In addition to Riley waking up at all hours of the night, Jack has also been waking up early (think 4:30-ish) needing to go potty. Now, this wouldn't be a big deal if we had a yard, but we don't, so you have find your flops and a sweatshirt and then put his leash on him and grab a baggy. I have been doing this for two reasons: One, I am already awake because of Riley. Two, we made a deal a long time ago that Gary would walk Jack at any time throughout the night, but after 4:30 I take over. This began a few years ago because I was waking up at 5:00 and Jack and I were getting our exercise by walking around the neighborhood.
Well, something had to change so I fed him his dinner at 4:30 yesterday and I didn't have to wake up before dawn to walk him this morning, yeah!! However, I think it might have been a bit early because by the time Gary and I ate dinner Jack was completely hounding us for a hand out (excuse the expression), and he was acting like he was totally starving by the time we were getting ready for bed. Perhaps I will move it a little later tonight, like about 5:30, and see if we can still push off the pre-dawn walk.
I have been trying to get Riley to take a late afternoon nap around 3:30 or 4:00, but have yet to be really consistent with it. Yesterday I laid him down at 4:15 and he cried and cried and cried for about 25-30 minutes and then slept until 5:30. Enduring the crying kind of prepped me for what I figured I would have to go through over the next few days. And you know, it wasn't too bad. So because he had an excellent late-afternoon nap I put him to be a bit later than usual (7:45 vs. 7:00) and he went right to sleep, no crying at all. So perhaps all the books are right when they say good naps = good nights. We are definitely going to keep this up.
I also am going to change Riley's bedtime routine a bit. In an attempt to disassociate nursing with sleeping even more, I am going to nurse him at the very beginning of our routine instead of at the end. I had thought about this earlier after talking with a friend of mine (thanks Lisa!) and then I forgot when I was getting Riley ready for bed last night. I popped him into the tub as usual and then I remembered. So I nursed him after I got a new diaper on his cute butt, and then put him into his jammies when he was finished. It was still near the end of the routine, but I had tried pushing it back as much as possible. I am also going to start nursing him AFTER naps instead of BEFORE.
Now on to the nighttime:
So, like I mentioned earlier, I got Riley to bed at 7:45, which meant that if he woke up before 11:45 then I was going to get him to sleep without nursing him, even if that means just letting him cry himself to sleep. Well, surprisingly enough he woke up at 11:50, so I nursed him and put him back to bed. Then I went back to my bed and wrote down the time and calculated in my head what time he would need to sleep until before I would nurse him again and I promptly went back to sleep. The next time he woke up was 2:40 and I was incredulous because I couldn't believe that he had slept another 4 hours (even if it is 10 minutes shy)! So I went in a nursed him but he didn't fall completely asleep in my arms, which I discovered when I went to lay him in his bed and he instantly started crying. So I held him for a couple of minutes and told him it was Sleepy-time, and the whole time he is yawning and yawning, so I bit the bullet and laid him down and walked out the door and, of course he starts screaming his head off. I am preparing for the worst but he has fallen asleep within 2 minutes! Woohoo! When I went back to bed and wrote down the times and what happened and finally realized that he didn't sleep 4 hours, he only slept 3 hours! Argh!! My plan is foiled, and I only have myself and my own sleepiness to blame! However, I still think it was a pretty good night, waking up only twice compared to 5 times is a HUGE improvement.
Now, today I am definitely going to push that late afternoon nap again. But I haven't come up with a firm plan for tonight. Like I said earlier, I want to make this a fast transition, so I won't be repeating the 4 hour rule again, but I don't know if I am prepared to force him to go 6 hours yet, perhaps I will just make him wait 5. I am going to think about it today and post my new plan this evening.
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