Sleep training update

Ok, Cameron is sleeping "more or less" ok now. He goes to sleep on his own, with no fuss or little fuss. He takes a 35-45min nap in the morning, 1hr45min nap in the afternoon and 30-45min nap in the late afternoon. Bedtime is still around 6.30pm - 6.45pm. We still wake him up for a late feed at 11.15pm, but these few days, he has only taken 2-3oz so I am thinking of dropping this feed. But we need to increase his food / milk intake during the day so that he will be full enough to last him through the night. I am sure he is waking up early due to hunger.

Yesterday was a bad day for feeding. He took only 4oz of milk during bedtime (his usual is 7oz). No matter what I do, he refused to drink. So I let him be. 30min later, I was hoping to make him drink when he is sleepy, but failed! He still did not want. He slept til 11.15pm when we woke him up for late night feed. He took only 3oz (his usual is 5oz). Then surprise, surprise! He woke up at 4.30am! Cried and refused to sleep for more than 10min! I am sure it was hunger, but I refused to succumb to the vicious cyle of nightfeeding, so I gave him water. He took about 2oz and went back to sleep til 7am.

I thought he will wolf down his morning milk, but NO... he took only 6oz out of his usual 7oz (after much, much coaxing). I really don't know what to do. I know babies won't starve themselves, but still... I don't want it to affect his night sleeping.

He is really stubborn! If he doesn't want the milk, he will either slap the bottle away, or if I succeed in pushing in the teat into his mouth, he will let the milk dribble out. Very annoying.

I guess I will have to ride out this one...

Sleep Training Starts - Day 5

Ok, today went slightly better. Key word being slightly.

Morning nap - ok. Slept for 40min.

Afternoon nap - again he woke up after 50 min of sleeping. Cried for 20min before falling asleep again. But he wailed off and on til nap time is over.

Evening nap - he went to sleep with a brief protest. Not loud crying but whimpering for about 10min. Slept for 30min.

Bedtime went well. Fingers crossed for the rest of the night.

Sleep Training Starts - Day 4

Not too good today.

Morning nap went well. Slept for 30min and he refused to go back to sleep after lying in crib for 15min.

Afternoon nap went bad. Slept for 30min and woke up. Gave him remaining of his milk and burped him. Put him back on crib and he wailed for 45min before falling asleep again for 1 hour. Stuck to the same routine of checking on him every 10min. I was sure he needed more sleep because he only had 30min sleep. He refused milk, burped, not sick, so I stuck to my guns and continued... IT was hard. I was told that babies regress so I was prepared for it.

Evening nap went bad too. He cried for 20+min before falling asleep for 30min.

Night time - He was just grizzling... now quiet. Fingers crossed that he is already asleep.

Update: he woke up after 1 hour but fell asleep after 10min of crying. I woke him up at 11:45pm for late night feed and he fed well. He cried at 5:20am but managed to fall asleep again after 10min.

He slept from 6:45pm til 6:45am

Sleep Training Starts - Day 3

Morning nap - He slept with a brief protest.

Afternoon nap - Slept with no problems. He woke up 1 hour later, gave him remainder of milk and put him back to sleep. He cried for less than 10 min and went back to sleep. Slept for another hour.

Evening nap - Slept with no problems.

Night time - Went to sleep easily. He woke up at 10:45pm and I let him cry for 10min before going to feed him. Drank only 3oz before falling asleep.

Woke up at 3:30am and 5:10am. Cried for less than 10 min and fall asleep. Woke up at 7am.

Sleep Training Starts - Day 2

For all naps, Cameron went to sleep well, without brief protest, maybe 3 mins. After which he goes to sleep for more than 1 hour for morning & afternoon nap. For evening nap he slept for about 45min.

Bedtime went smoothly, although he refused his milk. Only drank 3oz out of his usual 6oz.

Night time - Woke up at 4:20am and 5:50am. Both times cried for less than 10min before falling asleep.

Slept til 7am.

Sleep Training Starts - Day 1

Morning nap - Cameron went down the usual way... Milk, burp, then PU/PD for about 20 mins. He finally fell asleep. Slept 45mins.

Afternoon nap - Buyanna tried to put him to sleep. He fell asleep but woke up 10 min later. I checked on him and saw he pooed in his diaper. Changed his diaper and pat him for a short while. Left him still wide awake. He whimpered for 5min and then wailed! I checked on him every 10minutes. He finally fell asleep after 2 x 10min checks and nearing the 15min check. 40min in total. Slept for 30min.

Evening nap - I fed him, burped him and carried him. He was drowsy and I put him on the bed. He went down to sleep without a protest.

Bedtime - Started bedtime routine at 5:30pm. He refused to finish his milk feed. Left 2oz. Left him in bed drowsy but awake. No protest. He woke up 50min later, but he fell asleep after about 5min of crying.

Nighttime - I woke him up at 11:45pm for his late night feed. He fed well, drank close to 150ml, but after a small cough, he threw up about half the feed. Despite that, he still slept well, with no protest.

4:40am - He woke up and cried for about 5min. I went in and found that he has kicked himself into a corner of the crib. I re-positioned him to between his wedge and kissed him and told him to go back to sleep. He cried for another 10min. I went in again and he cried for close to 10 min before falling asleep.

5:50am - He woke up again. This time he cried for 10min before keeping quiet for a brief time. He cried again but went again. This went on for 20min. Then he fall asleep til 7am when I had to wake him up.

Sleep Training

Officially, I start my sleep training today. Since I realise that Cameron has a different personality from Cayden, I cannot use the same methods. I tried that controlled crying method on Cameron last week, but it was useless. He cried up to one hour, no signs of letting go or calming down. I am employing the methods of Tracy Hoggs (the Baby Whisperer). I used the shush/pay method and it worked to calm Cameron down. Then I am starting to use the P.U/P.D method and so far, so good.

Last night was such a horrible night. The little man was over stimulated because we went to I-ru's house for lunch and plenty of people carried him and lots of kids screaming. His routine was also thrown off, he refused to drink his milk so he had a really unrested night. So did we. He woke up 6 times from 7pm to 6am! He was also hungry coz he didn't drink enough during the day, but I refused to let him drink. I don't want him to become a snacker! He needs to take his full feeds in the day and not in the night! I had to carry him to sleep from 3am to 5.40am and he woke up at 6am! I decided, enough was enough!

Let's see the outcome in a few days. Fingers crossed.

Sleeping through the night?

As of 3 nights ago, Cameron has been sort of sleeping through the night. He goes down at around 7pm. I give me a last feed at 11pm and he will sleep through til 5.30 or 6.30am. When he wakes up at 5.30am, we give him a small feed of 2oz and he can sleep til about 7.30am. But I realise that it screws up the routine. I learnt it the hard way. So I wake him up at 7am to start the day.

But when he wakes up, he is usually not interested in his feed, so I suspect he doesn't really need the 5.30am feed. I will try to pacify him with water instead, and see how we go.