I can’t think to write about anything but Matthew’s sleeping.  Here it is Easter Sunday and all I’ve done besides Easter lunch with B’s family is read and obsess over Matthew’s sleeping schedule and training.  I want to be done with this by mid-week so we can go to Minneapolis with B for a work trip on Thursday.  What do you bet that doesn’t happen?!

Last night was not as great as the first night, but hey – he still only got up once.  I can’t complain about that.  As I read more and more of Ferber’s book, I realize that we really don’t have it that bad compared to other families.  M only gets up once a night right now.  Sure, we’ve done our weeks of 2 wakings each night, but those were not the norm and usually resulted from him being sick, teething, or not in his own house or bed.  When I take a step back and think about it rationally, I am very lucky that this sweet baby only wants to see me once a night  😉

Last night was a little harder since the waiting periods were longer.  Matthew was up for 47 minutes compared to 35 minutes the night before, but he wasn’t screaming and he was trying to put himself back to sleep.  I had to go in 4 times to check on him, but the last one hardly counts because he was very settled down and I just went in to tuck him in with his blankie.  Tonight, he went to sleep 3 minutes earlier than he did last night so that is progress, I think!

My biggest fear in all of this is NOT the time it takes me each night to help him through this (it’s been rather easy, to be honest), or the “damage” that some may think we’re doing to him (remember, this is easier on him than all the other approaches I’ve tried) – it’s the fact that this baby is getting up at 6:00 AM very consistently.  I’m just not ready to be up at 6:00 AM!  He has ALWAYS tried getting up at 6:00 but B and I would bring him into bed with us to rest until 7:00 or so.  We can’t do that anymore, and Matthew is capitalizing on it.  His 6:00 rise-and-shine today was met with B taking the lead so I could sleep THREE MORE HOURS!  What a nice husband!  They had a great time – they had breakfast together, played, watched some Top Gear, and went for a run.  All of this while I slept so, so peacefully with ear plugs in.

So all-in-all, things are going great!  Matthew did not get the best naps today because we weren’t home (we napped him in the car on the way to B’s parents and then again on the way home), but he went to bed tonight just fine and has naturally pulled his own bedtime back to 8:10 versus our usual 8:30.  He went down at 8:09 both last night and tonight, so I think he’s asking us for an earlier bedtime.

Now – I am going to adjust my own bedtime schedule and go to bed early!