Several Steps Forward and Backward

I've been asked about Liam's sleep a few times, so I thought I would update. I want to say it is better. And it is, overall. We successfully night weaned from 5-8 times a night for 5 minutes each time, down to 2.5 minutes. As the time got less, the number of feedings got to be fewer.

Then he got a cold, so we halted progress on the night weaning. And still he continued to drop feedings. We were down to 1 feeding a night for several nights. I actually had 3 or 4 nights of what I would now consider good sleep.

However, last night was terrible. He was up to nurse about 4 times, plus at the 4 am time, he refused to go back to sleep. He just could not settle. And we were basically up and down like jackrabbits. No fun. I am going to have to start the process of night weaning again.

The other problem is settling. The book I have says to have them completely night weaned and be weaned for over a week before starting the process to teach them to self-soothe. That's fine and good, but he is up for 2-3 hours each evening and not napping during the day. Nothing we say or do gets him to nap or fall asleep. Ray and I are beside ourselves (this is the "but" to the answer we give about sleep improvements), physically and mentally.

We are starting with naps and hoping that it gets better from there. It's funny, because we've already gone through the bulk of the steps in the chapter on self-soothing on our own. So now we are trudging forward.

Still tired and crabby. Still anxious. Still hoping.