Some progress - Aug 23/10

I recently wrote that Dexter was still sleeping with us and still nursing. Tyler has been spordically harrassing me to get Dexter into his crib and the last time I said “if you want him in the crib, go ahead and do it.” As I feel it’s both our responsibility to work on it – not just mine. So this Saturday, while we had Mary & Tyrone over to play some games, Dexter was really crabby and ready for a nap (for which I would normally probably nurse him to sleep and then be out of commission as he’d be napping on me). Tyler just up and put Dexter in his crib, set up the moniter, and then closed the door to his room. Dexter cried, but not near as long as I expected. It was definitely hard to listen to, and not run to him, but again not as hard as I expected. Then Dexter had a really great nap of a few hours.

That evening, Tyler again put Dexter in his crib and this time he cried for a very short amount. Like 10-15 minutes. Then he slept for 5-6 hours straight again! This afternoon, Dexter had another nap in the crib so then tonight, excited over all the success we’d had so far, I was very confident to put Dex in his crib for bedtime. The process took about 30 minutes from placing him in there to deep sleep so I’m pretty satisfied with that.

I really hate the idea of Dexter feeling “abandoned” in his crib, but hopefully it’ll be a short term pain with long term benefits as Tyler suggests. The fact that his crying bouts are relatively short, and that there are pauses as he listens to hear if we’re coming, help me feel like we’re doing the right thing. Also the level of crying is probably a 6 or 7 on a scale of 1 – 10 which I can handle. If it was full out 10 or even close then I may have pulled the plug on the idea.

I’m nervous that it’s going to be a transistion before I am as well rested as I was, but the bonus is that Dexter napping in his crib during the day would really free me up to do some of my “To Do” items that I’ve been wanting to focus on. Also, by avoiding nursing to sleep it helps me wean Dexter as well!