I am in the midst of trying to sleep train my 1 year old. Trying being the key word here.
In my mind, it would go like this:
The reality is this:
Most nights I invariably give in and hold him, rocking him to sleep or singing 10 renditions of “Hush Little Baby” while rubbing his back in the crib. This sleep training is more like sleep work. For me.
And then, when I ask people what I should do to get Bryce to sleep I get everything from “let him cry it out till he exhausts himself to sleep” to “my sister used to just drive the twins to sleep each night” to “my kid is 6 and still sleeps with us” It seems sleep and kids is a hot topic. With no clear answer in sight.
Being a working mom I already have mommy guilt for being apart from him most hours of the day. So I don’t want his last memory every night to be of mommy leaving him hysterical in the crib. Plus I have tried having him cry it out. He just makes himself vomit and then I am cleaning that up in addition to having a non sleeping child. The joy.
At the end of the day he eventually falls asleep (and yes, we HAVE been known to drive around the neighborhood at night to get the kid to sleep. No judgements please. I am finding in parenthood that exhaustion makes every parent do something they thought they would never do). And someday he will be a teenager and I will go from not being able to get him to sleep to trying to get him UP.
So maybe I need to change the idea from sleep training to sleep bonding. After all, pretty soon he will be too big to do this. And boy is he cute when he does.
Kathy Thomas 
Don’t feel bad, My son is 10 (he’s autistic) and my daughter is 16 (she’s super advanced) I still can’t get either of them to sleep a whole night. My son is up anywhere from 1 to 5 times a night and my daughter is an insomniac until she crashes for 36 every couple of weeks. There is nothing easy about sleep and kids.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on raising humans and commented:
I like this post very much and really cute pictures
LikeLike
Thanks! I am finding that having humor while raising a toddler is immensely helpful. lol
LikeLike
Enjoyed this post!
My little one slept a whole night in the crib! Once. Some nights I can soothe her to sleep in the crib. Sometimes she will only go to sleep in my arms and I have to put her down very carefully so I don’t wake her. Most nights, she cries it out, but if she doesn’t crash within 15 minutes, we go back to the other strategies. On the hardest nights, we bedshare. Whatever works!
I’m learning to stop my frustration and savor “sleep bonding.” She’ll be to big for snuggles soon enough.
LikeLike