To Sleep, Or Not To Sleep.

Not much of a question. If you've known me for any amount of time, you know that I'm going to choose to sleep. Whenever possible. This applies to my son as well. So when I realized how much time the two of us were spending in a glider rocking him to sleep, I decided it was time for him to "cry it out."

And, a week or so later, I am convinced that this is one of the two best decisions I've made for Chase so far. What was the second, you ask? Not shielding him from noise while he's sleeping. Now, we've had our ups and downs with regards to sleep over the past five months. But for the most part, he's been a great sleeper. I'm chalking the "downs" up to the constant change of being a baby.

So, at around 4 1/2 months, I decided to bite the bullet. Getting him to bed at night hasn't really been a problem, since establishing a bath-bottle-bed routine. But naptime could be tricky, especially if he was over-tired and fussy. So one day, I did the thing that every mother dreads...laid him down, and let him cry. I would occasionally pat his back, or give him his pacifier back if it had fallen out. But other than that, I left him alone. And eventually, he cried himself to sleep.

The next day, I put him on the floor while I was rocking Carter for his nap. And the next thing I knew, he was sound asleep...success! It's not foolproof, but he's gotten himself to sleep for just about every nap for the past two weeks. I even think he's napping better and longer. And I'm one happy mama!