Sweet Sleep

What’s this?  A picture of Hayden sleeping in his bed on our video monitor.  Not that Hayden has not slept in his bed.  He has.  But now, I am so happy to report that we no longer have to rock for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or even an hour to get him to go to sleep for naps or nighttime.  I never thought this would happen!! 

I absolutely loved rocking my baby boy to sleep every night.  But, it was becoming quite the chore.  A frustrating one at times.  I didn’t know how I was going to break him but I knew it needed to happen soon! 

The first night we were in SC at Jen’s, it took me over an hour to get him to sleep.  An overtired baby in a new place was hard.  But, an hour was a little ridiculous. The time had come.   Jen was my rock in this adventure!!  I seriously could not have done it without her.  The first night, even after rocking for an hour, he cried for quite a while.  SO SAD!  But, eventually went to sleep.  The next morning for nap time, I rocked him for 10 minutes and laid him down.  He cried.  Jen and I left while Jeff Gray endured the crying.  He eventually laid down and went to sleep.  That night, I again rocked for 10 minutes and laid him down.   He only cried for a few minutes.  After a couple more nap/nighttimes and rocking for 2-5 minutes, he no longer cried.  Sweet!!  I was one happy momma!  It was a celebration every night/naptime when he didn’t cry!  I eventually got to where I could rock him in my arms for just a few seconds and lay him down without a sound.

I was a little nervous about how he would do when we got back home.  Guess what, he did beautifully!!  We now are able to just walk into his room and he reaches out for his bed for naptime and nighttime! 

I had always heard that 3 nights is all it takes.  That was right.  3 nights and like magic, our baby boy now just lays down and goes to sleep on his own.  Dad’s words when we go home were, “That’s Amazing!”  I think so!  Makes for a happy momma and daddy!

Side notes:

Hayden has a box fan on high when he sleeps.  He has had one in his room for about a year and blocks sound fabulously.  Again-Jens suggestion.

Do you have a video monitor?  We got this one from a friend of Jen's in January.  I love it and don’t think I could ever live without one.  However, I didn’t have one when we went to SC and I definitely think it helped me stay strong since I could only hear him crying and not see him.

Jeff is a very tough guy.  But not when his baby is crying.  I definitely think he was so relieved when he heard I was trying to break Hayden of being rocked to sleep while we were GONE!  I am not sure we could have been strong enough together to do it.