Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Adventures in Sleep Training an Infant with a Sick Toddler in the Next Room

The title kind of sums up my weekend.

Sam is 5 months old... and was waking up regularly every 2-3 hours throughout the night.  I would nurse him, but it was obvious that he wasn't really eating anything.  For the last couple of weeks I have just been waiting for a mellow weekend with no plans so that we could dedicate some time to sleep training/night weaning.  I just wasn't sure how to do it with a toddler in the next room...

The plan that Jacob and I came up with was that we'd put everyone to bed as normal around 8:00 (Sam goes to bed just fine, it's the waking up that's the problem).  If/when Sam woke Emily up, the plan was to move her to the couch in the living room at the end of the hall, hoping that would distance her enough from the noise and she could get some sleep.  Here's what actually occurred:

8:00 - Sam goes to bed with a little bit of whining, but is out within 5 minutes.
8:15 - Emily goes to bed... and by "goes to bed", I mean that I leave her room and close the door... we never really know what she's going to do in there.
8:45 - Emily comes up crying that she fell out of her bed.  I put her back to bed and tuck her in.
9:30 - I hear coughing, and then crying.  Jacob goes to check on Emily, sure enough she's puked all over her room.
9:32- Jacob takes Emily into the bathtub for a quick spray down while I try to clean partially digested hot dog out of a white shag rug.
9:40- Jacob bundles Emily up in a blanket and helps me with clean up.
10:00 - Put Emily back to bed, and tell her that, if she needs to throw up again, the toilet is an excellent place to do so.
11:00 - I can't keep my eyes open any more... Sam should be up soon, but I'm fading fast.  Jacob agrees to take the first "shift".  I go to bed.
11:45 - I hear Sam crying and Jacob going in to him... then I hear more coughing and crying... then I hear Jacob scurrying around... then I hear Sam crying... then I decide to get up and help.
12:00 - Sam's gone back to sleep, I'm tucking Emily and Jacob in on the couch in the living room with a big bowl next to her head (Jacob decided to sleep on the couch with her in case she got sick again).  This last time she threw up she must have heaved a few times... and ultimately ended up in the toilet (she listened!  Just too bad she threw up twice on the way there.. lol).
5:30 - Sam wakes up, I go in to feed him, he goes back to bed.
7:30 - The day begins.

Annnnddd... it just occurred to me that these were the events of Saturday night... we actually started on Friday. lol  See?  I'm exhausted!  So... back tracking to Friday... I went to bed and Jacob did everything.  He stays up super late any way, so he took care of "progressive waiting" until 2:30 when he came to bed... and it wasn't that bad.  I think Sam was ready for it just as much as we were.  He did wake Emily up, and she did end up sleeping on the couch.

Sunday Sam slept until 3:30 and then decided that he didn't want to be asleep... or awake for that matter.  He was just whining in his crib with his eye closed.  I think it probably took about half an hour for him to fall back asleep, though, he was not really crying... just the whining.

Monday morning I woke up feeling a little "off".  My stomach was bothering me.  I dropped the kids off at day care and then came home with the expectation that I'd work from home... that didn't happen.  By 11:00 I was back in bed (between visits to the bathroom) and didn't really get horizontal again until Jacob and the kids got home around 6.  Yay for day care germs.  =(

When Emily got home, though, she did ask me if I wanted a stuffed animal and then played a "song" on the piano to make me "feel happy".  =)

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