Sleep Lady Shuffling

So what prompted my sudden desire to sleep train again? Well, besides knowing that I was just delaying the inevitable, Camden also had some interesting changes to his sleep pattern over the past couple of weeks. As you all know, he normally treats nursing as an all night marathon event, waking every hour or two to have a quick drink before promptly passing out again. Was this ideal? Of course not. Was I used to it? Absolutely.

Then one night when he woke up to nurse, he decided that going back to sleep wasn't on his agenda. He sat up in our bed, talked to the fan, pulled on his daddy's ears, crawled around, grabbed my nose, laughed, squealed-- you name it, he did it. Except for sleep. This went on for a couple of hours. I went through the usual Maybe he's teething or Maybe he's about to hit a milestone excuses. And then a thought dawned on me: maybe he's just playing.

I knew it was time to set some boundaries or I was running the risk of 1-4am becoming routine playtime in our bed. I knew this also meant that a move to the crib was probably necessary but I dreaded it. Quite honestly, it wasn't just the thought of Camden's inevitable tears that bothered me. I enjoy co-sleeping. I love rolling over in the middle of the night & seeing the steady rise and fall of Camden's chest. There's just something so peaceful about a sleeping baby. And so I dreaded the loss of that special time with him.

But I decided to suck it up & put on my big girl panties when the Sleep Lady Shuffle was recommended to me. I felt the method was practical but also more gentle than some of the traditional sleep training tactics. Currently, we're on night 4 of the Shuffle. And you know what? It sucks. Big time. Seeing that little tear streaked face staring out at me from between the crib rails? It takes all of the willpower I can muster not to scoop him up, bring him to bed with me, and call the whole thing off. But instead, I stay at my post by his crib side & alternate between rubbing his back & singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider over and over again.

We've already made some progress but I'm really attempting to go into this process with no expectations. Because I'm using a more gentle method of sleep training, I knew change would be slow and gradual. I'm okay with that. I've also made the choice to still feed Camden once or twice a night if he wakes. I felt that cutting out all of his night feedings cold turkey would be a bit harsh since he's accustomed to snacking all night long. Baby steps, you know?

Stay tuned for more Adventures in Sleep Training. It's not my favorite part of this whole parenting thing by any means, but I suppose it comes with the territory. I'm sure when I'm tackling teenager drama years down the road I'll look back longingly on the simplicity of my sleep training days.