Wooohoooo!!!

I have finally done it! All my babies sleep through the night! For those unbelievers out there, here is my story:

I think it was Tuesday night, maybe Monday, I was fed up with Jackson and his screaming. It took around half an hour to get him to go to sleep for naps and bed. I had to swaddle him, hold his binky in his mouth, hold him tightly against my chest, jiggle him, and pat his little bum until he would fall asleep. Once he was asleep I had to wait the right amount of time (which was always different) before I would put him down in his car seat and hope that he would stay asleep. Most of the time he would just start screaming and I would have to start all over again. He also would scream a lot if I wasn't holding him when he was awake so I couldn't get anything done without listening to the screaming. The last week I spent pretty much all of my time doing this all day long every day. At least once he was asleep at night he would usually sleep through the night, but Brandon wouldn't. Grrrrr.

I had finally had enough, so I decided that was the day to sleep train him. I rocked him for a little bit and then put him in his bed. The screaming began immediately and didn't stop. I was going to let him cry for an hour but when it had been an hour he was still screaming his lungs out. I decided to wait a few more minutes. Five minutes later he was out. The worst was over. Half an hour later he woke up. I fed him and put him back down (he was exhausted). He cried for 30 minutes and went to sleep. I put Brandon to bed in the playroom so Jackson wouldn't bother him so much, and so I couldn't hear him when he woke up (he had some work to do too). Jackson woke up at 1am and screamed for about an hour. He cried every once in a while the rest of the night until I finally got him out of his bed at 6:45am.

That was all it took. Ever since then I have been able to put him down for naps and for bed with minimal crying. For the next 3 days he cried less than 10 minutes, usually less than 5, and today he just lays in his bed until he falls asleep with no crying (and no binky!). It only took Brandon that one night to stop waking up in the night too. Now both babies are in their own beds by 7:30pm at the latest and sleep straight till around 6am. Jackson is like an entirely different baby. He is much calmer and more content and I don't have to hold him all the time! It is seriously life changing for me. Pretty soon I won't be a walking zombie anymore!

This process was really hard for that first night. The whole time I kept questioning myself and if I had made the right decision to do it. I felt so bad for the poor little thing. I hated listening to him cry (luckily I can barely hear it in this house). I cried a few times too. Now I definitely don't regret it and am really glad I did it. He isn't traumatized at all and we are all a lot happier and better rested now. Yippee! Now on to the 2-year-old (I wish it was that easy to fix her...).