First Method and used most often (because of the lack of energy it takes) is nursing him to sleep, however, this is not always Jonah's favorite so we resort to our back up...
Second Method (our back up) and used more frequently than we like is dancing him to sleep. This can take anywhere from 5-35 minutes and you have to be super careful when laying him down after he's asleep cause if you mess up even a little he will let you know about it and you must start the whole process over. Jonah's album of choice is Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. I have no idea why he prefers this but it's a must and he loves it. I can sing every word to the first 8 songs on the cd and have choreographed moves to the first 4.
Third Method is old fashioned and my absolute favorite. It is rocking him to sleep. I would prefer this method any day of the week because I get to hold and hug my sweet baby as he slowly becomes calm and still and drifts off to sleep. Although this is my favorite, it is Jonah's least favorite and only very rarely will he let me do this. It doesn't mean I don't try though. :)
So that has been the way we do things for the past 5 months 2 weeks and 6 days. 3 days ago we started sleep training. We could not bring ourselves to do the traditional Cry It Out (CIO) method. So we went another way. It is like CIO, but a lot less crying. Basically, we lay him down sleepy but not asleep. If he starts crying hard, we immediately go in, pick him up and hold and calm him. Once he's quiet, we lay him down again. We continue this for as long as it takes. The first day was rough..emotionally draining. It took 45 minutes to an hour to get him to sleep and we were doing this for every nap (he naps 4 times a day) and at night.
The second day (yesterday) went much better. He would play for the first 10 minutes quietly and then cry a little for about 15-20 minutes. I would have to go in about 3 or 4 times to calm him down. Last night went so good. The nights seem to be easier then the naps during the day. He knows it night time and he's tired so it will only take 1-2 songs and he's out. (Yes, we still play Dave Matthews for him...he really wouldn't have it any other way.)
Today has been glorious. He is napping as I type this and here's how the nap time went down.
10:37am - I lay him down in his crib for nap time.
10:42am - I don't hear anything...could he really be asleep? I go in and he's playing :)
10:47am - I start hearing a whimper..then a little cry..whimper..cry...whimper..
10:51am - It's quiet...I go in and see this..
I do still let him fall asleep nursing but for all other naps, he does it all by himself now. We are so proud of him. He is so smart and I know this is going to be better for everyone. He can also put himself back to sleep in the middle of the night because we heard him do it last night and we all got a couple more hours of sleep because of it. God love a fast learner!
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