Since Jasper was the main inspiration for this blog, I will dedicate my first (or second if you want to get technical) entry about what has been going on in the McCallum household for the past week or so to Jasper...and it has been all about the sleep training!!
Let's start with some history. Jasper has not been a great sleeper since he was born, always awake between 3-4 hours at night and 20-30 minute naps during the day. However, his Mommy is a well trained sleeper (another well known Lam trait) and can basically sleep anywhere if tired enough. So for the past few months Mommy has been sleeping in the rocking chair with Jasper in her lap on the boppy pillow. (You gotta do, what you gotta do!) Alas, Jasper has reached the 20 lbs mark and is outgrowing his lap/boppy pillow space and both of us are not getting the 3-4 hour stretches of sleep like we used to. We are now down to 1 or 2 hours, 3 if we are lucky!
So what do Will and Frances decide to do? Bring him into bed of course! It was our go-to with Sam and it worked like a charm (and still does at 3 years old!). But it does not take with Jasper. The little wriggly worm, tosses and turns and does not like being in the big bed with mom and dad.
Being really soft hearted and not wanting to have Jasper cry-it-out in his crib, I take one last attempt of avoiding this manner of "sleep training" by asking Jasper's doctor at his 7 month appointment if his inablility to sleep is because of stomach issues. Of course, I did not get the answer I wanted (not that I want Jasper to have stomach issues), and was told if it was his stomach, he would be upset during the day too.
So as painful it was, we started letting Jasper cry-it-out until he fell asleep in his crib. And amazingly, though not surprisingly as we have heard it work with other parents, his cries got shorter and his sleeps got longer. It is still a work in progress - I had 2 nights of 7 hour sleeps from Jasper (I still wake up a couple of times because my body is so used to waking up now!), but last night he woke up every 2 hours again. Sigh, we'll get there eventually Jasper
