We decided to start sleep training as Pi is rolling wayyyy too much. The last three nights have been filled- all night- with me putting him back on his bed, him crying, me soothing, him sleeping, me almost sleeping, then him rolling back onto my bed... Rinse and repeat.
Because of the danger factor, and the fact that sleep training only gets more painful from here on out, we decided it is time for his own room and for him to learn sleep without me.
Gosh, I feel horrible just writing that. I feel like it goes against everything I am as a mother, and every instinct, however him next to me is become not so practical, and too dangerous. Now that Pi is on solids and over 6 months, we decided that it might be best to move him now, rather than in a few months when separation anxiety kicks in fully (though, it is just starting- we have noticed when I am not around and it is just Pi and Husband, that Pi screams until I am back in view).
We have decided to use a mix of Pantley's pick up/put down, the shh pat and the disappearing chair (also called the sleep shuffle). Because we have been doing fading to wean him off my thumb- which worked brilliantly- and we have been pick up/put down-ing and shh patting for the last few weeks, little Pi has been getting to sleep better. However, we have had to have a bit more involvement the last two weeks due to the rolling (a hand must be kept on him to stop him rolling off the bed) and because of that we have noticed a bit of a regression. We moved the crib back into his room with the idea that we wanted to stay in there the whole time, but touch him as little as possible. I tried for a few minutes with just soothing with my voice, but that didn't really work, so I would get up (off the chair next to his crib) and shh and pat him just for a little bit, and then sit back down. I picked him up once, but he stopped crying immediately and got so distressed when I put him back down that I decided not to do it again.
It was heart breaking. I was sitting there, crying, singing 'twinkle twinkle' through the tears (his and mine) and watching the poor little man grip onto the bars, and try to touch me any way that he can. It still tears me up thinking about it. But the point of withholding my touch is so that he doesn't need it to go to sleep. I tried waiting at least 2 mins between patting him and soothing him with my touch. It was so hard. Everything in me wanted to pick him up and take him back to my bed to cuddle throughout the night.
Half an hour later- he was asleep/passed out. I stayed in there for a little bit to make sure he was truly asleep and then came downstairs with the baby monitor.
It took less time than I was expecting. I hope that the sleep training training that I have been doing (here) helped.
I am glad that I didn't give up and hope that he is able to make this transition well.
My big, brave boy!
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