The Not Schedule-Part One-Sleep Training

I have friends that are new moms and other people ask/email all the time about what my day looks like with Aidan {when I was home} and how we got on a schedule.  Here's the truth.  We never had a schedule.  Not one that anyone could ever try to mirror anyways.  We did/do what works for us.  I think everyone should.  This week I am posting on sleep training, lack thereof, and the way our days went in the different stages of Aidan little life leading up to now! This could be totally boring but I've never done it before {that my Mommy brain can remember} and this is my blog/scrapbook so BOOYAH! It will be nice to be able to look back and remember what life was like in the early days!

When I was pregnant I was stressed about so many things.  Nothing super important. I was worried about nursery paint colors and where I was going to pick up the next cutest onesie in the world.  I didn't think a breastfeeding schedule or sleep training was anything to worry about.  Honestly, neither of those things ever crossed my mind.  I knew no one with a baby when I was pregnant and I hadn't started blogging.  All the information I have at my fingertips now, was no where to be found then. 

Adam and I were so oblivious to so much that when we brought Aidan home, we literally just took it day by day and figured it out.  We didn't want any help from anyone.  We wanted to figure it all out for ourselves.  And that's exactly what we did.  THIS WILL NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE. There's the disclaimer of the post. 

Sleep trainging went a lot like this:
Aidan slept where he wanted.  His swing, one of our chests, between us (GASP, those were sleepless nights) and anywhere else we could get him to sleep.  I had the mindset that every night we were one night closer to him sleeping through the night. I know this won't happen to us twice, but he slept 8 hours at 6 weeks old and by 6 months he was sleeping in 12-13 hour stretches.  He spent the majority of his nights in his swing with the music on.  The battery operated one.  We had drawers full of D batteries.  We would be in a dead sleep and without knowing it, the swing would start to die, the music would slow down, I would sit straight up and yell "Adam, hurry before it dies".  If we didn't get those bad boys in before the music stopped we were going to be up for awhile. 

On the day Aidan turned 3 months old,  we put him in his crib for the first night.  He cried for 3.5 hours while I laid on his floor.  It was torture.  The next day I called my pediatrician.  She said if he had a full belly, a dry diaper and nothing else was wrong, to let him keep crying it out.  Not exciting to hear.  Night two he cried for only 45 minutes and on the third night he whimpered briefly before dozing off.  Back then we would put him in his crib when we got in bed {10:30ish} and he would sleep 12 hours.   Bliss. Do you hate me yet?

The rest is history.  He LOVED his crib and now he loves his bed.  He goes to bed between 8-9.  Closer to 9 during the summer because we stay outside later.  He sleeps a solid 12-13 hours every night.  We almost always have to wake him up.  Since he has been in his big boy bed once in a blue moon he will crawl out of his bed and in to ours early in the morning. It doesn't bother us at all.  Actually we quite enjoy it.  But if we ever try to get him to actually sleep with us, he asks to go back to his bed.  We got super lucky.  I realize that. 

I also realize this helps no one with a serious sleep training issue.  But you asked so I gave you the info.
If I had a piece of advice I would say even though it is the world's hardest thing to do to hear your child cry, put them in their crib early on.  The earlier you get this done the better. I could not in a million years imagine still being up all night but I know people that still deal with this.  I promised Adam that we would not be the couple that never had more kids because the one we had was always in our bed. Catch my drift?

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will be posting about our "schedule" from Aidan's newborn/infant days.  I know your excited!