Sleep Success!

This weekend has been a very successful one for sleeping! Well, for Eirik at least. I still am not sleeping well thanks to this lovely cough... but that's a whole other story! Eirik's crib up until now has been filled with junk... well, not junk per say... but things that don't belong in a crib. Since it was so hot this summer he hasn't slept in it once... he's slept in his cosleeper in our bedroom and his pack and play downstairs but never the crib. I decided that since this weekend was going to be a LOT cooler we were going to try... the crib. We also decided to try some of those aids to help with soothing babies to sleep.

They always say "put the baby down drowsy". Yea... not Eirik. He just plays... and plays.... and plays. Even swaddled up I still have to constantly go reswaddle and usually end up laying next to him doing rhythmic sushing to finally sooth him off to sleep. Thanks to lovely discount deal sites and other sales we purchased a soundsleep cd and a sleep sheep. I had honestly been eyeing up the sleep sheep for a while but had convinced myself I didn't need it. Well, when you can't do rhythmic sushing because you keep coughing the sleep sheep becomes more and more appealing!

First the soundsleep cd was tried... because it came in the mail first. I have to say while the music was nice and soothing it did NOTHING for Eirik. It was nice relaxing background noise... but he seemed to just play through it and it didn't make him drowsy at ALL. I still ended up having to cuddle with him and attempt to do some shushing.

Next came the sleep sheep. Since the soundsleep cd was such a failure I excepted the sheep would be the same. If nothing else its absolutely adorable so it would be a great stuffed toy. Eirik loved it and wouldn't stop staring at it and trying to play with it when I took it out of the box! When nap time came around we placed him swaddled up in his crib and turned the sheep on. I decided to leave it on the ocean noise because that sounds the most like the shushing noise he likes. I left and came back 5 minutes later and just reswaddled him as he had kicked himself out and was playing. I went back again 5 minutes later because I noticed he was quiet and... he was FAST asleep. Yes folks, fast asleep!

The sleep sheep is officially my new best friend. We have used it all weekends and naps and nighttime have been AWESOME. If he wakes up from his nap early and is obviously in need of more sleep I turn the noise back on (it goes off after 45 minutes), give him his pacifier again, and he is back to sleep in moments. Where as before it would take about 30 minutes of reswaddling and laying with him and shushing now I am doing that in about 10 - 15.



So not only did he nap in his crib... he went down easily for naps AND slept longer! Oh, and he put himself back to sleep last night! He woke up about 3ish to eat, and i fed him and put him back down asleep. Well, he woke himself up, played for about 15 minutes, and then went back to sleep again. I lay there watching him in the dark, figuring since he wasn't crying or being overly loud i'd see what he did. I was so happy!

My next sleep obstacle is what to do now he's almost outgrown the cosleeper... i'm not ready to sleep apart from him all night but I'm not quite ready to have him in bed all night either... i'm thinking crib until his first feeding and then in bed with us after that? Or maybe pack and play in the bedroom?Ahh choices choices!