Amazing naptime development

Okay, so we've been working on helping Devin learn to self-soothe himself to sleep when he wakes up and wants to go back to sleep or when we put him in bed/down for a nap and he's not completely asleep yet. He does excellent with this when we put him in bed for the night, because he's always so tired from his long and exciting day! At the most he requires a few pats on the chest, and then he's out for a good 8-9 hours. But when he wakes up for his nighttime feeding and when it's time to go down for a nap he usually doesn't do as well. In fact, we have been having to put him completely asleep and then try to lay him down without waking him up...and if he woke up we'd have to pick him up again and start all over. At naptime we could rock him until he was mostly asleep (or completely asleep sometimes) and then put him in the swing and turn it on and he'd go the rest the way to sleep or stay asleep (that swing is SUCH a life-saver...we love it!). But that was creating another problem, because then he would ONLY nap in the swing...and it turns out that our house is the only place we go that has that exact swing (he's pretty particular about it)! Wal-Mart, the grocery store, the pharmacy, and friends and family members don't have that swing--or any swing for that matter--and so Devin would refuse to nap anywhere else. Forget the fact that he wouldn't nap anywhere but the swing, he wouldn't nap anywhere that wasn't not moving! Oh, my, it made for one CRANKY baby the days we were away from home during naptime!

So I've been asking for advice from other parents I know, researching (you know me!!), and reading books about how to teach Devin to self-soothe himself to sleep for naptime and during the night when he wakes up (specifically after his feeding, because that's about the only time he wakes up!). Everyone I asked and everything I read said to put him down when he starts acting the least bit tired and he'll learn to put himself to sleep, and not to pick him up unless he starts really crying (just soothe him with pats, rubs, and your voice...which I already do that at night). I was thinking that had to be some kind of joke, because there was no way I was going to be able to put Devin down and him just "go to sleep" with little or no help from me. But I decided to give it a try before I wrote it off completely.

Sure enough, I watched him very carefully yesterday and when he started acting a little tired and I noticed his eyes were starting to loose their sparkle and alertness, I swaddled him and put him in the swing...and I even went as far as to NOT turn the swing on , only the music. I sat on the floor beside the swing and patted his chest for a few minutes until his eyes started getting heavier and heavier, and then I stopped and just watched him. He really did go to sleep on his own! The swing wasn't moving, I wasn't rocking him, and he wasn't crying or completely awake! It was AMAZING!! Every time he started getting tired yesterday I did the same thing, and once or twice he fussed a little bit (fussed but not cried), but I just went back in, patted his chest, "shh"ed him, and he went back to sleep. I don't have to pat him every time, but I do sometimes to help get him in the sleeping mode. I don't do it until he's completely asleep, though, because then I've created another sleeping crutch for him!

I've decided to take this one step at a time and work on getting him to fall asleep on his own (or with very little help from me) and then we'll work on moving him to other places to nap. Right now he's still napping in the swing, but I don't turn it on so at least he gets used to sleeping in a place that's not moving. He still likes to play in the swing, and so I turn it on then, but not for naptime. Hopefully next week we can start transitioning to napping in the Pack-N-Play again (that's where he used to nap before he fell in such deep love with his swing!).

I had already been using the pats and shh's to try to soothe him back to sleep at night after his feeding, and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Usually I ended up having to pick him back up and put him all the way back to sleep, because if he made any noises or wiggled at all I assumed he was going to wake back up (which sometimes he did). But for the past few nights I took the same approach that I'm now using with naptime and I put him down, pat and shh a few times, then stand back and watch. He doesn't cry or really even fuss, just wiggle and grunt a little bit (it looks like he was settling in), and then goes to sleep. If he does start to fuss I just pat and shh again and it usually works.

This kid is amazing...and I can't believe how easy naptime is now!! :)