Working like a dream

Quinn has gone to sleep the last three evenings without any crying whatsoever. Tonight I put him in bed and put my hand on him to comfort him (part of the New Sleep Plan) and he pushed it away as if to say "I got it daddy, I can go to sleep on my own now". It usually takes him 20 minutes to settle (15 tonight!) but he does it all on his own now. I still hang out with him for awhile as per the plan but it really feels unnecessary now and I think I'll try phasing that out.

There will undoubtedly be setbacks for teething and illness, and there may even be periodic regressions for no explainable reason, but we've seemingly turned a significant corner. I honestly wondered whether we'd ever see this day. He's always been better at night sleeping than napping, but he always cried some on the way down until these recent days. I thought that was just the way it would always be.

Napping has been a disaster, but we've changed tack and it's going better. Most books say that naps of less than 45 minutes aren't restorative and you should train them to nap longer. Sounds nice in theory. Quinn appears to be what one book describes as a 'touchy' daytime sleeper, hard to get down and hard to keep down. He would scream at Bec on the way down for an hour or more. Then he'd sleep for half an hour. Then he'd scream at her for another hour as she tried to extend the naps. Then she'd phone me at work, a basket case. We finally abandoned it as infeasible. He sleeps quite well at night so maybe he doesn't need as much napping. We'll assume he'll take what sleep he needs through the day until proven otherwise by late-day crabbiness, which hasn't been a factor yet. Changing tactics and expectations has improved everyone's demeanor, creating an upward spiral where before we were clearly in a downward spiral.

Abandoning cry-it-out was key for us, and I think it incurred a couple weeks' penalty to recover from the error. Paying less strict attention to the books and adjusting expectations was also key. Some family help and support through last week from Bec's family was absolutely crucial in changing the downward spiral to the upward variety. I'm sure there will be more sleep challenges to come but it feels like we've finally achieved some first fundamental level of sleep success.