Operation Get More Sleep!!

This week begins operation get more sleep! As I mentioned before we are going to try the no cry sleep solution. I know a lot of people are big fans of the cry it out methods (or variations of it) but it is something that I just can't do. So after reading the book and logging Eirik's sleep i've determined a few things that are going to change.

1. Consistent routine naps. He needs 3 naps a day. He actually has fallen into a routine... a 9am, a 12pm, and a 3:30pm. Of course all these times are +/- about 30 minutes. So, the plan is that we're going to make sure he goes down for naps at these times every day ... when possible.

2. Create a more calming bedtime routine. I have started to incorporate reading one book to him at night... I think i may up that to maybe 2 or 3 just to give him some "quite" time between bath and nursing.

3. Do something to separate nights from naps. My idea here is to play soothing music at night for him. We have a baby sleep cd which is on my Ipod so I'm going to start playing that softly on a loop at night... he will hopefully associate the music with night and sleep. Thats the plan......

4. Get him a lovey. I tried this already a bit with his favorite dog blanket but unfortunately it rattles and that just wakes him up makes him want to play. So I have ordered 2 identical lovey blankets for him (best advice given to me was to get two and rotate them so if one gets lost you have a backup!). Fingers crossed he takes to the blanket!

5. Work on getting him to not associate nursing with sleep. This is hard... I've noticed that a lot of times when he wakes up the only thing that will get him back to sleep is me... and it really only takes a second. I can pop him on and within a minute hes out again. The book goes into detail about how to do this but the general concept is to remove him before he's fully asleep and then put him back on when he starts to wake up too much and ultimately he'll learn to fall asleep without it.

6. Get a better sleeping arrangement. Still no clue on what we're doing with that... I'm really starting to lean towards moving his crib into our room... but every time i say thats what i'm going to do I change my mind!

So this is our initial plan of attack! Will it help at all? well, in 3 weeks or so we'll log his sleep again and see if something has changed!