Alive, Zombie Style

This will be brief, as we are working hard over here, but I wanted to say thank you. I can't tell you all how much your support has helped. I had hoped when I started blogging that I might find a few people to read my blog and vice versa so that we could get to know each other a bit. I never, ever imagined how much of a community I would find, nor how much care and concern I would find in people who had never even met me. More than once I have needed support or advice and have found it from mommy bloggers, you. Perhaps when we are all better rested in our house I will write a proper ode to blogging. And I certainly intend to come back to your blogs (or be introduced to your blogs for the new people I have met) and respond to your emails and send you all love letters and chocolates and flowers. I intend to, just as soon as we get out of this vacuum that is Operation Sleep: Phase One. But for now, thank you all for your comments, emails, articles, posts, support, and just for reading.

Many of you have asked about the status over here so here is the update. We are on day 3 of Operation Sleep: Phase One - "crib time and night weaning." For us, night weaning has been the step that has really messed us up and our inability to get it over with has really been the essence of our problems. Back when we met with the "sleep consultant" we all agreed that the frequency of Sam's wakings would go down if we could get him out of the habit of night nursing; he will wake up less if he knows there is little point since there will be no nummies. Problem is it's just really hard to night wean. It takes A LOT of endurance and we've pretty much been on this step on and off for months. So Hubby and I decided it is our first goal right now, along with moving him to his crib. He's been starting out the night sleeping in an Amby Bed, which was extremely helpful in transitioning him out of our bed (he had that weird bouncing thing), a huge step taken at about 9 months. And then he's been moved to our bed anywhere between 2:00 and 5:00am each night. But now he's really getting too big for the Amby and it's also not a safe place for older babies if they are awake and unattended. So if we are ever to get him to sleep on his own, he can't be in the Amby and needs to learn how to sleep in the crib.

So right now we are staying in the room with him and touching him (rubbing his back, holding his hand, etc.) to help soothe him to sleep so that he can get used to the crib and not be afraid of it. I am also cutting down on the duration and frequency of his night nursings with the intent of stopping them altogether in the next 3 days. And then later this week we will be in the room with him but not touching him.

The first night was a bit sketchy. Hubby and I were not totally clear on all of the details (when do I nurse, who does what, etc.) other than "move him to the crib" so it backfired a bit by about 2:00am and he ended up back in our bed. Last night was hard but more successful. He woke up every 45 minutes on the dot but I managed to keep him in his crib until 5:30 and only nursed 3 times - and I thought I was tired before! While all of it is very difficult and exhausting, I feel more confident in what we are doing because he is not alone. I feel like we are addressing our specific problem and helping him to know that we can soothe him without nursing and, eventually, that he can soothe himself with us just short distance away, which will hopefully show him it is really just not worth waking up. Once we are weaned for a few days we will evaluate where we are, how often he wakes up, what he requires when he wakes up and so forth and then develop Phase Two.

And so we're off on night 3. Can't wait to visit all your blogs again and see how you all are. Thank you again for reading that incredibly long post and then taking even more time to thoughtfully respond. Although I do not wish sleep problems on anyone, it is so good to know I am not alone.

Ok, so I guess this wasn't so brief...