So things are NOT getting better – in fact – they are getting worse.  I am up right now, at 4:15, listening to Matthew scream (not just cry like normal) as he stands in his crib stomping his feet.  He woke up at 3:17 (I thought MAYBE this was a good sign since 3/17 is my birthday – I thought maybe it would be an easier night than normal).  We are on our (let me check my spreadsheet…) 4.5th progressive waiting cycle with no end in site.  I say 4.5 because during the first check, I thought I smelled dirty pants and after 7 minutes waiting during the second cycle, I caved and went in to change him.  He hasn’t pooped all day so I didn’t want him falling asleep with dirty pants.  I was fooled.  Just wet.  Sigh.  In my head, it is that interruption of the progressive waiting schedule that messed up this night!

This child is stubborn.  Holy hell.  Not once in the last two nights has he put himself back down – he stands the entire time until I come in and lay him down.  The first night, he would give up and lay down – but not anymore.  He’s onto me.  Who’s training whom here?  And the worst thing?  I woke up at 3:00 wondering if he would wake up.  My body is now trained to get up every night around 2 or 3:00, as I’m trying to train Matthew’s body NOT to!

I am sticking it out, but I bet you I am up for another 45 minutes with this.  The good news is that he did sleep longer this time than other nights, but sh*t – it was still only 7 hours.  Seven hours is no big deal – he used to do 7 hours without effort when he was 3 months old!

Looking at the monitor, it looks like he’s thinking of laying down.  Nope.  He may have thought it, but I think he knows I’m due to come in in another minute.  Here I go….

I broke the rules and stayed an extra minute.  He was falling asleep (I was patting his back, darn it) and I am so tired.  I stopped patting his back and saying anything after the 2 minutes, but I stood there an extra minute watching him and putting his blankie on him.  I KNOW he can put himself to sleep – he does it every night at bed time. Why can’t he do it in the middle of the night?

Dammit this is hard.  And I am starting to wonder if we’re getting anywhere with it.  I hope it clicks here soon, because here are our awake cycle times:

Night 1: 35 minutes of awake time

Night 2: 47 minutes of awake time (up 34% from the prior night)

Night 3: a whopping 72 minutes of awake time (up 53% from the prior night)

What will tomorrow bring – 2 hours of awake time?  That would be on par if he increases his awake time by the percentage he did tonight.  The only thing making me feel at all OK is that we are only doing this once a night.  I cannot imagine doing it more than once.

Matthew is asleep now.  I am going to bed.