Tell me it gets better.

mamarazzi

We tried the Sleep Lady Shuffle about a month ago and it seemed to be working pretty well...until we went on vacation.  Andersen's been a hot mess when it comes to sleep since.  So, I decided to try the Shuffle again.  It ended up being essentially CIO.  I just spent the last hour and a half standing by my kid's bed while he screamed his head off.  I'd pick him up, he'd immediately stop crying, I'd soothe him for a minute and then lie him back down and he'd instantly start the I-can't-even-catch-my-breath sobs again.

He's FINALLY sleeping.  I feel like it would be a waste to have put him through that and not follow through with keeping up with the sleep training, but I don't know if I can handle it again later.  Ugh.

We did CIO with Law and it worked wonders, but remind me that it will get better and be worth it.

r9stedt

What is sleep lady shuffle? And fwiw, L was a little bit older than A when we did CIO. I just could bring myself to do it with all the tummy issues he had.

mamarazzi

r9stedt:

What is sleep lady shuffle? And fwiw, L was a little bit older than A when we did CIO. I just could bring myself to do it with all the tummy issues he had.

A's tummy issues finally seem to be handled and he's doing really well health-wise.  I think his fussiness issue now is his lack of sleep (he'll only sleep for extended periods on me, he sleeps very lightly when I'm holding him), so that's why we're working on it.

WIth the Shuffle, you don't leave them alone.  You put the baby/toddler/child in his/her bed and stay until he/she falls asleep.  You can soothe, pick the child up to comfort, say "shh shh" or sing, but the goal is to not rely on any of those things as a "crutch" to get the child to fall asleep and to get the child to fall asleep in his/her bed.  The first three nights, you stay right next to the bed and then you move a bit further away until the child is on his/her own in the room.  The idea is that they'll eventually rely on their own self-soothing methods to fall asleep and that's really what we want for AJ because he doesn't seem to know how to calm himself down.

r9stedt

Ah. Gotcha. How long have you been doing it? And, I didn't mean anything about A's tummy issues. I was just talking about my experience with L's.