes in and sings/rocks him back to sleep with no milk while I head to the studio for a few solid hours sleep. This is a big step for us, and we are starting to see some results. Here's what we've learned/accomplished so far.

1. Sleeping in his crib
Before: Co-sleeping for the past 4 months, at night and during naps.
This wasn't as hard as I anticipated. I think Cale was ready to have his own space and not having the milk supply (me) right beside him seems to help him feed less during the night.

2. Falling to sleep on his own
Before: Cale only fell asleep while nursing and I would either just sleep with him, or VERY carefully place him in the crib once he was asleep
Now, Cale will often fall asleep completely on his own in the crib. We have a great routine for night and naps and then place him in the crib to look at his mobile and probably once a day, if not more, we can leave him in there and suddenly the room goes silent. We peek our heads in and, sure enough he is fast asleep!

3. Not needing mama (milk) to get to sleep
Before: I was the only one who could get him to sleep and this was getting frustrating for both of us. Alan wanted to help but couldn't and I was getting worn down.
This is where I feel we've made the most progress. Alan now puts him down by singing/rocking/cuddling more than I do. It has switched from 95-5% to 50-50 or 30-70 (as Alan says)! I'm really, really happy about this because the work load is now shared, Alan can finally help with putting him down and I can be free to go to town or do other things, knowing that he'll be fine without me.

4. Sleeping on his stomach.
Who knew? This is the way Caleb wants to sleep now and we either put him down that way, or he flips himself over. It is especially great, because if he wakes up, often just some back rubs get him to fall right back to sleep. I've read and talked to other parents about this, and apparently it is completely safe once the baby can easily roll over. Good to know.

5. Sleeping longer hours/waking less
Before: You may remember from my last sleep post Cale was waking 8 times a night to feed, and the longest stretch of sleep we were getting was 2 hours.
Now, things have improved, maybe not as drastically as we'd hoped, but it is definitely getting better. He still usually wakes about 3-4 times in the night and he is now being fed twice, instead of 8 times and usually sleeps for at least one 3-4 hour stretch, often 2 longer stretches. I know this is not perfect, but all these little changes add up to us feeling much better about our sleep solution and we feel like things will keep getting better with time. I now feel like we aren't so impossibly far from a full nights sleep.

6. Importance of a great partner! I could never even imagine attempting to do this on my own. I'm so lucky that Alan is incredibly willing to help out at any hour of the day. I think Alan feels like his role is now equally as important as mine and I can't even describe the appreciation, love and gratitude I have for him. I'm one lucky lady to have two such wonderful guys in my life!

Just hanging out in my crib