5, 10, 15...

I always said I wasn't going to be that mom. The mom that kept her baby in a basinet beside her bed until he out grew it and then put him in a pack n play beside her bed. The mom that let her baby sleep in the bed between her and her husband. The mom that used a bottle to get her baby to sleep. I am that mom. Actually, I was that mom. Things have changed. My sister has really been on me about teaching Kohen to fall asleep on his own instead of me getting him to sleep while feeding him a bottle. I started the process of Kohen falling asleep on his own about two weeks ago. I fed Kohen a bottle while keeping him awake, changed his diaper, turned off the lights, turned on the ocean sound machine, held him while walking in a circle and singing 3 songs, kissed him, told him night night baby, then laid him in the pack n play by our bed. He immediately cried and stood up. I walked out of the room feeling VERY guilty. I called Shelley and she told me to wait 5 minutes before I went in there again. Kohen screamed the whole 5 minutes. I watched the clock. When the 5 minutes were up, I went into the room and laid Kohen back down. I then waited 10 minutes before I went back in, then 15....this lasted for 40 minutes until he finally fell asleep. I know this sounds horrible but it worked. I can now lay him down for a nap completely awake and he will fall asleep on his own within 5 minutes. The next big hurdle was moving him to his own room and out of the pack n play. Usually when Kohen wakes up during the night I get him and feed him a bottle in bed with us and I just let him sleep with us the rest of the night. Three days ago I started putting Kohen to bed in the crib in his room. I've been sleeping in the guest room because it's right beside Kohen's room. The first night was horrible and I almost gave up and put him in the bed with us. Actually, I did do that but after an hour of Kohen crawling all over his daddy who needed to get up and go to work the next morning, I decided that I HAD TO FOLLOW THROUGH. I took Kohen back to his room, did the ritual of walking and singing, then laid him down. I then started the 5, 10, 15 minute thing. It took about 30 minutes until he fell asleep. The next night he slept in his crib he woke up around 4am crying. I waited before I went in the room and he ended up falling back asleep before I went in there. I was SO excited! The third night Kohen didn't wake up at all and slept until 6:45am. Last night Kohen woke up once but fell asleep again without me going in there. He also slept until 8 this morning!!!! The pack n play is put away for good. No more feeding him a bottle to get him to sleep. And NO MORE sleeping with Mommy and Daddy! I'm SO proud of Kohen and extremely proud of myself for sticking to this plan. The next baby I have will definitely start this process BEFORE he/she is 9 1/2 months old!