Sleep Confusion

Reagan has been totally sporadic lately with his sleeping.  The wonderful 6/4 hr nights sleep we had for awhile went away quickly after the time change. I'm not even sure if it is the actually time change that did it or just me.

But either way my nights have not been the best lately.  I'm so torn between trying to establish a sleeping pattern again and wanting to make sure my baby doesn't cry if he really needs me.  As a result however I have been very sleep deprived and not ready to take on the days with him.

I had 2 horrible nights, and days with him last week.  We both had not slept well for 2 nights.  During the day if Reagan wasn't eating or sleeping he was crying and it was wearing on me.  By the second day he slept almost the whole day which gave me mixed feelings.  I wanted him to sleep, and I wanted the quiet (because if he wasn't sleeping he was crying) but I didn't want him thinking the day was for sleeping and night was for ticking his Mother off.

I finally decided the next night to put my ear plugs in and let him cry his head off.  As much as I HATED doing that I KNEW the ONLY way I was going to make it though the next day and be a good Mother to him was if I got some sleep.  I'm not too sure if he really was a pain in the butt the 2nd day.  I may have been so tired and cranky it just seemed worse than it was.  I love my little munchkin and want to enjoy him.  To do that and be my best I need sleep.

Thankfully Evan closed the night I was going to go hard core into getting Reagan back on his good sleeping schedule.  I told Evan my plan so he could be aware.

Plan:
Let Reagan stay up until he is tired. (usually around 9pm I put him down, the latest 10)  Do our regular routine, PJ's, eat, song, hold him or bounce him till he falls asleep and put him down.  Now the hard part.  Not going in every time he wakes up and cries to put in his paci or hold him and bounce him or feed him.  I know he is capable of at least 6hrs sleep.  And I know during the day he can go 4 hrs before he gets hungry enough to fuss about it.  I told Evan, "Once I put him down that will be it.  Once I go to bed I will put in my ear plugs and that's it.  If you come home and he is crying wake me up and I will feed him."

I put him down at 9pm but he didn't do so well.  He only slept a few minutes before he started crying.  I kept busy by doing laundry and dishes and had the TV going so I couldn't hear him very easily.  (It just breaks my heart to hear my poor little baby crying.  Which greatly increases my chances I will rescue him and thus, never overcome our sleepless nights)  I went to bed, and said my prayers, asking for help to know what was best for my Son.  I didn't want him to cry if he really needed me.  Also, how was I to know when enough was enough.  I just want to do whats right.  I needed to have peace that what I was doing was okay.

So I laid down, put in ear plugs, and turned on a story on CD loud enough I could hear it.  But I laid there still praying for comfort.  So I remembered, "Your heart and your mind will agree and that is your answer"  My heart easily told me to go in there and put his paci in and try putting him on his stomach one last time before going to sleep.  But what did my mind say?...I couldn't tell, they both had very good points for both cases.  But I felt good about just going in and taking care of my baby one last time before I went to sleep.  I'm SOOO thankful I did.  he instantly went to sleep and I didn't hear a peep out of him until 2am.  I didn't put the ear plugs in when I went to bed.  I wanted to be able to hear him and know when he woke up, and save them for if he happened to wake up at a time I knew he didn't need to be awake. 
It was a good night.  I'm thankful I sought the Lord's guidance and that I put the effort into really listening.  I think letting him cry for awhile helped tucker him out and sleep better.

Tonight, more good news.  I laid Reagan down at 8:15ish, (he was very tired from swimming at the gym and the bath he got today) but he only slept till around 9pm.  He cried for 10 minutes, off and on and put himself to sleep!!  I didn't have to do anything!!