It's Working . . . So Far

Our great sleep experiment is working . . . so far. Our plan was to
get him out of our room the first night, but still do a nighttime
feeding; and then go cold turkey on the nighttime feedings the next
night.

So two nights ago, we moved his temp crib up to his yet-to-be-finished
third floor room, worked him out good, stuffed him at dinner, put him
to bed, and shortly thereafter went to bed ourselves. He woke up at
12 but fell back asleep. He woke again at 3, and Amy fed him and he
went back to sleep. When I heard him again at 5, I let him be, and he
fell back asleep. I finally got him at 7.

If he had been in our room, Amy would've got him at 12 so that I
didn't wake up, and I would've got him at 5 so that she didn't wake
up. The fact that he was a floor away meant he had time to get
himself back to sleep, which meant more sleep for him and more sleep
for us, and everybody was happier.

But the real test was the next night. Aaron is a hungry baby,
hard-wired to feel it to his very core when he needs to eat. I was
admittedly a little pessimistic that we could outlast him in this
area; I even told Amy that if she wanted to feed him in the middle of
the night, I wasn't going to put up a huge fight.

Sure enough, he woke at 3 screaming his hungry scream. Amy told me
later that she had woken up, started to warm up a bottle for him, and
then the thought of having to climb two flights of stairs was too
much, so she put the bottle away and went back to sleep. And Aaron
apparently stopped crying and fell back asleep.

5 rolled around and he started crying again. I let him cry a good ten
minutes, hoping he'd figure out how to get back to sleep on his own,
but his cries began to escalate. I went up, put him back on his back,
put his blanket over him, patted his tummy for a minute or two, and
then walked out.

Of course, this made him cry louder, but I was dead set on seeing this
strategy through. And, wonder of wonders, he stopped crying pretty
shortly thereafter, and shortly after that was asleep again. I didn't
have to get him up until 8!

Night 3 out of room has played out in much the same way. He woke at
3, and this time it was my turn to take that shift. I went upstairs,
got him settled back down, and then let him be. And he went back to
sleep, this time until 6, when we decided to get him up and feed him.

And so, mercifully, I think we have some semblance of a game plan for
Aaron's sleep schedule. So far . . .