Good Night, Sleep Tight

As a Pediatrician, I am giving out advice every day about things like feeding babies, disciplining toddlers, sleep habits for every age, and what to do when kids are sick. Sometimes it's just so darn hard to take my own advice.  The last couple months, we have gotten into a terrible habit of rocking Weston to sleep at night...or at least holding him until he falls asleep.  You see, he fights sleep so bad, it's not until we would sort of hold him tight and pin him down that he'd give up and fall asleep.  No matter how many books we read or songs I sang, it wasn't happening.  Initially I didn't mind, Weston would nurse and then I'd hold him and I didn't care because this was our time together...my mommy guilt kicking in. 

After this last visit to my mom and Jays', I have to admit that I started to become a little resentful of my little man who would resist sleep for longer and longer periods (30-45 minutes sometimes).  So, it finally occurred to me that we needed to just bite the bullet and try to let him "cry-it-out" a couple nights.  Pretty much all of my wise attendings have told me that sleep habits can pretty much be changed/established in about 3 nights.  So, in preparation for a nice weekend, we started this on Wednesday night.  I did the usual night time routine...I brushed his teeth, sat in the chair in his room with only the lamp on (fan and teddy bear sound effects playing in the background), we read 2 books, and then I laid him in his crib with his blanket, turned the lamp off and walked out.  Now I couldn't resist turning on the monitor downstairs even though I heard him crying before I ever fully closed his bedroom door.  But, about 10 minutes later, he was quiet...and most likely already asleep.  Quicker than if I had even tried to rock him...little stinker.

On Thursday night we repeated the same routine...crying was over in 3 minutes (seriously).  Friday night Rolland put Weston to bed, and by the time he got downstairs and turned the monitor on...no crying.  Tonight, the most amazing thing happened, I did the whole riggamarole, layed Weston in his crib, he turned on his side and ...nothing, not a peep.  So, now I can say...it really does work.  Three nights to break a habit (or make a new one).  Oh why didn't I do this for Weston (and me) before?