Sleep like a Baby??

From everything I’ve read Brynner was considered a “fussy” baby. From Day 2 we had to walk the floor endlessly bouncing a screaming baby in order for him to get to sleep. After doing this for a couple months each time he slept, we found bouncing on an exercise ball worked great and found it did help the process from two or more hours to sometimes just 30 min. That is, of course, if we could ever so gently lay him down without him waking up. If he awoke the whole process would start over. More then a few nights Brad or myself would have to take over so the other person wouldn’t get frustrated at our little guy who, no doubt, was also frustrated he wasn’t asleep by now.
By three months he was still waking up every two hours around the clock and it would take at least an hour to get him back to sleep during the night. Brad was telling his client about our sleep woes when she swore up and down how much a book had helped her daughter. That day Brad went and bought the book and I started to read “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” by Dr Marc Weissbluth. Brynner wasn’t old enough to start what he called Extension to get him to sleep (or commonly known as crying it out). So we waited until he was about 3 1/2 months old and tried to let Brynner cry himself to sleep that night. It was horrible!!! I can’t tell you how guilty and worried I was that he would feel abandoned or scared. The book said he would do some “protest crying” but they didn’t say anything about him screaming bloody murder! Poor sweetheart worked himself up so much we couldn’t handle it and couldn’t follow through for the first few attempts. Finally we were so exhausted we decided that no matter how long he cried we were going to start being consistent at night and not go to him as he feel asleep. The first couple weeks were really rough but after that he would typically cry for a ½ hour before he would fall asleep. Then we started with naptime in the day. His sleeping habits were getting worse during the day in that he would sleep more then 20 min. only if I held him. I couldn’t get anything done! It took him another two weeks to where he would cry typically for a ½ hour for naptime. He started to get up twice a night which was a huge improvement to the four or five times in the past.
Slowly but surely he improved until today I feed him and lay him down awake but drowsy and he’ll fall asleep (most of the time) without any crying at all. Strangely enough, however, if he falls asleep while feeding he’ll sometimes cry for 15 or 20 min. when I put him down. I’ll take that any day over what we had gone through in the past! He also needs consistency so if I do something that messes up his schedule, like taking him places during naptime; he has a harder time for the next couple days. As long as I hold my end of the bargain he now sleeps at night and at naptime by himself!! As of last week his day naps are getting consistently longer to where he’ll sleep anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. It’s heaven! I can get so much more done in the day. I look back and realize how hard it was to hear him cry but it was all worth it a couple months later! How nice it is to hear him wake up happy and play in his crib until I get him, a stark contrast from him screaming because he was still tired.
For any new parents out there I just wanted to let you know how much easier it became for us! Every baby is different but if you’re struggling in this area, this book sure helped our little guy!