Baby sleep chronicles, day 1

On January 20, I wrote, "I'm not sure what the plan is right now, but we'll have to have one soon. And stick to it even if I think it's too difficult."

The plan we made, I did in fact think was too difficult. But we're sticking to it. And we're helping Matthew learn how to fall asleep and keep sleeping. It's working beautifully so far, though there is some crying.

Our needs: For me to not have to rock Matthew to sleep. For Matt to be able to fall back asleep in the night when he wakes up.
Our wants: Longer naps.
Our hopes: Matthew to not need to eat in the night.

The plan requires me to be removed from the falling-asleep association, since I've been doing 100% of the rocking for weeks or months. (I'm not sure. It's all a blur.)

Plan: Do bedtime routine. It goes like this: Jeff bathe Matthew or sponge him off and change him into disposable diaper and pajamas. I feed him. We put him in his sleep sack. We sit in his room and sing a hymn. (This was a struggle the first couple days. Jeff and I are both such awful singers when there's no accompanying music. Oh so awful. It really gave me the giggles. But we persevere, and now I can sing without tittering the whole time.) We maybe read a book. This seems to rile Matt a little since he likes to get books in his little grabby hands and chew on them or just turn the pages. We say prayers.

Then I smooch Matt's face and leave the room. Jeff holds him a couple more minutes then puts him in his crib. Jeff leaves the room. I get in the bathtub with the fan on and read a book or call people, so as not to hear the crying. Jeff goes in and reassures Matthew every whatever number of minutes, in increasing intervals.

On Saturday, Matthew cried a lot. My heart was broken. He fell asleep after 45 minutes, which really was pretty good. I've rocked him for longer than that while he was crying. I had to keep reminding myself of that. If he's going to cry, it may as well be while he's learning to fall asleep on his own and I'm in a bubble bath than while I'm holding him and feeling like I can't stand another minute of it. He slept until 3ish, I think, when he sleep-cried/fussed for about 10 minutes, then he slept until 5:10. He didn't seem like he was starving in the morning, either. He did eat when he woke up, but I think he would rather have kept sleeping. I probably went in and got him too early since I was in the firm grasp of engorgement discomfort.

So, anyway, then it was Sunday, which leads to baby sleep chronicles, day 2...