Owen doesn't sleep

This is the post where I go more into depth about Owen's sleep problems....and how I probably created them :(

Owen was the most darling baby boy I'd ever seen, and was a pretty good sleeper as a newborn. After the initial cluster feeding when he was a few days old, he would wake to eat every 3-4 hours on the dot. A few times he slept 5 hours which was complete bliss! Around 3 months old he started only waking once or twice at night to eat-not bad at all! Right around 4 months....growth spurt and back to waking every 3 hours UGH! So in my exhausted state, I brought him into bed with me. Why not(and this is where I digress about the girls).

Jozlyn was born premature and stayed in the hospital for just shy of a month. The only good thing about that whole experience (the hospital stuff-not Jozlyn. We love her :) was she came home on a schedule! AND she slept through the night at 8 weeks! Bliss.

Haylie Jo was a little harder. She had to nurse to fall asleep or have someone lay by her. BUT, Haylie Jo was and is a deep sleeper. Once she was asleep we could have a party and toss her around and she would remain fast asleep (though we didn't actually try that)! She slept with us without a single problem.

So, back to Owen. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal if Owen slept with us. Haylie Jo did and it was almost ideal. So in he came. I got more rest and he started to wake once a night again. Perfect.....until 5 months. He started waking more and more often to nibble over the course of a month. He went from waking to eat once a night to 8 times a night over the course of a month. By the time he was 6 months old he was waking to eat 8-10 times and night and would cry loudly for 5 minutes each time before he would eat. Not to mention he had grown so used to sleeping next to me that he couldn't sleep without me! The only way he would sleep is if I hugged him as close to my body as he could get with both of my arms wrapped around him.

His sleep habits were affecting my whole family. Josh has a hard time sleeping anyway due to his back problems (another story, another day), so he was literally a zombie in the morning. Jozlyn, my light sleeper, would wake every time he did and actually became sick, due to lack of sleep. Haylie Jo remained unaffected although I don't know how. And me? Well, I basically could bite your head off at any moment.

So, that's when I started researching. I realized that Owen has a multilayer problem. The first, he has to nurse to sleep. The second, he can't sleep without me. Third, he was frequent night wakings and can't self soothe back to sleep. First and foremost, I put him on a schedule and created a solid bedtime and nap routine (which I had been already been loosely doing since he was born). Then, I quit nursing him to sleep. The Eat Sleep Play routine is kinda what we did. At night if he woke to nurse, I'd give him a pacifier. Did that for a week. Then I started putting him in his crib to sleep. Did that for a week. If he woke, in went the pacifier. So now, we are at the last problem - self soothing. If Owen was to learn to self soothe to sleep, the pacifier had to go. He was still waking 8-10 times a night for the pacifier. I knew that taking away the pacifier was going to take come crying. This is where we are now, crying it out.

What I hate most about this whole ordeal is that if I never wouldn't have brought Owen into bed with us, he probably wouldn't have created such bad sleep habits. IF I have another baby someday (that's a big IF), I will never bring them into bed with me. Don't get me wrong, I love my babies. I love the nights I could hold Owen close. I love the smell of his hair and his sweet little sleeping face. I sincerely wish Owen could sleep with me. But alas, Owen needs his sleep and so does the rest of my family.