Bedtime Battles

I mainly use this blog as a place to vent - so here you go. Jackson will be 8 months old tomorrow. Since he was born, he has always had very random sleep patterns. He slept well when we first came home from the hospital - in fact, we thought, "Oh! He is a great sleeper!" Well, that went out the window around 4 months of age. For the past 4 months, it has taken a Herculean effort each night to get him to sleep: rocking, walking, bouncing on the bed, swaddling, patting, you name it, we've tried it. We have tried gripe water, gas drops, putting cereal in his last bottle, sound machines, anything else we could think of. And after the hours (yes, usually 2+ hours) at night of trying to get him to sleep, I would collapse in bed, praying he would sleep through the night. To no avail. He generally gets up several times in the night, is fidgety in his sleep, cries out, screams with his eyes closed, or flails around. Even in our bed with us, even if we feed him a middle of the night bottle, even if we change him, burp him, swaddle him back up. This has taken its toll on my mental health, my relationship with Tyler, my whole life (and Jackson's, because he doesn't get good sleep and is frequently cranky!)

Several friends have suggested different books over the course of the 8 months, but I honestly thought that just doing our own thing was best for this family. But recently, in a moment of desperation, I updated my status on Facebook saying something about Jackson not sleeping. A long-time family friend messaged me and suggested a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I was desperate enough to finally read it, and it didn't hurt that her husband is a pediatrician (hey, honest here!). She assured me it had worked for both her kids, and that they are both good sleepers now. I quickly downloaded it to my Kindle and started reading.

So, blog world, I am going to try it, starting today. I have already put him down for a first nap following the advice of the book. It took 15 minutes of crying, but he went to sleep and slept for an hour and a half (a long time for my boy!). He is working on the second nap now - we'll see how it goes. And bedtime itself may be a whole new kettle of fish. I am just praying that God will give me wisdom on how to use this method to help my child, my family, and my marriage.