sleeping on his own

HE DID IT!!! William was able to put himself to sleep last night after 45 minutes of crying. =( And then after his early morning feeding, he went down after only 10 minutes of crying. Our little boy is on his way to sleeping on his own, and we are so proud of him!! We are especially grateful to God!

We are slowly adjusting his sleep routine so he isn't dependent on us to fall asleep. Over the last few weeks, it has become increasingly difficult to have him go to sleep because he wasn't able to do it himself. Bill would spend at least 30 minutes (depending on how tired or overtired William was) every night trying to get him to sleep. (William would cry the whole time.) And he would be the same with me in taking naps during the day, but not as fussy. (He would usually only nap for 5-20 minutes at a time.) Since he has become more interactive and social, he likes to stay up with us. It's more of a distraction now when one of us tries to put him to sleep. He resists it until he absolutely can't stay awake any longer. And that makes for one grumpy and unhappy baby! =) (He gets really grouchy and fussy at the end of the day since it takes so long to get him to nap. By the time we get him down, it's usually almost time for his next feeding. So he never gets to nap for very long.) Bill really felt we were doing him a disservice by not letting him learn to sleep on his own. And now that he is learning to self-soothe himself by sucking on his hands, we're hoping he will learn the skill of sleeping by himself. =) We're also trying to phase out his swaddling. So it's kind of a double whammy. But Bill wisely said a prayer for William before we put him down for the night. It was the first time that neither one of us would be there when he fell asleep, but we knew it was the right thing. And he did so well! Hopefully, he's on his way to sleeping better and being happier.