Sleep Sleep Diatribe of Sleep
What are we going to do about Ezra’s sleep? Kalab is a growing voice for the “cry it out” method, especially after the recent “mama’s boy” night. Kalab convinced me to let him cry because there was nothing wrong with him other than he wanted to be with me. I agreed, and in hindsight I wish I would not have. I think it was the most emotionally painful thing I’ve ever done. I felt like I was betraying his trust and breaking the bond I have with him. It’s safe to say I am not a fan of the “cry it out” method. I feel like there are too many reasons for him to cry to feel it’s OK to ignore those cries - a baby cries because he needs soothing from teething and/or illness, or maybe because he’s too hot or cold, maybe he’s hungry, maybe he’s got gas, maybe he’s scared of the dark or had a bad dream, maybe he’s got a poopy diaper. I don’t think a baby cries to be manipulative.
And Ezra is not a terrible sleeper, from what I’ve been able to gather by reading the Internets and random mama blogs. He’s also not a sleep champion, pulling marathon 12 hours stretches with no crying or waking to feed, like some of the babies we know (or at least the claims of the mama’s of the babies we know). But is he a not a good sleeper? I am not sure. Usually, he’s got a fussy spell anywhere from 2-4 hours from the time he goes down for the night. I think those fussy spells increase in intensity and frequency with teething, which he’s been doing more than the average baby his age. In general Ezra often will put in a solid 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night, many times even 6 or 7 hours, but will sleep a total of 9 or 10 hours per night. I do nurse him back to sleep when he wakes, more often than not, because Ezra will almost always go right back to sleep after he wakes up and feeds.
So what to do? I want to come up with a sleep plan that lets me (or us, depending on how Kalab feels) be responsive to his cries, but I also want Ezra to learn to self soothe and not always rely on nursing to get to sleep. If something could happen where he did become a marathon sleeper, I wouldn’t complain! I (we) need to come up with a good plan, and have a bit of a reprieve in that I convinced Kalab the plan shouldn’t be enacted until we get back from our trip to DC.